Council tax must fund care, not fat cat wages

Over the last few weeks, millions of families have opened their council tax bills wearily expecting bad news.

As nine in ten local authorities are hiking this grotesquely abused levy by up to 5 per cent – or £80 for the average band D property – the pain, particularly for those on fixed incomes, will have been acute.

So for every household facing a rising bill, today’s Taxpayers’ Alliance report into town hall pay packets will be a further gut-wrenching blow.

A total of 539 council employees earn £150,000 – more than the Prime Minister – a rise of 10 per cent in a year… Some 2,300 are paid £100,000 or more… One council, Southwark in south London, pays 44 staff six-figure sums…

In the most egregious example, Sunderland council handed its chief executive £625,000 and another executive £605,000 in pay, pensions and payoffs when they left after a damning Ofsted report into children’s services. What possible excuse is there for such gratuitous reward for failure?

Indeed, at a time of austerity, how can council leaders – who miss no chance to complain about cuts to their grants – justify ANY pay rises for senior bureaucrats?

The reason bills are going up so much is to pay for better social care, so every penny should be bolstering threadbare services for the elderly, not lining officials’ pockets.

Councillors who authorise these pay packets could learn a lot from incoming Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, who will be paid £40,000 less than her predecessor.

What a contrast with the endless grasping of Britain’s town hall fat cats.