High earners axed by Northamptonshire County Council
ALMOST a third of middle managers working for Northamptonshire County Council, who earned more than £50,000, have been made redundant since 2010, new figures have shown.
A Freedom of Information request revealed 53 of the highest earners at County Hall have been cut from the payroll.
The figures showed there were 171 county council employees earning more than £50,000 a year in 2009-10, costing the taxpayer a total of £11.4 million.
But in 2010-11, the figure was reduced to 118, costing a total of £7.9 million.
Conservative MP for Northampton South, Brian Binley, said he congratulated the council on reducing the number.
But he said: “We’ve known for a long time there is quite a lot of fat in local government. That fat is both in the number of middle managers and the level of pay they receive.”
A spokesman for Northamptonshire County Council said staff salaries reflected responsibilities associated with the posts and a recent review had reduced the second tier of management from 17 posts to 11. The spokesman said: “We are open about what our senior officers are paid and this information is easily available. The council’s current structure is the latest step in an ongoing review of our operating structure. In 2008, we reduced the salary bands of all senior management roles and the pay policy is now aligned to the equivalent public sector benchmarks and not the private sector. As a result of the review we made £1.8 million of savings.
“Work is ongoing to reshape the council by focusing on the next tiers of management and service delivery with a total estimated saving of £3.3m.”
The figures, obtained by pressure group the Taxpayers’ Alliance, also showed Northampton Borough Council reduced the amount of middle managers earning more than £50,000 a year from 30 in 2009-10 to 29 in 2010-11.
However, the total cost has actually increased from £2.11 million to £2.13 million. Council leader David Mackintosh said: “I want to look at ways to reduce costs while making sure the council has sufficient management capacity to serve the public well. At the moment we are undertaking a review of senior management posts to ensure we remain fit for purpose and can focus on funding frontline service delivery.
“As part of our budget process we have acknowledged that the council has a top-heavy structure and this is what is being looked at. The process is well under way and will be in place by April 1. I anticipate it will release more money for frontline services.”
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There are 13 comments to this article
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DMT48
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 01:09 AMAbout flippin' time, but since other government deparments appear to be taking on middle managers, even now, I don't suppose they will have problems finding a new job. They might even end up as 'consultants' for the council.
lady muck
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 11:36 PMIf we can manage without them now, we could have managed without them all the time. This financial crisis has been with us for over four years. NCC need a rocket up their bottoms.
Liam Costello
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 11:03 PM...and now that there are not so many managers, we don't need so many cabinet members, another growth area under Harker
expo65
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 09:48 PMIt shows any organisation can function without this so called top level management. Why were they placed in their given positions in the first place ? OLD BOYS NETWORK ? And what a hypocrite that MP ? This is what the politics game is about ? Given an opportune time , they want to be seen doing something good for locals? Well can he still take it further with his given power and find out who is actually doing what ? It is a good time for him and his team to visit council offices and do some unannonced audit work and see for him self how waste ful, unproductive this council is. We are just over paying our council tax to pamper a whole lot of public do gooders with no real jobs. His next task should be to sort this unwarranted waste of our taxes.
onetotheeast
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 09:43 PMall middle managment and no top brass gone, who must have authorised the jobs in the first place 'not me' say the ones looking down on them departing. also who was the one asked to sort out the cost cutting cull and didn't pass gcse maths.??
TheCount
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 07:02 PM"However, the total cost has actually increased " This is pricesless...How did that happen ?
TheCount
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 07:01 PMOnly two thirds to go !!! What sort of pay out did they get ? Will there be an investigation into why these jobs were created in the first place and who gave out the jobs. Someone should pay for the abuse of the public purse. We dont serve you, you serve us and we need some value for the money you forcibly take from us.
manicred
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 05:10 PMSteve - the way I read it is that the costs of employing these people has gone down from £11.4m (171 Managers in 200910) to £7.9m (118 Managers in 201011) thereby showing an saving of £3.5m. The actual cost of getting rid of the excess does not appear to be given in this article. What surprises me in all the local and national debate about the public sector is that it was always a given that salaries were lower compared to the private sector. In return public sector employees enjoyed better pensions and job security. Now it seems that a degree of job security has been lost but pensions are now massively better and salaries are now equal if not better than the private sector - who voted for that?
mack80
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 03:42 PMWhat a fantastic statement made by our local M.P he was on the gravvy train when a county councillor and for a long time held on to two well paid positions in local Government and as an MP at westminster The people that have so called been made redundant were in the later stages of their positions and have still walked away with a nice golden retirement package paid for by us the electorate
SteveRiches
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 03:23 PMOn these bare facts, then, it cost £7.9 million pounds to offload 53 people, which by my somewhat schoolboy mathematics equals roughly £150,000 for each of them. Does that mean they each trousered that amount of payoff on average, or am I missing something? If that is correct, may I say that of all the jobs I've been in I'd have said "Yes please" like a flash to have left any one of them for that amount! Maybe someone who has knowledge of redundancy costs could kindly put me right on that one.
.~* JEZ *~.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 01:29 PMTHIS TOWN IS A DUMP, THEY SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES. THE PEOPLE OF NORTHAMPTON WANT TO SEE OUR AUTHORITY UNIFIED AND ONLY THEN WILL NORTHAMPTON PROSPER.
forgetnot
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 01:15 PMI much prefer the indians on the frontline to the chiefs in their top heavy tepees,
Common sense
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 12:58 PMNecessary no doubt but I do hope NCC do not see this as a success when its really the outcome of their financial mismanagement-and people have suffered and lost their livelihoods.....
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