COUNCILS have been accused of ignoring economic reality after figures showed the wage bill for middle and senior managers had jumped by 20 per cent in the past year to nearly £2.4bn.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance, which campaigns for lower taxes, said there were 37,000 staff receiving remuneration packages worth £50,000 or more in 2007-8 compared with 31,000 in 2006-07.

Chief executive Matthew Elliott said: “In the private sector, thousands of people are losing their jobs, yet councils are better staffed and better paid than ever.

“Councils are ignoring economic reality and simply recruiting more managers and handing out more pay rises than taxpayers can afford.”

The figures published in a report by the group showed Hambleton District Council, in North Yorkshire, paid £660,000 to managers in 2007-8 – up 169 per cent year-on-year – the third highest increase in the country.

But Phil Morton, deputy chief executive of Hambleton, said the authority had reduced its senior managers by three and cut its wage bill by more than £100,000.

He said the increase in wages was caused by staff who received under £50,000 in 2006-07 being awarded their usual pay rise in 2007-08, which took them over £50,000.

He said: “The figures misrepresent the position for us completely.”

Elsewhere in the region, the vast majority of councils showed an increase in the number of middle and senior managers earning more than £50,000 a year.

The biggest payer was North Yorkshire County Council, where 273 middle and senior managers received a total of £16.885m in 2007-8.

A spokeswoman said she believed the figure also included headteachers, whose pay was set according to nationallyagreed pay scales.

She said: “Despite being one of the largest local authorities in the country, we continue to pay our senior managers at the middle range compared with other authorities, many of which are significantly smaller.”

Durham County Council paid 119 staff £7.685m, Middlesbrough paid 111 staff £6.095m, and Newcastle paid 209 people £13.655m.

Meanwhile, 61 staff at Darlington Borough Council received remuneration packages of more than £50,000 in 2007-8, amounting to £4.035m.

John Ransford, deputy chief executive of the Local Government Association, which represents councils in England and Wales, said: “The people who earn these salaries are responsible for multi-million pound budgets in highly-complex organisations, and to attract the best and brightest people to deliver value for money you have to pay a suitable wage.

“If the report compared similar jobs in the private sector, then the TaxPayers’ Alliance would see that councils are providing people with very good value for money.”

Mr Ransford also said that one in seven councils had been forced to shed jobs over the past few months as the credit crunch ate into their incomes.