TOWN halls would be forced to slash the pay of their top staff by up to 25% under savage Liberal Democrat spending cuts unveiled yesterday.

The crackdown would hit the pockets of chief executives in Liverpool, Sefton, Wirral and elsewhere – and also target the sky-high salaries of health chiefs and quango heads.

The Liberal Democrats also pledged to axe the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA), aligning the party with the Conservatives, who have already vowed to scrap the regional bodies.

They also promised to let councils set business rates after a 20-year gap – a policy leader Nick Clegg admitted would make many firms “nervous”.

The package, amounting to £14bn of cuts overall, is by far the most detailed set of spending pledges unveiled by any of the three major parties in the run-up to next year’s general election.

It also commits the Lib-Dems to scrapping NHS North West and other strategic health authorities, axing major defence projects such as the Trident replacement, and an overall freeze on public sector pay.

Speaking to the Daily Post, Mr Clegg said it was right high-earners in the public sector felt the pain, instead of a “slash and burn” approach which would hurt ordinary workers.

He added: “Councils should slash the salaries of the very well-paid. We have allowed excessively high salaries to let rip in the public and private sector for the last decade, while a lot of people are struggling to make ends meet. We need fairness.”

Under the Lib-Dem plans, all public sector bodies would be forced to cut the combined cost of staff earning more than £100,000 by 25%.

That would have big implications for Wirral Council which, according to Freedom of Information responses earlier this year, has seven staff on six-figure sums – a combined bill of £800,000.

Chief executive Steve Maddox took home £132,104 last year, with other high-earning chief executives in Liverpool (Colin Hilton, around £210,000), Sefton (Margaret Carney, around £150,000) and Warrington (Diana Terris, £144,318).