Allowances rise by under 3.5 % over two years

11.13.14am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 25th Apr 2007

Richmond upon Thames Council has agreed, in full, the recommendations of the independent Panel on Members' Allowances that met for the first time in December 2006.

Overall, the total bill will have increased by 1.6% per annum under the Liberal Democrat administration. The Panel reported earlier this year and recommended a standstill in most allowances with the removal of some allowances and increases for the Leader, Deputy leader, Leader of the Conservative Opposition, Chairs of Scrutiny (two out of five are Conservative) and the Independent Chair of the Standards Committee.

Speaking at the Council meeting, Cllr Serge Lourie, the Leader of the Council, said

"This is a difficult issue for local councils as we are inevitably accused of lining our own pockets. I believe councillors need to be properly remunerated and feel that setting up the Independent Panel has enabled the Council to get proper external advice. We are implementing their recommendations in full with some increases and some reductions. This includes the basic allowance paid to all councillors, which has been frozen and will have increased from £9,145 in 2005/06 to £9,415 this and next year. This is under 1.5% per annum. The total Special Responsibility Allowances agreed in the last year of the Tory administration (2005-2006) was £192,624. If this proposal is agreed, Special Responsibility Allowances will amount to £189,500 in 2007/08, a reduction of around 1.5%. This has been achieved by freezing most allowances this year and reducing the number of people receiving allowances. The Cabinet is smaller, there are fewer Scrutiny Chairs and we only have one Deputy Leader rather than the two under the Tories. I should like to thank the three members of the panel for all the hard work."