Agenda item

To consider the report of the Independent Remuneration Panel on Members’ Allowances.

The Committee considered the report of the independent panel on Members’ allowances following their review of the scheme.

Before moving the recommendations, Councillor Richard Samuel thanked the Panel which had been ably led by the Chair - Ronnie Alexander, for their incisive, wide ranging and professional report.

On a motion from Councillor Richard Samuel, seconded by Councillor Kevin Guy, it was

RESOLVED to

1.  Agree that, for the basic allowance:

a.  it be set at £8,951;

b.  it subsumes the homeworking allowance;

c.  it be index linked (meaning, the basic allowance and all SRAs be uprated annually on the basis of any headline percentage increase agreed by the National Joint Council (NJC) for Local Government as the pay award for staff on the national pay scale (Green Book) as set out at recommendation 18;

d.  the start of incremental increases be delayed until 2022/23, in recognition of the impact of Covid-19 on local residents;

e.  and, thereafter, in addition to increases due to index linking, be subject to additional annual increases of £750 per annum to be applied in 2023/24, 2024/25, 2025/26 and then a final uplift of £354 in 2026/27.

2.  Agree that, for the Special Responsibility allowances (SRA):

a.  They should be limited to no more than 50% of Members;

b.  The present reduction of 50% of a second SRA be removed so that this is paid in full, so this properly reflects the work undertaken and in particular, the additional performance management responsibilities addressed in the response to the Advisory comments;

c.  Note the Panel’s intention to review the current banding of allowances at an early opportunity;

d.  The inflationary uprating should apply to all SRAs.

3.  The Council Leader’s allowance should remain at £32,445 for 2021/22 subject to any inflationary uplift;

4.  The Deputy Leader’s allowance should remain at £19,484 for 2021/22 subject to any inflationary uplift;

5.  The Cabinet Members’ allowance should remain at £19,484 for 2021/22 subject to any inflationary uplift.

6.  The Chair of the Planning Committee allowance should remain at £14,314 for 2021/22 subject to any inflationary uplift.

7.  The Vice Chair of Planning Committee should receive an allowance of £3,578 for 2021/22 subject to any inflationary uplift;

8.  The Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel Chair’s allowance should remain at £7,952 for 2021/22 subject to any inflationary uplift;

9.  The Chair of Licensing Sub Committee’s allowance should remain at £5,052for 2021/22 subject to any inflationary uplift;

10.The Chair of Avon Pension Fund Committee should remain at £5,052 for 2021/22 subject to any inflationary uplift;

11.The committee member on the Avon Pension Fund Committee should remain at £3,817 for 2021/22 subject to any inflationary uplift;

12.Reject the IRP recommendations as noted at recommendation 20.

Reject the proposed change to the Group Leaders allowance in so far as this relates to the Leader of Council but accept the governance element for all  minority group leaders and continue to pay the allowance at the rate of £428 per member for all Group leaders for each member of their Group.

13.Agree that Group allowances should no longer form part of the Members’ Allowances scheme and the budget should be transferred to the Democratic Services budget head for members’ support.

14.Agree that, for the Chair of the Council:

a.  The allowance should remain at £9,543 for 2021/22 subject to any inflationary uplift;

b.  Note that the role of the Chair of Council has been reduced and budget savings taken in respect of this.  The role nevertheless has a significant ceremonial function, in particular, for citizenship ceremonies.  It is also acknowledged that it is not possible to evaluate the impact of Covid on this role at the present time, therefore;

c.  The role to be evaluated by the IRP and any impact should not be applied until 1^st April 2022 to ensure the impacts of Covid are discounted.

15. The Vice Chair of Council allowance should remain at £2,418 for 2021/22, subject to any inflationary uplift.

16.For Travel and Subsistence:

a.  Should continue to be paid on the current basis as supported by the list of Approved duties;

b.  The current Approved Duty list should be amended to include attending a parish council when there is an issue of relevance to the work of the Council which is of interest to a Councillor within their ward or of interest and relevance to a Portfolio holder within Bath and North East Somerset Council area. 

17.For Dependant Carers’ Allowances:

a.  Details should be clarified and promoted (particularly to those considering standing for election);

b.  The current provisions of the Scheme in relation to dependant carers’ allowance (including the list of approved duties to which it applies) should remain unchanged;

c.  The maximum allowed to be claimed for any care support should be the Real Living Wage, currently £9.50ph. This figure should be uprated annually based on changes to the Real Living Wage. This allowance can be claimed per person per hour for whom care needs to be provided;

d.  The effectiveness of the scheme and level of financial support would be subject to early review by the Panel.

18.The Basic Allowance and all SRAs should be uprated annually on the basis of any headline percentage increase agreed by the National Joint Council (NJC) for Local Government as the pay award for staff on the national pay scale (Green Book).

19.The Independent Remuneration Panel be supported to review the Members’ Allowances scheme on a regular basis with at least an annual ‘health check’.

20.For Multiple Special Responsibility Allowances & Group Leaders allowances;

a.  Note the rationale and comments in support of resolutions 2 and 12;

It is understood that the impact of the current 50% reduction for a second SRA only impacts Group Leaders.

The Council acknowledges and supports the panels’ concern to ensure that councillors are properly remunerated for the roles they undertake.  The present impact of this rule in that the allowance for managing a political group as group leader is automatically reduced to half if this is a second SRA.  The implication of the later recommendation for group leaders to performance manage members receiving an SRA will increase workload for group leaders without recognising the work involved in doing so.

Allied to this point is the compounding and therefore disproportionate impact of the proposed changes for the remuneration of Political Group Leaders.

No rationale is provided to disapply the Governance element for the Leader other than the explanation that it is assumed that the governance element is already taken account of in the Council Leaders Allowance.  However, these roles are entirely different whilst the first is outward facing the second is inward facing but each require considerable time effort and commitment. The panels proposal should not be accepted.  In particular, this disproportionately impacts the leader of the largest party with the greatest governance responsibility because of the increased number of members to be managed.  This is especially true if the Council accepts the need for performance management of members.  Perversely the present proposal does not acknowledge this increase in workload, the impact of not awarding a governance element, or the present effect of a 50% reduction through the receipt of a second SRA.  The latter impact equally affects other group leaders.

The present custom and practice is for the Leader of Council to forego the Group Leaders allowance to fund the work of other members of the group for assuming responsibilities which do not attract an SRA.  The current Liberal Democratic administration intend to follow the example of the 3 previous Leaders of Council in continuing this practice.  Accordingly, it is proposed that even if the will of council is not to abolish the reduction for a second SRA that rule should not apply to this allowance.

21.Policy Development and Scrutiny Panels;

a.  Note that scrutiny is an important check and balance and the role of co-ordinating the scrutiny of the Executive should be properly recognised with formal terms of reference for the role;

b.  Agree that the function should be formalised as part of the current scrutiny review and the IRP should be asked to evaluate the role and recommend an appropriate allowance to recognise the time effort and accountability involved in delivering this function.  In addition, the delivery of effective scrutiny should not be undermined by the 50% reduction if this is a second SRA.

22.Members Performance & Development;

a.  Agree that it is important to ensure that public money is spent appropriately, and performance management is an appropriate means of achieving that outcome;

b.  Agree the introduction of a more formal approach to performance management of elected members, with the understanding this role is predominantly one for the Group Leader.

23.The Foster Panel Allowance should continue to be paid at the current rate until the banding review, detailed in para 3.14 of the officer report, has concluded.

24.Authorise the Monitoring Officer to action the decisions of Council on this revised scheme and respond to the Panel’s queries as required.

25.Formally thank the Panel for their work.

[Notes;

1.  The above resolution was carried with 3 Councillors voting against, 7 Councillors abstaining and the remaining Councillors voting in favour.]