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LGA responds to chief executives announcement

Responding to Communities Secretary Eric Pickles' announced reform of employment termination rules for council chief executives, Sir Steve Bullock, Chairman of the LGA's Workforce Board, said:

 

"The overwhelming majority of council chief executives are highly competent and dedicated public servants and it is important that they are protected by the same employment laws as everyone else. However, speeding up the process of removing incompetent or unsuitable managers of any rank is a positive step.

 

"It is vital that protection of the ‘statutory whistleblower', whoever that may be, continues to be sufficiently robust to make it hard for politicians and other staff members to cover up any institutional wrongdoing.

 

"Local authorities are committed to providing value for money to taxpayers and have cut 200,000 staff and £1.4 billion from the local government paybill in the past few years. Ninety per cent of local authorities slashed senior management costs in the process. In creating a leaner, more efficient sector, councils have reduced the number of senior staff and middle managers. When councils terminate senior staff contracts the payouts are comparable to those in central government, the NHS and the private sector.

 

"Councils are the most efficient part of the public sector and have downsized faster and more effectively than almost any other bodies. Local government is keen to offer its track record and experience to assist Whitehall departments, which have so far been subjected to much less onerous cuts than local government, yet have still failed to deliver the much more modest savings requested of them." 

 

Author: LGA Media Office
Contact: LGA Media Office, Telephone: 020 7664 3333.

 

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