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Councillors deserve a 2.5% rise in wages, says pay body

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Published Date: 30 September 2008
By Scott Macnab
COUNCILLORS should get a 2.5 per cent rise in salaries, a pay body recommended yesterday.

Ian Livingstone, chairman of the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC), said the figure was in line with public-sector pay limits.

Councillors should also be given a £25 allowance if they stay overnight with friends or famil
y – as it avoids running up hotel bills.

Mr Livingstone said: "This is first time councillor salary levels have been uprated since we reported in January 2006.

"An increase of 2.5 per cent is in line with current public-sector pay limits and we feel goes part way to addressing the gap since the original level was set. This review has addressed some catch up on salaries, which should be reviewed on an annual basis in future."

SLARC is an independent public body set up three years ago to advise on councillors' pay and expenses.

It is recommending the 2.5 per cent increase from April 1 both this year and next.

Allowances and receipted expenses rates have also been reviewed as part of the report, Mr Livingstone added.

"Councils generally welcomed the clarity and transparency of the new system in May 2007," he said. "A few issues have been identified and we have tried to address these, where possible."

Overnight bed and breakfast subsistence should also go up to £131 per night for London from £118, and to £110 for elsewhere in the UK from £94.

The report has been sent to the Scottish Government to consider.





Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 29 September 2008 9:54 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Jeeemy,

St Andrews 30/09/2008 02:19:44
With council tax frozen where does this piece of s**T think the money will come from?
Gordon Brown or even Alistair Darling? No canny no dae that.
2

Guga II,

Rockall 30/09/2008 04:01:22
It is a cut in pay they should all be getting.
3

Voldemort,

Edinburgh 30/09/2008 04:22:29
I agree councillors should get a 2.5% pay rise but as long as they can demonstrate that they run super efficient councils with no excess staff and deliver maximum core services for minimum cost to the taxpayer.

I wonder how many would qualify ?

I think you could count them on the fingers of a slug .... Council's no longer serve the public they are parasites pure and simple and to award any pay rise to this diseased and bloated sector of society is a slap in the face to those that pay for it !
4

Guga II,

Rockall 30/09/2008 05:12:26
#3.

Well said.
5

,

30/09/2008 07:16:02
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
6

Urban Guerrilla,

Edinburgh 30/09/2008 07:52:44
They shouldn't be paid at all.
7

Boy Wonder,

30/09/2008 08:51:45
Never thought I'd ever agree with someone called Voldemort before! But he called it!!!
8

Wait a minute,

Town 30/09/2008 08:57:01
A Lib Dem Cllr on Highland, Foxley, who earns nearly 30k as political leader says in the Inverness Courier, that he thinks all councillors should ALL have a another full time job as well.

He still works full time in addition to the council.

9

Worm,

Borders 30/09/2008 09:11:44
#5 - obligor

Nice to see that you havn't resorted to gross generalisation at all.
10

The Federalist (the poster formerly know as NAUON),

30/09/2008 09:49:10
#8 I would not mind having full-time councillors on a full-time wage - just as long as we reduced the numbers of councillors.
11

Alan B,

30/09/2008 09:58:55
Councillors should not be paid.
12

The Federalist (the poster formerly know as NAUON),

30/09/2008 10:06:32
#11 Why?

Our elected representatives at Westminster and Holyrood get paid so why not councillors?

Either all should get paid or none at all.
13

Alan B,

30/09/2008 10:16:59
#The Federalist

I think parliamentary mps/msp should be full time. (Do not really have a problem with back bench msps working but think they should take a lesser salary.) Cannot see how McLetchie as leader of the tories and leader of one the opposition parties could really have outside jobs.

With regard to councillor it is my understanding (correct me if i am wrong, ur knowledge of the working of councils and political parties is greater than mine), did not used to get paid. I do not think paying them has improved anything.

I want councils to do real local activities, free from central government intervention. ie i liked the district councils better. As such much of the old regional council activity i would have carried out by scottish parliament.

I like the idea that council running local stuff do it not for the money. Money corrupts. It becomes a career rather than serving for a few terms. The councils get far to linked to the political parties.

Having said all that i am tempted by the idea of directly elected majors like london who would get paid. I would like majors for our big cities. ie a greater Glasgow that includes the suburbs rather than the bizzarre cuts off and Edinburgh.
14

,

30/09/2008 10:22:29
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
15

Miss H,

30/09/2008 10:45:07
11 If councillors are unpaid then you would have no councillors other than people who are retired or have a private income, which I think would skew decision making quite badly. You need to have people in charge of decision making who reflect the population as a whole not just a small part of it.
16

Miss H,

30/09/2008 10:56:57
12 But they get paid at very different rates. It is bizarre that MPs get paid so highly when they do so little. A councillor's workload is in reality much larger than an MPs but MPs get paid very well and councillors very badly. It's a nutty system.
17

The Federalist (the poster formerly know as NAUON),

30/09/2008 11:50:03
#16 I actually agree with you - the problem is though that the bad councillors are the ones that give the rest a bad name. One solution would be fewer elected members but more frequent rolling elections, for example, a third of seats up for election each year.
18

Alan B,

30/09/2008 12:35:36
#Miss H

What do councillors actually do?

Like mps who have constituencies offices surgeries. Most of that just seems like them being a social worker.

I think government in general has got bigger and bigger to no advantage. I distuinguish between big government and levels of tax to pay for public services.

Government should really be about law making, public services, welfare state and the tax to fund it.

We tend to get government to do more and more and deliver more and more without concentrating on key areas. While individual ideas/initiatives may be good on the whole they add up to far too much. Sometimes it is just better to leave the money in the pocket of the individual to look after his own family etc.

I know you disagree but my core point was that the activities carried out by the regional councils should have been transferred to the sp. With councils being based on the district model.

Putting it bluntly if we were to scrap councils tommorrow how much money would it save and would we miss them.

The current model of too much government involvement and micro management has not exactly delivered us first class services.


19

Busymale,

30/09/2008 12:49:09
Not a penny more!

And as for those parasites in the public sector, let them hear the message loud and clear - they exist because of a prosperous private sector and should decrease in numbers now we can't afford them. 5% rise? Stop living off me you subsidy junkies.

For every percentage increase you get we should see an equivalent reduction in your numbers until eventually they are halved.

And no more early retirement at the tax payers expense! I can't afford it so why should I pay for someone else to do something I can't do for myself?

If the Financial crisis hasn't made them realise how out of touch they are perhaps a tax payers backlash will.

Strikes? Bring them on!!!
20

,

30/09/2008 13:20:50
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
21

Alan B,

30/09/2008 13:21:53
#Busymale

The article is about councillors not public sector or council workers.
22

Paula,

30/09/2008 13:37:04
My mother worked for the local community council as a secretary and she wasn't paid, neither were the councillors. None of them were rich, only one was a pensioner but they gave up their time for the community (remember them?) They all came from working families and not the comfortably off middle-classes. This was only 25 years ago.

If councillors now were given performance related pay they would owe wages rather than receive any. The £25 per night "allowance if they stay overnight with friends or family – as it avoids running up hotel bills" is a great scam and as for the amount they can claim for B&B accommodation - those are more like decent hotel prices than humble B&B.
23

Miss H,

30/09/2008 13:41:01
18 They do pretty much the same as MPs or MSPs. They manage the delivery of those public services they are responsible for and they represent constituents. That's not a stroll in the park. Councils are responsible for a whole range of services from social work to education, environmental services, roads and bridges, parks, housing and regeneration and so on.

I agree that government has got bigger and bigger and also more distant from the people. That's partly why I think we need to cut out Westminster. But cutting out local government would be crazy. If you look at the Scottish attitudes survey it shows a consistent pattern. People trust local government the most, followed by the Scottish government, followed by Westminster, followed by Europe. So it's a clear connection - the more distant government is the less people trust it. And in my opinion the less people trust government the less effective that government will be.

I know you support centralising services like education and presumably you would apply the same logic to other local services but I disagree with you 100% on that. I believe fundamentally that the people who are best placed to take decisions about communities are the people who live and work there and that is also the position of the SNP.

For example in Glasgow most of the progress that has been delivered for the city has been driven by the council and emphatically not by central government whether Westminster or Holyrood. And it's a Labour council so I am not making a party political point here (and I don't agree with everything they have done/are doing either). But the council has driven almost all of the regeneration and improvements that have happened. Of course Glasgow is a big council. There is a case for rationalising the number of councils we have and making them perhaps more like the regional councils of old.
24

Mr A Roy,

30/09/2008 13:48:03
They should not be paid at all ! bring back the old days when all they could claim was expenses only.
25

alanh,

ek 30/09/2008 14:37:10
#5
"None.

Having had first hand experience,there are no local authority employees who earn their pay.
None.

At a push,you might get away with claiming that out of a 5 day week,the average council worker will work 2 days.
If you wanted to be more harsh,but fairer,then they could do their weeks work in a day and a half.

So yes,there are no council workers who could justifiably complain if there wages were to be severely cut.

They do not earn their wages.
It is,I`m afraid as simple as that."

Your talking bullshine number 5
I work fecking hard unsociable hours at a lower rate than similar workers in the private sector.

26

Publius,

London 30/09/2008 16:53:40
Councillors should not be paid at all. Being a councillor is not a proper job.

At most councillors should be given expenses to compensate for loss of earnings and these should be related to real loss. If a councillor had no job before he/she became a councillor, then no expenses at all.

Same goes for MSPs and MPs. Professional politicians a re a blight.
27

ThePeter,

Glasgae 30/09/2008 20:15:46
#25 - get a job in the Private sector
U'll be on your knees in a fortnight you pampered wimp
28

Worm,

Borders 30/09/2008 23:08:19
What makes you think that public sector workers haven't worked in the private sector? Many have done both and have settled on the public sector for a variety of reasons....no doubt you think it's because it's a cushy number, but if so then you're generalising about a massive group of workers, that you know next to nothing about, and you're just exposing your own bias.

Public sector workers are no more perfect than any other group of workers, and there are certainly many who do not earn their money.

But there are also a huge number who are incredibly dedicated and do very difficult, stressful and physical work without an over-padded wage in return.

I am full of admiration for some public sector workers that I know, who do jobs that I could never imagine being able to do, and don't get a huge salary in return, they do it because they choose to, they do it because they want to, they do it because they want to make a difference, and your contempt and prejudice says more about you than it does about them.
29

subrosa,

30/09/2008 23:19:24
# 16

It's not often I disagree with you Miss H but I do on this one. Until recently there were two SNP councillors in this area and both worked full time as well as being councillors. One has now taken early retirement but the other continues to work (to preserve his good pension he says). You can't tell me anyone can work full time in a responsible job and also do a good job as a full time councillor. It's physically impossible if nothing else.

Before councillors were paid yes we had more mature people as representatives I agree. These people brought a wealth of knowledge and wisdom to councils and out of a sense of duty.

Too many councillors today are in it for the money.
30

Indyguy,

Lanarkshire 01/10/2008 01:35:21
I can't beleive the absolute cr*p being spouted on this - I work 42 hours a week in the private sector and on average a further 30 hours a week as a councillor. Being paid £15,500 per year which results in about £158 net per week is actually an insult, I work most nights of the week and a large number of weekends.

I along with most councillors work hard for the good of our communities - as in every walk of life there are a couple of wasters who are only in it for what they can line their pockets with but these labour dinosaurs are on the way out!

Having a council stuffed full of 70 year olds keeping out of the house to save the gas bill is not the best way to run a local authority. These were the guys who were REALLY in it for the money, the good old boys network of be a good lad, work for the party and we'll give you a council seat for your retirement. Didn't matter that most of them were as thick as mince.

The comments being made here are being made by people who don't have a clue what they are talking about. Councillors are involved at the sharp end of the political spectrum, they get it in the ear from the "man in the street" on a daily basis because they are usually well known hard working local activists who are constantly in the public eye working for the community, it doesn't matter what the current topic is it'll be the councillor who gets the stick for it. It's not the MSP or MP who gets the stick because they don't see them very often as they are in Edinburgh or London.

However most sane people realise the hard work and committment from their local councillor and appreciate them for it. From my experience (and i'm not a new councillor) Councillors should be paid the same salary as MSP's but with almost all the claimable expenses removed!!

No doubt I'll get a couple of "you don't know what you're talking about" replies to this post. But you know what I do!!!

So before you waste your time typing - think about it, what do you really know
31

Indyguy,

01/10/2008 01:36:55
So before you waste your time typing - think about it, what do you really know about the day to day running of a local authority?

 

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