The Notebook: How to fix the civil service? Pay the top brass more

It’s in everyone’s interest to have the best talent in the civil service. That’s why we should pay the top brass more, writes James Chapman

Why we should pay top civil servants more

The mess Keir Starmer and some of his ministerial colleagues got themselves into over gifts from donors may have been entirely predictable, as those of us who have been calling for state funding of political parties to replace donations from multi-millionaires as part of measures to clean up politics could have told him.

But it has also thrown a spotlight on levels of remuneration at the top of the public sector. As well as the PM’s salary (£167,000), hysterical questions have been asked about that of his chief of staff Sue Gray (£170,000).

When I worked in the Treasury, I came across dozens of civil servants of the highest calibre who could clearly have been earning far more outside. Some cashed in their chips, but many chose to stay in the public sector out of a sense of service.

Rather than reward them, we’ve slashed their pay. In real terms, the pay of director-level civil servants has been cut by 23 per cent since 2010.

This means their average salary is around half what they could expect from an equivalent role in the private sector. The median base salary for a director in the civil service is £109,600, compared to £225,000 in the private sector. It used to be the case that generous final salary pension schemes would make up some of the difference, but these have been eroded too, to the point that even when pension packages are factored in, public servants are massively underpaid.

In other countries, political leaders are also paid substantially more. In Germany and the US, for example, they command salaries of around £300,000 a year.

Does this matter? Clearly it does. According to the senior salary review body, the civil service is increasingly unable to find good people for senior positions. Alarmingly, there was just one appointable candidate in 37 per cent of civil service recruitment campaigns last year.

So as well as getting big donors out of our politics, we must confront the fact that we need to pay senior public servants more, not less. It’s in all our interests that the best possible candidates end up in Number Ten or running government departments. Public opinion might not like it, but it’s time we paid those at the top of the public sector their due. 

The Eton Tax

The standard 20 per cent VAT rate will be added to private school fees from January 1 2025. Private schools like Eton and Harrow have already announced they will raise their fees by 20 per cent in response, passing the full tax rise on to their parents. This is an outrageous scam. Every state school in the land has had to cut its coat according to its cloth since 2010 when budgets began to be squeezed in real terms. They’ve had to look at staffing numbers and reduce overheads in all sorts of ways. Private schools should sell a playing field or two before punishing their customers.

Another Brexit lie 

The amount of pesticide residue allowed on many types of food in England, Wales and Scotland has quietly been allowed to increase since Brexit. Changes to regulations mean over 100 items are now allowed to carry more pesticides, including potatoes, onions and grapes. For tea, the maximum residue level (MRL) has been increased by 4,000 times for the delicious-sounding insecticide chlorantraniliprole and fungicide boscalid. Brexiteers repeatedly promised that their project would not undermine environmental protections. This has been exposed as yet another Brexit lie.

Time to reverse Voter ID

The Electoral Commission says as many as 750,000 people may not have voted in the 2024 general election because they lacked the necessary documents. This is a damning indictment of voter ID laws introduced by the Conservatives in 2022, which Jacob Rees-Mogg admitted were an attempt to ‘gerrymander’ the electoral system. In opposition, Labour said these laws were not necessary, and they should reverse them at once.

Good vibrations at Electric Brixton

I highly recommend checking out the back catalogue of New York duo The Lemon Twigs, whose music draws heavy inspiration from the 1960s and 70s and has variously been defined as power pop, glam rock, art rock and jangle pop. I saw them play the Electric Brixton a few weeks ago and it was my favourite gig of the year. The harmonies of brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario in particular had to be heard to be believed. Not many bands can get away with covering the Beach Boys, but they closed with an epic version of Good Vibrations, and carried it off entirely.

James Chapman is director of Soho Communications