43% of council chiefs get paid more than David Cameron

Study of 300 local authorities shows almost half of chief executives earn over £150,000, more than PM's £142,500

Eric Pickles, the communities and local government secretary, has urged council bosses to show pay restraint. Photograph: Eddie Mulholland/Rex Features Almost half of local authority chief executives were paid more than £150,000 last year – more than the prime minister, according to research. A study of 300 councils in England and Wales showed that pay ranged from £62,000 in West Somerset to almost £300,000 in the London borough of Wandsworth. 43% of local authority chief executives were paid over £150,000 last year, trumping the prime minister's salary of £142,500. The figures will prove controversial at a time when councils are passing on large reductions in central government funding to their constituents in the form of cuts to services such as libraries. According to the report by Incomes Data Services, county council chief executives in the south-east of England were the highest paid, with average earnings of £204,000, compared with £159,000 in the south-west. District council chief executives in the south-east were also the highest paid, receiving an average of £118,000, while the lowest figure was in the north-west, at £104,000. Only one in five chief executives was female, although pay rates were similar to men, said the report. The highest paid female chief executive last year was at Essex county council, earning £237,000. Nasreen Rahman of IDS said: "With nearly half of all local authority chief executives earning more than the prime minister, clearly, in the current climate, town hall bosses will be facing tough questions from council tax-payers. "For the first time, such a comprehensive picture of local authority senior executive pay is possible because of the new disclosure regulation brought in last year, where local authorities have to give more salary information on their top paid officials." Eric Pickles, the communities and local government secretary, urged council bosses to show pay restraint. He told the Telegraph: "We are not asking councils to do anything that central government isn't already doing. The prime minister has taken a pay cut, I've taken a pay cut, and government ministers have taken pay cuts."