The TaxPayers’ Alliance can today reveal that there are 28,754 local authority staff paid over £50,000 a year, which cost taxpayers £1.9 billion in 2011-12. The cost of paying these staff is the equivalent of 7.5 per cent of Council Tax receipts. This bill is down 12.5 per cent from last year but 118 councils increased the amount spent on staff earning more than £50,000 – some by millions of pounds.