Councillors in Newcastle have rejected the chance to give themselves a five per cent pay rise.
An independent panel had recommended that the city’s 78 elected representatives have their basic annual allowances upped from £9,200 to £9,660. But the move was unanimously rejected in the Newcastle City Council chamber on Wednesday night.
Labour council leader Nick Kemp said that councillors did not feel comfortable awarding themselves a pay rise at a time when residents are enduring a cost of living crisis and on a day when many workers were on strike over pay. Wednesday was described as the biggest strike day in a decade as 500,000 people, including teachers, walked out, with that night’s council salaries vote coming just hours after many politicians had been at a huge rally at Grey’s Monument.
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While the prospect of boosting their own pay packets was roundly rejected by councillors, major concerns were raised about the risk of excluding poorer and younger people from entering local politics as a result.
The £9,200 annual allowance in Newcastle is the third lowest in the North East, with Northumberland’s £15,032 being the highest, and is lower than all the other core cities in England. The council leader’s £18,400 allowance is also by far the smallest in the region, with the next lowest being £27,0000 in Northumberland.
Coun Paul Frew, Labour’s cabinet member responsible for finance, told Wednesday night’s meeting that the authority had to ensure that becoming a councillor is not restricted to the relatively wealthy – saying that those on low pay “may find it a barrier” to give up time from their day job and their family. He called it “impossible” for councillors to decide on their own pay rises and called for the matter to be resolved with a national Government agreement.
Gosforth councillor Colin Ferguson, the new leader of the city’s Lib Dem opposition, said he had “deep unease about voting to look as if we are almost lining our own pockets”, but echoed concerns about people being excluded from local politics. He added: “On one hand it is a small amount of money, but on the other we do need to show restraint at a time when ultimately the costs will be passed on to taxpayers.
“I do think there needs to be national consideration of what the costs of working in local government are, so that anyone who wants to do the kind of work we do is enabled to do so.”
The extra cost to the council had the Independent Remuneration Panel’s pay uplift recommendations been approved would have been £46,827, at a time when the authority is about to raise council tax bills and faces a £60m funding gap in the next three years.
Lib Dem councillor Thom Campion added: “We are in a cost of living crisis. There has never been a greater squeeze on council finances. Our residents are really struggling to put food on the table, money for the heating. And yet here we are potentially talking about giving ourselves a little bit more cash.
"To me that sends all the wrong signals. I am pleased that we are able to agree across the chamber that now is not the right time.”
Councillors in Newcastle have only agreed to pay rises twice in the last ten years, having cut their allowances by five per cent in 2013.
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