Guido is making much of the level of salary paid to some local authority chief executives. I am not going to defend some of the extreme figures quoted in his article, nor of the above-average pay in one neighbouring authority.
However, having sat on at least one council meeting exercising a choice of senior executives, I can attest that the pool of suitably-qualified local government officers who are prepared to up sticks to a new authority is disappointingly small. It might be larger if party political considerations did not play a part, and if agents and head-hunters did not get involved, but even so, it is a seller's market.
There is also the publicity factor. Local authority chief executives operate in the public eye while their equivalents in business pull in many times their salary while not being subject to the same sort of scrutiny - until they misbehave egregiously. It should be noted that Jes Staley's annual bonus at £1.2m is twice the highest salary quoted by Guido.
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