The Monitoring Officer introduced the report, noting that the cross-party working group met three times to review the allowances scheme with recommendations presented to Full Council on 13 September. 

Discussions had been constructive, first looking at the basic allowance, which should come into line with the IRP, the figures were based on the January 2022 report, an update was expected in September, but the earlier figures were used to meet our timeframe.

The recommendations in the paper were agreed unanimously by the working group.

Cllr Hayes thanked all members of the working group, the monitoring officer, democratic services staff and the independent person who had contributed to the meeting.  Cllr Hayes noted that the problem of councillor allowances had not been addressed for 14 years.

The chair thanked Cllr Hayes for his work as chair of the Working Group and its members.

A proposal to amend part of the recommendation was offered:

- to agree to award the special responsibility allowances set out in appendix A except the awards to whips, deputy leader of the opposition, and chair of the licensing committee.

- And agree on the basis there are no more than 7 cabinet members, including the leader, the multiplier will be 1.5 for cabinet members. If there are greater than 7 cabinet members, the multiple is 1

The following comments were made:

-       It’s difficult to reduce hours at work in order to fulfil the councillor role, the allowance as is does not make up the difference, it is necessary to look forward to the next generation of councillors, what has been put forward is a good proposal, and would bring us up to the average.

-       Cabinet members have responsibility and time to give to their roles, the SRA reflects this

-       There is broad agreement on the basic allowance, other councils have smaller cabinet sizes so there is a possibility to reflect that, the Liberal Democrat Group are not comfortable with the current proposal on cabinet member SRAs, perhaps a leaders’ Round Table discussion could close the gap

-       It’s for the Leader to distribute work across portfolios, it shouldn’t be for SGP to set limits on the number of cabinet members

-       Whips receive an SRA in nearly all councils in London, this is an important role in governance, not solely a political appointment.

-       Councillors do not have to take their allowance or SRA

-       It will be for Full Council to decide when/whether the proposed scheme is implemented.

The proposed amendment was put to the vote and not carried.

RESOLVED:

-       That the Committee considered the recommendations of the working group set out in this report and decided whether to make the following recommendations to Full Council on 13 September 2023:

(i)            that the basic allowance should be increased to £12,014 in line with the recommendation of the 2022 Independent Remuneration Panel;

(ii)          to agree to award the Special Responsibility Allowances set out in appendix A;

(iii)         that Council reaffirms the linking of future allowances to the annual staff pay award, such increases to be applied automatically and that in future the Scheme be approved as part of the annual budget;

(iv)         that the Licensing Committee chair should also be the chair of the Licensing Sub-committee meetings convened for the purpose of determining individual licensing applications

(v)          that the new allowances should apply with effect from the date of the Council meeting

-       The Committee agreed to ask the Leader to give further consideration to the scope and role of the Tenants’ Champion and the London Living Wage Champion;

-       That the Committee thanked the working group for its constructive and collaborative approach to this exercise