‘Superborough merger plan is not a done deal’

Published: 17 September, 2010
by TOM FOOT

PROPOSALS to manacle Islington and Camden councils together is “not a done deal”, according to Labour councillors.

But the Tribune understands specific departments are already being targeted under the “super-borough” plan.

Managers earning more than £100,000 in Camden Council’s community safety department, housing and social services are believed to be under threat from the changes.

The Labour Group met on Monday to discuss last week’s “groundbreaking” announcement of a major pooling of resources in Islington and Camden.

With both boroughs being run under a single chief executive, Moira Gibb, senior officials will be asked to do two jobs for the price of one.

But Labour Cllr Martin Klute said: “It is not clear to me whether these proposals will actually make savings when it comes to officers’ pay. 

“The fundamental issue of high-paid people needs to be addressed. There was a whole discussion about it on Monday and everybody was interested in finding out if it can work or not – but it is not a done deal. It is not as simple as a black and white decision – we are exploring it.”

Islington Council employs around 3,000 staff managed by five core directorates, each is led by a corporate director with salaries ranging from £107,000 to £145,000. There are dozens of heads of services within those directorates, many paid in excess of £75,000.

In Camden, the same officials are on a higher bracket of pay.

Both councils need to save around £100 million over the next three years because of coalition government public sector cuts.

GMB branch secretary Vaughan West said: “It won’t just be a shared chief executive. It will be a shared corporate management team. The next question will be do we really need two legal/HR/finance departments? They will then be able to argue for management economies of scale and that always leads to job losses. There will be worries at senior management level that Camden staff will be favoured over Islington staff. In the long term, I fear it will have a knock-on effect further down in the organisation.”

Officials and top bosses at Islington and Camden councils have been discussing the changes for two months before last week’s announcement. They are now preparing for months more of tricky negotiations over combining management posts and contracts.

No final decision will need to be taken until John Foster, Islington’s chief executive, quits in May next year.

President of Islington Trades Union Council, Gary Heather, said: “The amount of money these chief execs are paid is staggering. If there’s a way of saving that money and spending it on council services I’m all for it. The plan before this was to pay John Foster’s replacement a lower salary. I don’t necessarily think that because there’s a plan to double up, they should still be on the same money.”