In response to interest in the review of Local Authority Chief Executive Pay, COSLA's Resources Spokesperson Councillor Katie Hagmann said,

"COSLA undertakes the Employers’ Function on behalf of all local authorities, and this decision has been taken collectively, at national level, via COSLA’s established governance structures, rather than at individual council level.

"Until now the pay framework for council Chief Executives had not been reviewed since 2001 – nearly 25 years. This means the new pay framework needed to reflect significant movement over more than 2 decades, including significant slippage against other public sector posts of lesser responsibility.

"Competitive salaries which adequately reflect the responsibilities and demands of the job are critical to enable councils to attract and retain high quality Chief Executives who can provide the leadership required for effective delivery of key public services, particularly in the challenging context we currently face.  It should be noted that the leaders of many similarly sized organisations are paid considerably more."

14th November 2025