The new head of communications at Suffolk County Council is set to earn more than David Cameron once they move into their post next week – the Telegraph has reported.
The new pr chief will be paid up to £700 a day when they start on a six month temporary contract on Monday.
The wage is equivalent of an annual salary of up to £182,000, nearly £40,000 more than the Prime Minister earns. The council has so far refused to say who will be taking up the post.
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The council’s opposition leader, Lib Dem Kathy Pollard, said the pay was “outrageous”. She told the Telegraph:
“The council is supposed to be belt-tightening as it looks to save £153 million over the next 10 years.
“There has been a significant increase in the costs of the communications department in the past 12 months and the council is now having yet another attempt to find a head of communications.”
While council communications departments have increased in size in recent years local authorities are no more transparent, an academic paper has suggested, while the growth of expensive council-run papers has become something of a bete noire for the local newspaper industry which sees them as a contributory factor in its decline.
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