COUNCIL workers are set to get pay rises totalling almost £400,000 in a bid to stop staff leaving.

Test Valley Borough Council are handing out the extra cash after admitting certain departments are “in crisis with a shortage of staff”.

They say they hope the £400,000 pay rise, which is set to be approved next week, will encourage more people to work there.

The announcement which is set to be approved next week will mean that each of the 450 employees from the lowest paid to the Chief Executive Roger Tetstall who earns around £148,000, will be in line for a 2.5 per cent increase in their pay.

The hike will cost the council £392,000 which is being found from savings from the inflation and corporate contingency fund in this year’s budget.

It comes just two months after the council’s former Duttons Road offices in Romsey were bulldozed. They were closed in 2012 and sold to Renaissance Retirement in a controversial money saving move.

The pay-out has been criticised by Taxpayers Alliance, who said residents will be furious that pay rises were being handed out at a time when services are being cut back.

Chief executive Jonathan Isaby said: “It’s as if the people making these decisions are living under a rock – we’re trying to make necessary savings right across local and central government, and nobody can be immune from pay restraints.

“Taxpayers will be furious that at a time when essential services need to be protected, such dramatic pay hikes are being dished out like confetti.

“Inflation is basically flat and as a country we’re £1.5 trillion in debt – it’s time for a reality check.”

But Liberal Democrat councillor Alan Dowden, who is a member of the General Purposes Committee which is expected to approve the move next week, said the planning and environmental services department was in crisis and they needed to pay what he described as a “decent living” wage to attract new employees.

He said: “The reason they’ve paid the council more is to try to encourage people to work at Test Valley Borough Council.

"They can’t encourage the staff to join the borough that was the the reason for the pay rise.

“I was questioning why they were having to pay more, and they can’t get the staff.

“It’s all within budget, they’ve saved a lot of money where they haven’t had to pay the wages there’s a lot of money saved up.”

He added that he would be asking questions at their full council meeting.

But leader of Test Valley Borough Council, Councillor Ian Carr said the situation was not likely to “go into meltdown” despite admitting there was a “brain drain”.

“It won’t get to that. It means life is harder for the staff, they will work harder and longer hours sometimes but we can get people to work for us.

“It’s a concern that’s one of the reasons why we given the pay rise.”

He added: “Local council staff have had a very rigidly enforced number of years pay restraint and deserve the recommended pay increases.

“However, all organisations gradually become top heavy and senior management will need to earn their rises by reviewing and slimming down some of the top jobs.”

The pay rise is less than the three per cent rise demanded by Unison - a request which would have cost the authority £470,000.

In a pay claim submitted to the authority, Unison argued that “high turnover is costly to TVBC and investing in competitive pay will help to retain staff.”

It added: “It is vital that pay settlements continue to address the ongoing general problem of low pay in TVBC.

“Although we are in difficult economic times Test Valley can ill afford to stop investing in its staff and we believe this claim is well within affordable parameters. There can be no doubt that all staff have seen a significant fall in their living standards. Their real earnings have fallen substantially.

“2015 is the year TVBC can begin to demonstrate that its workforce is included in the recovery. This is a fair and realistic claim which we ask TVBC to meet in full.”

TVBC staff have received several pay rises in recent years. In 2011/12 a one-off payment of £250 was made to employees whose full time equivalent earnings during the year were less than £21,000, and in both 2012/13 and 2013/14 pay awards comprising a one per cent increase to all employees subject to a minimum increase of £250 were given.

In 2014/15 a 2.5 per cent rise was awarded.