It has been (wrongly) implied that H&F Council CEO Geoff Alltimes had 'given himself' a pay rise between 2009/10 and 2010/11 of £11,193
The facts are:
- H&F Council has not increased his salary on any part we have controlled since 2008/9 - one year sooner than we were asked by government to freeze salaries.
- Mr Alltimes received an extra £11,080 between 2009/10 and 2010/11 - £6,955 of which was for his role as Returning Officer. This is paid by the Electoral Commission NOT the Council. The other part of the increase (£ 4,125) was as a result of higher pension contributions following an overall fund revaluation by our actuaries - again this is NOT something the Council has control over.
- The cost of Mr Alltimes's salary for H&F council taxpayers actually reduced by £62,000 in 2009/10 and £34,000 in 2010/11 as a result of his joint role as chief executive of H&F Council and NHS Hammersmith & Fulham. Despite taking on this extra work he received no overall salary increase.
- The pensions contribution increase is a direct result of dire management of the council's pension fund under Labour which was covered by the Telegraph at the time. A 2004 pension fund valuation after the decision to move into equities just before the dotcom bubble burst resulted in the council needing to increase the pension contribution rate for its staff by 2.7% for three years to tackle a £173 million pension fund deficit. The 2007 valuation reduced this to a 1% increase per year until 2010/11. These set of draft accounts are the last to have this pensions contribution increase effect. The 2010 valuation has resulted in the pension contribution rate remaining at the 2010/11 rate of 24.7%.
However, we recognise that CEO pay in local government is an issue which is why, from October 1st 2011, we will be (subject to appointment process) sharing a CEO role with The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, saving £120,000 a year.
Under our Tri-borough proposals to share services with The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster City Council we will collectively save £35m a year by 2014/15 - 35% of which will come from a reduction in senior management costs across the 3 authorities.
Comments