Merton Council's multi-million pound publicity, pension and management bills could easily be cut to reduce council tax, according to analysts from the TaxPayers' Alliance.

Its document, Council Spending Uncovered, shows that a 10 per cent cut in these areas would reduce the average band D council tax bill for residents in the borough by 4.1 per cent - the equivalent of £42.

Merton spends more than £10m a year on middle management salaries, £14m on staff pension costs and £1.5m on publicity.

The report found communications expenditure in almost all councils is unnecessarily high with the document stating: "Councils should not feel the need to promote themselves to the public and should issue fewer glossy leaflets that nobody reads."

Meanwhile the number of local authority employees being paid more than £50,000 nationally has increased nine-fold in the last decade.

Analysts also say that the council's final salary pension is unsustainable without an "intolerable burden" being put on council taxpayers.

"Council tax has doubled in the last decade and is now so high that it tips many families and pensioners over the edge. But it doesn't have to be that way," said Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance.

"Local authorities of all parties could make meaningful council tax reductions if they saved a modest 10 per cent in these three non-priority areas."

Andrew Allum, chairman of the TaxPayers' Alliance, added: "These 10 per cent savings could easily be achieved if local authorities focused resources on the real priorities.

"We hear repeatedly that councils are cash-strapped, but there is a lot they can do to reduce costs, cut council tax and better serve their local residents."

Chief executive of Merton Council, Ged Curran, said: "Even without the TaxPayers' Alliance report we are constantly challenging ourselves by scrutinising the way we run our services.

"For example Merton has recently used the results of an external communications audit to look at economising expenditure on publicity."