‘Pressure and stress’: Union for council chief executives calls for above-inflation pay rise amid ‘exceptionally challenging times’

Hackney Council’s chief executive Mark Carroll. Photograph: Hackney Council

A union representing council chief executives is calling for an above-inflation pay rise.

Council bosses are asking for the same basic pay rise of Retail Price Index (RPI) inflation plus two per cent as other local government employees.

Inflation was at 10.5 per cent in December.

The Association of Council Chief Executives (ALACE) said the call comes at a time when “the pressures facing heads of paid service in leading their organisations through exceptionally challenging times continue unabated”.

It added that these “demands are reflected in workload and adverse impacts on mental health such as stress”.

Headaches include uncertainty over local government funding beyond 2025 and a “reasonable possibility of a further period of austerity after the next general election that would impact on councils”.

Chief executives also have to oversee “massive savings”.

ALACE said: “Leadership of the highest quality and resilience is demanded from chief executives in transformation of councils, securing economic and housing growth, and delivering public service reform.”

It said the majority of chief executives have seen a 40 per cent reduction in pay since 2008 and most of them got a pay increase between one and two per cent last year.

Judges received a 3.5 per cent pay hike and senior civil servants got three per cent.

ALACE negotiators pointed out that chief executives’ pay was frozen from 2008 until 2014.

Ian Miller, ALACE’s honorary secretary, added: “The pay award for 2022 was a long way behind inflation and has significantly worsened chief executives’ reward in real terms.”

He said there was “no financial reason why the employers should resort to treating our members less generously than other local government staff. The nine per cent increase in average core spending power for English authorities in 2023/24 kills stone dead any suggestion that councils cannot afford a pay award for chief executives.”

Hackney Council takes part in the national bargaining process for chief executives covered by the Joint Negotating Committee (JNC) for Chief Officers of Local Authorities, which will consider the pay claim made by ALACE.

A spokesman said: “Hackney Council participates in this national bargaining process, and as such its chief executive’s terms and conditions are set in line with guidance provided by the JNC.”

The council paid its chief executive £185,012 in 2020/21. The salary went up to £200,274 the following year, when its lowest paid employee earned £23,004, according to Town Hall reports.

A travel allowance has been incorporated into the salary of new chief executive Mark Carroll.

He joined the council in October 2021 and his previous experience includes leading Essex county council and stints at the Home Office and the Department for Communities and Local Government.