Birmingham City Council boss takes home £200,000+1

Fiona McEvoy Grassroots

Our last Town Hall Rich List revealed that Birmingham City Council Chief Executive, Stephen Hughes, enjoyed a very healthy 18.2% pay increase between 2006/7 and 2007/8 and last week the Birmingham Post reported that he’s now a member of the “£200,000+ per year club”.

So how exactly has Mr. Hughes earned a rise that puts his total remuneration in the £200,000 – £209,999 bracket, netting him a cool £3,900 per week? Well that remains entirely unclear, especially when the Audit Commission recently slashed the council’s star rating from a three to a two. Like we see all over the country at different government bodies and local authorities, pay is entirely unrelated to performance and taxpayers must cough up for the predictable and inflated pay rise year on year regardless of whether they’ve seen any improvement in services.

Perhaps more pertinent is just how insensitive such a salary hike is at a time when people are losing their jobs and taking pay cuts all over the city. In just 2006 this Chief Executive was on £175,000 and it appears that since then increases in his total remuneration have been unstoppable and whilst the city council have kept to a fairly repectable “low rise” in terms of council tax, keeping it at 1.9% for the past three years, it still means that residents have had to dig deeper whilst more money goes to top up already hefty salaries.

Councils are really going to have to reassess their apparent policy of bumping up executive salaries year on year regardless of whether these people are producing results, because MPs have opened our eyes and there’s a feeling of real resentment amongst the public who are utterly fed-up of shelling out to line the pockets of those who class themselves as public servants.

Fiona McEvoy

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stephen hughes hasnt answered any letters the local government ombudsman has sent to him ref to misconduct of the city councils private tenancy harrassment disrepair unit run by roy haseldene and duncan holman………the corruption in bham city council is abhorrent it therefore make sone wonder why stephen hughes cannot sort this lot out and not coooperate with the watchdog the lgo.anyone who has been failed by the housing depts ptshd dept can they contact me please????the kind of thing im looking for includes the ptshd unit siding with violent landlords setting tenants up for repeated assault leaving homes for years without heating hot water …..rats mice infested homes anything like that im all ears thanks…………holmans abuse is so bad when you ring up 01213039944 theyl say oh him hes no longer working for the council .oh i wish that were true hes at botteville rd acocks green in the ground floor offices as his backs bad well what about someone who has a bad back as the landlord has had them beaten unconsciousoh and duncan wa on that case too sat back joined in with the abusers having a laugh at the tenants expense.shme on roy haseldene and duncan holman.hes jewish youd think hed understand evil and oppression maybe its because the victims arent jewish????