The leader of Northampton Borough Council has hit back at criticism of the number of highly-paid middle managers at the Guildhall.
Research published by the Taxpayers’ Alliance this week shows that across the country, more than 28,000 council staff were paid more than £50,000 in 2011/12
The group’s figures suggested 30 such staff were employed by Northampton Borough Council and 125 worked for Northamptonshire County Council.
But the leader of the borough council, Councillor David Mackintosh (Con, Rectory Farm) argued the figures were out of date.
He said: “In the last year we’ve seen the number of senior manager posts reduce by 20 per cent and the amount we pay to our senior managers fall by 16 per cent.
“The borough council now only has 15 senior managers with a saving of over a quarter of a million pounds compared to 30 senior managers in 2011.
“We are focused on protecting and delivering frontline services and will continue to review our senior management each year.”
The Taxpayers’ Alliance figures suggest the UK-wide cost of council staff receiving more than £50,000 or more was at least £1.9 billion in 2011/12.
The group’s chief executive, Matthew Sinclair, said: “Taxpayers are still paying far too much for bloated bureaucracies that have been established in too many town halls over the last decade.
“It’s incredible that some councils have even increased spending on high earning staff this year after a decade in which council tax doubled across the country and when every local authority needs to find savings and ease the burden.
“Councillors need to insist their local authority does more to find savings and cut back on staff costs that residents cannot afford.”
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