Some council allowance values raised, despite service cuts
Local councillors across Scotland, England and Wales have been paid a total of nearly £700 million in allowances and expenses over the past three years, according to new research.
Local councillors across Scotland, England and Wales have been paid a total of nearly £700 million in allowances and expenses over the past three years, according to new research.
The £699 million total was calculated by the TaxPayers' Alliance pressure group, which said that residents would be shocked'' to find that some councils had increased the value of allowances by more than inflation during a period when services were being cut.
Although total allowances fell in cash terms from £234 million in 2012/13 to a little under £230 million in 2014/15, the TPA said that at least 238 out of 408 councils had raised the basic allowance, and 208 had seen their overall bill increase.
The largest increase in the basic allowance over the three-year period was 83% in Waverley Borough Council, in Surrey, where the amount received by councillors rose from £2,454 in 2012/13 to £4,501 in 2014/15.
The highest allowance for a council leader - not including directly elected mayors - was £54,769 in the central London authority of Kensington and Chelsea.
However, Waverley Council said its allowances remained among the lowest in the South East, as the relatively high percentage increase'' followed the finding of a 2011 independent panel that councillors in the area were receiving little more than half the regional average.
A Kensington and Chelsea spokesman said: The Special Responsibility Allowances for Royal Borough councillors fall within the bands set by an independent panel. Our annual survey of residents' opinion suggests it has been money well spent. For example, in 2015, 90% of residents surveyed said that the Council was doing a good job, up three points on the previous year and 14 percentage points ahead of the average for London.''
The TPA calculated that if every council paid allowances at the median average rate for an authority of its type, some £113 million could have been saved.
TPA chief executive Jonathan Isaby said: Taxpayers will be shocked to discover the rate at which councillors' allowances have risen over the last three years, despite local authorities pleading poverty and in many cases raising Council Tax or cutting services.
It goes to show that not every council has prioritised finding savings or cutting taxes over awarding local politicians above-inflation allowances. With the nation's finances yet to be fixed, councillors across the country will continue to have to make difficult decisions. In order for them to have the moral authority to carry out that very important job, councillors must show restraint when it comes to their own taxpayer-funded allowances and ease the burden on hard-pressed families.''
A spokesman for the Local Government Association said: Being an effective councillor requires both commitment and hard work and will place significant demands on their time, on top of the demands and needs of their personal and professional lives. Councillors receive financial support for the time they give so that people from all walks of life are able to take part in local politics.
Providing financial support ensures that local democracy does not become the preserve of the privileged few who can afford to give their time for free.
Allowances are a matter for individual local authorities and are decided democratically on the advice of independent remuneration panels. Residents have the opportunity to hold their councillors to account in both the council chamber and at the ballot box if they feel they are not getting value for money.''