A council paid more than three times what it would normally spend to fill some vacancies, according to figures seen by the BBC.

Norwich City Council paid £750 a day for a temporary fire safety manager, when the permanent position would normally cost £201.

Green Party councilor Liam Calvert, whose party discovered the amounts paid through a freedom of information request, said they were difficult to justify.

The council said recruiting permanent staff for some roles was a problem faced by local authorities across the country, but it had recently halved its agency spending.

The figures obtained concern contracts starting between March 2021 and June 2024.

The BBC compared the daily rates obtained by the Green Party with the council’s published pay policy for permanent positions in the equivalent bands.

For example, an interim finance director was hired at the rate of £944 per day, while their permanent equivalent would be paid £451.

In 2022, someone with the job title of Portfolio Manager received a daily rate of £780, which is 254% more than the personal equivalent of £220.

The revelations come after the council announced it was to make £9.5 million in savings over the next five years.

Wensum ward councilor Mr Calvert accused authorities of “throwing money at the problem” of recruitment.

He said: “It is difficult to see how Norwich City Council can justify paying huge multiples of the standard wage, in some cases, for very long periods.

“By regularly filling positions with short-term appointments, the council suffers a loss of continuity and experience necessary to serve residents well.”

He mentioned other figures, collected by The 4 day week campaignshowing that Norwich City Council had the 27th highest proportional expenditure on agency staff of any local authority in the UK during 2022-23.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Local democracy information service in September revealed that the council’s overall agency spending had increased significantly in recent years.

The agency’s total staff expenditure in the 2021-22 financial year was £1.4 million.

Two years later it stood at £3.8 million.

“We are having difficulty recruiting staff,” warns the council said at the time.

A recruitment industry source, who wished to remain anonymous, said temporary senior executives were often independent contractors who charged rates reflecting their specialization, scarcity and flexibility.

They could quickly fill vacancies while the search for a permanent staff member was underway, the source added, and could “hit the ground running.”

The source said these senior executives were often hired for specific projects and could easily go elsewhere to get more money.

They also said the BBC’s commission paid to agencies would generally not exceed 10%.

Between 2009 and 2024, England’s local government workforce almost halved, from 2.2 million to 1.3 million, according to ONS figures.

Data released in May by the Local Government Association shows that a large proportion of agency staff are now filling labor shortages.

For legal services, around a quarter of English council staff were employed in this way. In finance, the ratio was 1:7.

But the vast majority of temporary workers were covered by adult social protection.

A Norwich City Council spokesperson said: “Since 2020, local councils across the country have all reported the same problem: having real difficulties recruiting permanent staff – particularly for some specialist and statutory roles that all advice must have.

“These are sectoral issues which have forced many local councils to resort to agency staff to fill the gaps.”