Jan 2010 20

Reality bites9

Finally, it seems that many Councils and other public bodies are starting to listen. Today’s Times reports that many top level public sector roles will have their pay levels cut back; this is recognition that executive remuneration had lost touch with reality, and not just in the context of the financial crisis.

After we found that 324 people in the public sector were paid more than the Prime Minister, it was announced that any job wanting to pay more than this would have to have it approved by the Treasury. Today, Tony Travers of the London School of Economics adds:

"This is a clear sign of the times…It will be very hard for the public sector to make new appointments which are above the level of the Prime Minister’s salary"

The Audit Commission and Kent County Council are also advertising lower salaries for their recently vacated top posts. This wind of change needs to blow through the entire public sector. We have seen massive pay hikes out of step with both staff on the frontline and economic conditions, and big rewards for failure have been par for the course. There is now universal agreeement that this is not acceptable.

Transparency is the catalyst that will drive this change. It's obviously an important aim in a broader sense, and will help to deliver fair salaries and breed restraint in this case. Politicians and public sector executives finally seem to be aware of the public’s anger about these pay packages so today's news is an encouraging first step. We will continue our campaign to ensure that it's not the final step.

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  • James Rowling

    Has the TPA defined, what a fair salary would be?

  • Steve Robson

    Given that they won’t reveal their own salaries (or even produce Accounts despite there views on transparancy) thats a tad difficult, but from their comments I reckon they think about £60K for a CEO , £30K for a Director. Clearly that will be a disaster and lead to the complete collapse of the public sector, which is of course what the TPA want. Remember that libertarianism is just anarchy for the rich.

  • Hardeep Singh

    With all the exposure the TPA are getting for themselves, promotion of their message and for exposing politicians I’d say their salary’s justified. There are companies up and down the country where a 60K/30K salary band is common place. After all the TPA doesn’t dependant on public funds and are not to my knowledge a self appointing and smug quango. There appear regularly throughout the media and helped bring the enormous waste and irresponsible MPs to book, if they were so bad the BBC wouldn’t be chasing after them. In fact look at that last statement the BBC costing billions and they come to the TPA for a lead on stories, what shame looks like Steve’s brigade costs us a fortune and gets others to the work for them.

  • Lola

    James Rowling. Or what an unfair salary would be? Thing is, there is no price mechanism at work. There is no possible economic calculation of value taking place in public sector wage setting. There is no market as we cannot decline to pay for (buy) the risible ‘services’ they shove down our throats. Clearly some of what the public sector does is not suitable for the free market to sort. Law and Order for example, but even now there are significantly more private policeman than state ones. And defense, although why not employ mercenaries. Oh yes, of course we already do, the Ghurkhas for example. So with those two examples why not privatise education and health care? Once we start seeing what they cost directly we will demand better service and the prices will fall, but rather wonderfully at the same time the salaries of the employees will rise.
    Sing H. Libertarianism is not anarchy for the rich. That’s just a glib soundbite. It’s freedom for everyone.
    Once government become too big, like now, it morphs into a self perpetuating totalitarian unnaccountable bureaucracy. Not only do salaries have to be slashed but what it does has to be radically curtailed. Once our freedom is returned we’ll sort it all out and make it work, without the dead hand of bureaucratic government incompetence. Liberty will make us all wealthier.

  • Steve Robson

    lola, you are indeed a showgirl, what a load of right wing tosh!

  • Malcolm

    Fair or unfair salaries? I don’t believe you can make meaningful comparisons between Public and private sector managers salaries. The former only have one side of the income and expenditure equation to deal with, the income is automatic from Council Tax. They rarely lose their jobs for poor performance, they have much better pension provision, can retire ealier, often have no measurable output and in my experience do not have the pressure to perform that is common in the private sector.They have little incentive to be more efficient as unlike in the private sector there is no profit or loss at the year end.

  • Steve Robson

    Only if you don’t understand public finance, could you possibly think the income in local government is certain and can rise at any rate desired. Most of the income is from central government and is capped and long gone are the days of significant tax increases, most will be zero this year. People meanwhile get older and older, there are more people with disabilities surviving and waste disposal costs continue to spiral. Why not try actually engaging with the facts!

  • Edward Devoy

    The executive class have created a money go round that provides them with Higher and higher salaries and gold plated pensions plus massive pay-offs when they decide to leave.
    Simply put, a 10 year old with no idea of what to do could be a better CEO of any local authority, on this basis.
    The CEOs have no responsibility, if he makes a decision that is wrong either legally or morally or both, there is no comeback. If he makes no decision with legal or moral consequences there is no comeback. Until we the people have the power to make these CEOs act in our best interests with punishments for failing to act in our best interests then they cannot possibly claim the obscene salaries they now receive have anything to do with Qualifications or being the best person for the job. And that is one of the statements that would make me laugh if a wasn’t spitting feathers, because if these CEO’s we have running, and I use the term loosely, our local authorities are the best, why is the country in the state it is in.

  • Edward Devoy

    For we the people to have the power to control our own destiny and our own future, we must have “True Democracy in the UK”
    checkout http://www.gopetition.com
    The bare bones of it is this, everyone through the power of the internet would know what policies were being considered, they would have the power to put forward policy, and have an ongoing vote on all matters. More crucial than anything, we would have the power to rid ourselves of politicians nationally and locally if they did not represent our best interests. You would be amazed how all our services would improve if they thought they could be sacked for their incompetence or indifference. True Democracy trancends all party politics because there would be no need for any party we the people would be the party and those elected would be there to represent us, unlike today where they represent only their own self interests. Corrupt politicians particularly on the scale of today would become a thing of the past.
    “With power comes freedom, enjoy the freedom and use the power wisely”