Anger over bumper pay packets
Some 818 local authority bosses crested the pay threshold last year, compared with 645 in 2005-6.
Fourteen earned more than the Prime Minister's £188,000 annual salary, while six received more than £200,000 from the public purse.
The figures - compiled by pressure group the TaxPayers' Alliance - are bound to cause fury at a time when consumers are feeling the pinch from an economic downturn and rising living costs.
Government data published this week revealed that council tax bills are set to rise by 4% this year - well above the 2.5% inflation rate.
Gordon Brown has demanded a 2% cap on wage settlements in order to keep inflation down, but the Town Hall "Rich List" shows that top bosses enjoyed an average rise of 4.6% last year.
The average pay package for the 818 on the list was more than £120,000 - nearly five times the starting wage of a police constable.
TaxPayers' Alliance chief executive Matthew Elliott insisted such pay bonanzas were not acceptable when councils failed to deliver value for money.
"Too often, council executives are rewarded handsomely even when they fail," he said.
"Families and pensioners are struggling with the demands of yet another council tax rise, and councils owe it to them to cut back on executive pay hikes."
The TaxPayers' Alliance used freedom of information laws to request details of senior officials' earnings from more than 450 councils across the UK.
The best paid was Northamptonshire's chief executive Peter Gould, who scooped a whopping £215,000 in 2006-7. He retired last May.
John Ransford, deputy chief executive of the Local Government Association - representing more than 400 councils in England and Wales - said the report should be taken with "an immense dollop of salt".
He insisted some of the data was inaccurate or out of date, and accused the Alliance of making "personal attacks on individual people who have no part in the setting of salaries and no chance to defend themselves".
http://www.herald.ie/national-news/expenses-rise-as-politicians-now-survive-on--8364450aday-in-paris-1466950.html
Expenses rise as politicians now 'survive' on €450-a-day in Paris
By Kevin Doyle
Monday September 01 2008
EXPENSES paid for overseas political junkets will increase from today by up to
30pc for some cities.
As the economy continues to struggle, TDs and senators have been granted an
increase in the amount of expenses they can claim.
Although Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has warned politicians and civil
servants that only essential travel should be undertaken, he is to give them
extra money if they do travel abroad.
The expenses paid to public servants and member of the Oireachtas are un-vouched
and tax-free, meaning they can claim the maximum amount each time even, if their
actually costs are much less.
For example, the allowance for travelling to London has increased from €152 to
€198 a day.
Politicians making trips to Brussels for EU meetings can stay in any hotel they
like, no matter what the cost, and receive €116.50 per working day to cover
food, travel and other expenditure.
Italy is one of the most lucrative for allowances with €291 for accommodation,
plus €145 per day for those attending conferences in cities including Bologna,
Florence, Milan and Venice.
Rome and Naples have lower expenses rates of €227 for accommodation plus an
allowance of €113.50 per day in un-vouched expenses.
One of the poorer paying countries is the United States, where although the
hotel room will be covered, the daily allowance could be less than €100,
depending on the state. The amounts paid there range from between €81 and €136.
Allowance
Closer to home, Paris pays much better with a nightly allowance of €292 on top
of €146 for each day.
A circular advising public servants of the increases was posted on the
Department of Finance website last week.
"Expenditure on travel and subsistence must continue to be strictly appraised
and monitored," it read.
"Officers who travel abroad should limit reimbursable expenditure to the minimum
consistent with the requirements of the visit.
"Heads of departments should continue to ensure that only essential travel is
undertaken and that the number of officers on any official journey is kept to
the absolute minimum," the circular warned.
TDs and senators claimed almost €6m in expenses in the first six months of this
year. More than half of all TDs claimed expenses from January to May of sums
greater than the average annual industrial wage.