Manchester Council bosses to receive 20 per cent pay rise

Manchester City Council are considering plans to give senior managers at the council above-inflationary pay rises.

If the proposal is approved, the head of city centre regeneration will be set to receive the largest increase of 20 per cent leading to a salary of £75,000.

The council document claimed the pay rises reflected ‘increased responsibility’ due to ‘additional city centre development’. It added that the pay rises involved eight posts which would be funded from within existing budgets.

Mr Flanagan, executive member for finance, said: "It is essential that we can keep and attract the right calibre of senior staff by having salaries which reflect the levels of responsibility they have and are in line with those available in comparable cities.

"We are currently reviewing all staff salaries, from top to bottom, to ensure they fairly reflect their workloads and responsibility, while maintaining value for money for council taxpayers."

However, the Taxpayers’ Alliance argued that people wanted to see lower council tax rates, as opposed to large pay rises for bosses.

Harry Davis, from the Taxpayers' Alliance, commented: “They have removed about 400 staff earning over £50,000.

"But, when savings need to be made and council tax is still going up, they have to make sure that they keep a tight grip on the purse strings so that they can channel as much as possible to front line services and tax cuts for local residents."