Broadland District Council is investigating how it can reward staff without increasing its pay budget

Council bosses are hoping to strike a pay deal to reward staff – but only if they save taxpayers’ cash while also improving services.

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Broadland District Council is not intending to offer its near 300-strong workforce performance-related pay (PRP) or pay inflation rises.

This has led the authority to investigate how it can help staff without increasing the pay bill.

If workers are able to develop a service so it continues to help as many, if not more, people but costs less then it will be viewed as an efficiency. It is proposed the cash saved by the changes will be split 50/50 – half to the staff pay budget and half to be reinvested back into council services for taxpayers.

But if a service is cut to slash costs then there will be no reward offered.

The council leader and chief executive will have the final say on how a saving is classified.

Stephen Fennell, head of corporate resources, said the idea was potentially a “win-win opportunity”.

But he said it was unclear how much money it will raise for staff payments, if any at all.

Mr Fennell told yesterday’s overview and scrutiny meeting: “This is not going to generate big bonuses or big PRP increases but it might get us through a couple of years where there’s some salary progression for people working here.”

Bill Couzens, Sprowston Central Labour member, said if staff achieved an “efficiency” then all the money saved should be given to the pay budget. However, this idea was rejected.

Nigel Shaw, Conservative councillor for Thorpe St Andrew North West, said: “I like the idea, but it’s got to be handled very, very carefully. You know as soon as it gets to the Press, bang – ‘increases for Broadland’.”

The council’s budget for 2011/12 was £44.7m, with £8m spent on employee costs. There were 289 people employed last December.

Unison says it has been involved in talks related to staff pay. A final decision will be made by Broadland’s Conservative cabinet next week.