Binning The Myth

The following letter appears in today's Observer:

What kind of fantasy world does local government minister Grant Shapps inhabit? He claims "the choice" for councils "is actually between keeping top executives on £200,000 a year or paying bin men". Even if all of the roughly 350 council chief executives were paid £200,000 a year, and of course they are not, their total wage bill would be £70m, equating to 0.2% of government grant, and substantially less than the cut in funding to Liverpool City Council alone. The Supporting People Fund has been cut and rolled into the Formula Grant to councils, itself slashed by £2.75bn next year, with more cuts to come.

Jeremy Beecham
Labour, House of Lords