TEST Valley Borough Council has been branded "out of control" by angry residents and business owners after awarding its staff a third consecutive two and a half per cent pay rise.

Councillors approved the below inflation increase for all staff, including £117,000-a-year chief executive Roger Tetstall, at a general purposes committee meeting last week.

The rise, which follows on from similar two and half per cent hikes in 2015 and 2016, is set to cost the council more than £400,000.

The move has sparked anger amongst some Test Valley tax payers, who have seen the authority's annual tax demand rise by nearly eight per cent in the last two years.

Business owners have also questioned the hike, with some claiming they have not been able to offer pay increase to their own staff for over five years.

John O'Connell, the chief executive of national pressure group, the TaxPayers' Alliance was one of those to question the council's latest pay spike.

He said: "When as a country we are still not living within our means, across the board rises are difficult to justify.

"Council tax has gone up in England by around 60 per cent in the last twenty years and people want that money to go towards helping fund front-line services and not into the pockets of council staff."

Despite the outrage, the rise remains under the national inflation rate of 2.9 per cent and 0.5 per cent less than the three per cent requested by union, Unison.

It will also mean that the council's lowest paid staff, currently on £16,072-per-year, will continue to get above the Living Wage Foundation's recommended living wage, which is currently £8.45-per-hour.

This is not to be confused to the National Living Wage, which is currently £7.50-per-hour.

A spokesperson for Unison said: "We welcome Test Valley's commitment to pay at least the real living wage at the bottom of the pay scales for 2017, this is a independently-calculated amount based on the minimum that employees and their families actually need to live on.

"Whilst our members have accepted the two and a half per cent, it is important to point out that from 2010 to 2016 our members in Test Valley lost 13.1 per cent of their wages in real terms, as cost of living increases were not been matched by pay awards.

"Since 2014 Test Valley has proactively tried to reverse this real terms decline in take home pay, which we welcome."

As well as increase for low paid workers, the hike will also result in much larger salary increases for the council's highest earners.

The authority's top 13 senior officials, including heads of services, corporate directors and the council's chief executive, Roger Tetstall, will see their wages rise by more than £20,000 between them Mr Tetstall alone is set to pocket an extra £3,000-per-year as a result of the two and a half per cent increase, meaning his annual salary will have risen by almost £9,000 over the last three years.

Despite the opposition, Test Valley Borough Council leader Phil North has defended the rise, claiming it will help the council retain its "high performing staff".

He said: "Our staff, along with many others, have seen an erosion in the ‘real’ value of their earnings over the recent years of pay restraint.

"Furthermore, over the past 12 months, we have experienced difficulties in recruiting to a range of jobs across the organisation.

"This resulted in an underspend on our wage bill last year of more than £360,000.

“Without good quality staff, we would struggle to maintain the quality of the services we provide.

"If we fail to ensure we offer competitive salaries then this will undoubtedly impact the quality of our workforce and we risk losing our existing employees as well as struggle to recruit new staff."