Fair pay’s the elephant in the room

Agent151 is a senior local authority finance director and s151 officer

In recent times it has been fashionable in some quarters to characterise council workers as a bunch of feckless, work-shy overpaid bureaucrats with pointless jobs. Eric Pickles, as the minister responsible for local government, has, for some reason known only to him, done his best to reinforce this image, aided and abetted by lazy journalists whose stock-in-trade is the propagation of entertaining stereotypes. The reality is entirely different. Councils, at the sharp end of delivering vital services, have performed miracles in recent years, reducing their general fund spending by around 30% with minimal cuts to services.
This is in stark contrast to the performance of the rest of government, where most departments have failed to meet the targets they were set by a significant margin. As Tony Travers, director of the Greater London Group at the London School of Economics, says: “It would be good if, just occasionally, senior ministers acknowledged councils’ remarkable achievement in managing budgets. There are no deficits, no scary winter emergencies and no bankruptcies. If more public expenditure were within local government control, the deficit would have been managed down faster.”
What is the reward for this remarkable achievement? If the feat were to be replicated in the banking sector there would undoubtedly be bonus payments all round. Instead, there is a continuing battering in the press, a further real terms pay reduction across the board, and determined erosion of employment benefits. That the local government pay bill should be reduced is understandable and indeed necessary in light of the economic position, but the key point is about fairness: the reduction has not been replicated to the same extent in other parts of the public sector.
Of course, admitting to a sense of injustice about pay is only going to attract further criticism, but it is about time someone spoke up for local government. The Local Government Association has been paralysed, presumably by party allegiance, but one gets the sense that local politicians in all parties have lost the sense of autonomy and pride that used to characterise the sector. Perhaps they have started to believe the opprobrium themselves. Perhaps they fear they will be lampooned by Pickles and his ilk.
The trade unions have been entirely ineffective, campaigning on worthy issues like low pay rather than representing the workers in the sector as a whole. Fair pay for council workers is the elephant in the room that no one will talk about.
Small wonder that the talented individuals who have achieved the impossible over the last few years are looking to leave the sector. After all, what is there to look forward to when the role of chief executive, the pinnacle of a career in local government, has been declared by some local politicians to be an unnecessary luxury, on the grounds that they can do the job themselves thanks to their experience of running small businesses? What is next? Council finance directors are no longer needed because the finance portfolio holder has experience of running his own bank account? These are tremendously skilled roles that are not only necessary but very difficult and it is important for the good of councils everywhere that they are not only appreciated but properly remunerated.
It’s time to start talking about the pay elephant. If the overall pay bill must be reduced further, then let’s talk about how that can be done in a different way that incentivises people. Let’s stop the misery caused by chipping away at the edges and look at benefits and incentives across the whole of the public sector. That’s the right way to deal with unfairness and the right way to start the next big push for public sector savings. Or is that elephant too big for you, Mr Osborne?