Town hall payrolls have swelled by 179,000 employees since 1997 in what ministers describe as an "explosion" in local government jobs and bureaucracy, it has been reported.
The number of people employed by councils has grown from 2,728,000 when the last Labour government came to power to 2,907,000 last year, according to figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph.
Of those, 741,702 people were not in traditional "front line" jobs such as those in education, social services, recreation, libraries, planning, environmental health, culture, heritage or trading standards.
Local Government Minister Bob Neill said the figures demonstrated the potential for councils to cut down on "crazy non-jobs" as they struggle to adjust to spending cuts.
"These figures reveal the explosion in town hall jobs and bureaucracy under Labour and reinforce the need for some councils to start cutting out middle management," he said.
"Crazy non-jobs like cheerleading development officers and press officers tasked with spinning propaganda on bin collections provide no value to the public.
"Getting rid of the bloated bureaucracy that has grown in some elements of local government will ensure local authorities can protect front-line services."
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