Crackdown on fat-cats: Curbing excess, or political strategy?

SUPPORTING EXCESSIVE PAY RISES for senior council officers, appears to have led ten East Riding Councillors to be disqualified from standing as Conservative Party candidates in the next local elections.

Town Hall politics

The action against the councillors was not the only announcement made yesterday that sought to crack down on 'fat-cat' pay. The Local Government Association (LGA) also announced that it would cut the pay of its leading officer.

The LGA, a voluntary membership body of over 400 local authorities, has cut the pay of its chief officer by over £200,000. John Ransford, Chief Executive, had been on an annual salary of £245,612 and benefited from £57,228 in pension contributions, giving him a pay package of £302,840, which is double that of the prime minister. Baroness Eaton, Chairman of the LGA, said in a press release yesterday that John Ransford would now have his annual salary package cut to less than £100,000.

It would appear that both actions have resulted after pressure from conservative government ministers and activists who want to be seen to be acting to curb excess and wastage from the public sector. With their eyes firmly set on the next local government elections in May 2011 there is a very real fear that anti-cuts candidates will make inroads into both conservative and liberal-democrat majorities. By tapping into popular moods to crackdown on fat-cats and excessive spending, then coalition candidates just might keep the anti-cuts forces at bay. However, in order to achieve this, the party faithful have to first dis-associate themselves from those that might be seen as tarred with fat-cat bureaucracy.

However, whichever side of the argument you are on, it does seem regrettable that local politicians who in some cases have given decades of public service, can be so callously thrown to one side.