Question marks over senior pay

Slough: Can council justify pay in financial crisis?

Slough Borough Council has faced questions over whether it can justify the salaries it pays to senior management staff while the local authority faces a financial crisis.

Details of the pay packets set to be received by the council’s chief officers in 2022/23 were discussed during a meeting of Slough’s employment and appeals committee on Wednesday.

The meeting heard that the chief executive role, currently held by Josie Wragg, will be paid between £143,107 and £171,731.

Four other executive director positions at the local authority will receive an annual salary of between £117,790 and £137,385.

Slough faces the prospect of needing to sell £600million worth of councilowned assets over the next five years to help rectify its perilous financial situation, which includes borrowing debts of more than £750 million.

Independent councillor for Foxborough, Councillor Madhuri Bedi, said: “Because of the financial situation we find ourselves in, I don’t know if there higher salaries can be justified as we become a smaller council.

“We are becoming smaller so can we afford this now?”

Surjit Nagra, associate director for customers and HR, said the executive director positions were created and evaluated in June 2020 but added the council will look into the issue as the council ‘reorganises’.

Councillor Bedi also asked whether chief executive Josie Wragg, who the council say has been off work due to sickness over the last few months, is receiving full pay while she is away.

Ms Nagra replied: “My understanding is the chief executive is ill at the moment and payment will be made according to those terms and conditions.”

The meeting also heard that Slough continues to face challenges finding permanent staff and spent £3.6 million on agency workers between October and December, almost £250,000 more than the previous quarter.

The council saw 83 staff leave over this period which increased the reliance on agency workers, employee relations and policy manager Dipak Mistry said.

Chief finance officer Steven Mair, who was brought in to try and tackle Slough’s financial woes, told the meeting the council is hoping to reduces its numbers of interim staff by the end of 2022/23.

He added: “We all accept that the challenges the council faces dwarf any other council in the country and you cannot get through this without investing significantly at this point of time.”