Councils say revealing their top earners would be 'too expensive'

Councils have refused government demands to identify staff earning more than £58,200 a year because there are so many it would be an “onerous burden”. Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, ordered councils last year to publish details of high-earning staff and any spending of more than £500. He urged an “army of armchair auditors” to pore over the data, identify waste and hold local government to account. But council chiefs said they had so many well-paid staff the cost of listing them and their responsibilities could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds. They also said staff safety would be at risk if the public knew how much they earned.

Other councils claimed that taxpayers lacked the “evaluation skills” to decide whether spending was good value for money and would fall victim to “misunderstandings”. Several insisted there was little demand locally for information on how they spent public money. The statutory code came into force in September but it was disregarded by a number of councils, which only published the salaries of the topmost tier of management. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea said: “It is felt the threshold of £58,200 is too low. "A fair proportion of a large authority’s workforce is likely to exceed this threshold and so publishing this data, including job descriptions, budgets, numbers of staff and responsibilities represents an onerous burden on already stretched resources.”



Nottingham city council told the Whitehall consultation: “We feel that it is important that individuals have the right not to be named. In some cases there may be potential personal safety issues.” It has refused to publish spending of less than £25,000, claiming residents would suffer “data-overload” if it disclosed smaller transactions. “It is not possible for citizens to judge value for money, necessity of expenditure etc from the information given,” it said. Oldham council said: “The spending limit of £500 risks unnecessary scrutiny on irrelevant areas, which leads to inappropriate, vexatious and at times trivial requests for information which takes the focus off the big issues and priorities.”

It said that disclosing staff pay “could lead to harassment and questions of a perceived worth of an individual as opposed to a specific post”. Essex county council said disclosing spending could “lead to misunderstandings and lack of trust”. Kent county council said revealing staff pay would be “infringing their personal privacy”, adding: “It implies a 'name and shame’ culture rather than one where we value our staff.” Leeds city council told the consultation disclosing salaries and spending could breach the council’s “intellectual property rights”. While Knowsley borough council said: There is “little public interest” in seeing how money is spent.