Talking heads

Yet this should not mean town halls, or publicly-funded bodies, paying excessive amounts on salary packages for "human resources" staff when every item of expenditure needs to be justified in these austere times.

Take Hull City Council which has just appointed a new chief executive. It recently asked every staff member to consider applying for voluntary redundancy to help the authority – one which has been beset in recent years by too much political infighting for its own good.

Despite this foreboding financial backdrop, it is now advertising for a "head of human resources" on an annual salary of nearly 90,000, with the successful applicant reporting to the "corporate director for business support".

Though the council will say that such a post is essential – indeed, the job spec highlights the massive changes that have taken place at Hull – this view will not be shared by taxpayers.

There are two reasons for this. First, this post will, yet again, reinforce the belief that senior officers are somehow immune from the budget cuts, whether it be Hull City Council or another authority with a complex top tier management structure.

Second, councils should not be having to advertise for "outsiders" if their own career development plans are effective. For, if Hull Council was running efficiently, it should be able to fill such vacancies internally – and, in doing so, make key financial savings at the same time while not jeopardising the service offered to staff and taxpayers alike.