Councillors and committees

Agenda item

REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT REMUNERATION PANEL

To receive the report of the Independent Remuneration Panel and any changes to the Members’ Allowances Scheme.

 

Minutes:

The Council was asked to consider the report and the recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel and agree a Scheme of Allowances.

 

The Leader of the Council moved an amendment, which was tabled at the meeting (Appendix C).

 

Mr Hodge made the following points:

 

·         The basic allowance had remained unchanged since 2008 and that Special Responsibility Allowances (SRAs) for Cabinet Members had not increased since 2006.

·         The Panel had used Hay Evaluation Methodology for determining SRAs, which he considered inappropriate because it failed to take into account the political responsibility of Members.

·         He would be asking the Chief Executive to review the terms of reference of future Independent Remuneration Panels.

·         His amendment proposed significant changes to the SRAs for Cabinet Associates, Select Committee Chairmen and the Pension Fund Board Chairman.

·         He also proposed allowances for opposition group leaders, where their party had a minimum of 10% of the elected Members of the Council.

·         He believed that it was the intention that the amended scheme should take effect from May 2013, the start of this administration and therefore he proposed a one-off payment to any increase that the Member would have been eligible for.

·         That all allowances would be index linked and adjusted annually, in accordance with the Consumer Price Index.

·         Finally, he referred to the Members of the Adoption and Fostering Panels and proposed a SRA of £1000 for them.

 

This amendment was formally seconded by Mr Skellett who said that the level of political responsibility for each role had been carefully considered and benchmarked against comparative data from other authorities in the South East area. Surrey’s allowances had fallen significantly behind these authorities. He also said that the Leader and Deputy Leader had taken no part in the discussion concerning the allowances proposed for their roles.

 

Six Members spoke on this amendment, making the following points:

 

·         The Leader / Deputy Leader had overall responsibility for the County Council’s annual budget of approximately £1.7billion. Also, since they had been in their respective roles, significant savings had been made to the Budget.

·         The SRAs were not out of proportion to their level of responsibility.

·         The IRP report said that the basic allowance was not supposed to be a financial incentive. However, the same could not be said for the SRAs.

·         Most of the SRAs were awarded to Conservative councillors.

·         It was unacceptable for Members to award large increases to the Leader / Deputy Leader when some residents struggled to pay their council tax.

·         It was outrageous that Members considered awarding these increases when services were being cut and many residents were not receiving pay rises.

·         That the IRP’s approach was logical and an element of ‘catchup’ was accepted.

·         The proposed allowances for the Cabinet team were significant.

·         Surrey staff had only received small pay increases in recent years.

·         Member Allocations had been reduced this year.

·         There were four new allowances proposed which had not been through the IRP.

·         Councillors who only received the basic allowance of approximately £12K per annum, most of them non-Conservatives, would need other sources of income to make ends meet.

 

Mr Essex then moved a further amendment at the meeting (formally seconded by Mr Robert Evans), which was as follows:

 

(i)         That the increase in Members' Basic Allowances be capped at 2.7%

(ii)        That the increase in Special Responsibility Allowances (SRAs) be capped at 2.7%, where there is headroom against the Independent Remuneration Panel’s recommendations

(iii)       That there should be no Special Responsibility allowance for Vice-Chairmen of Local Committees

 

Mr Essex said that it was not appropriate to award increases to Members’ Allowances that were higher than staff pay awards. He also said that there had not been a proportional approach to the SRA increases and that the number of SRAs was increasing.

 

Four Members spoke on this amendment, making the following points:

 

·         That Members’ Allowances had not been increased for four years and should not be compared with staff pay.

·         SRAs were different in Surrey because many of the comparator authorities did not have Local Committees.

·         This amendment did not address the excessive number of SRAs.

·         The proposals appeared to devalue the scrutiny process.

·         It would be difficult to defend the increases to the Surrey electorate.

·         As the motion was tabled at the meeting, there was little democratic accountability.

 

The amendment was put to the vote with 10 Members voting for and 56 Members voting against it. There were 8 abstentions.

 

Therefore the amendment was lost.

 

Returning to the original motion, seven Members spoke and made the following points:

 

·         The increased cost of these allowances would be met by the Surrey council taxpayers and residents would remember this when casting their votes at the forthcoming borough / district elections.

·         Concern re. the number of multiple SRAs.

·         Members must be paid in accordance with their responsibility, otherwise the Council would only attract people with independent means, who could afford to serve on the Council.

·         The Leader / Deputy Leader represented the County Council at Central Government level.

 

After the debate, Mrs Watson requested a recorded vote and 10 Members stood in support of this request.

 

The following Members voted for:

 

Mrs Angell, Ms Bowes, Mrs Bramhall, Mr Brett-Warburton, Mr Carasco, Mr Chapman, Mrs Clack, Mr Cosser, Mrs Curran,  Mr Ellwood, Mr Few, Mrs Frost, Mr Fuller, Mr Furey, Mr Gardner, Mr Goodman, Mr Gosling, Dr Grant-Duff, Mr Gulati, Mr Hall, Mrs Hammond, Mr Harmer, Miss Heath, Mrs Hicks, Mr Hodge, Mr Hussain, Mr Ivison, Mrs Kemeny, Mr Kemp, Ms Le Gal,  Mr Mahne, Mrs Marks, Mr Martin, Mr Norman, Mr Page, Mr Pitt, Mrs Ross-Tomlin, Mrs Saliagopoulos, Mr Skellett, Mr Sydney, Mr Keith Taylor, Ms Thomson, Mr Walsh, Mr Wilson, Mr Witham, Mr Young

 

And these Members voted against:

 

Mrs Barton, Mr Beardsmore, Mr Beckett, Mrs Coleman, Mr Cooksey, Mr Essex, Mr Robert Evans, Mr Forster, Mr Goodwin, Mr Harrison, Mr Hickman, Mr Jenkins, Mr Johnson, Mr Kington, Mrs Lallement, Mr Mallett, Mrs Mason, Mrs Moseley, Mrs Searle, Mr Selleck, Mr Townsend, Mrs Watson, Mrs White, Mrs Windsor

 

And there were 4 abstentions: Mr Barker, Mrs Lewis, Mrs Mountain and Mr Munro.

 

RESOLVED:

 

(a)     That the following allowances be approved:

BASIC AND SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY ALLOWANCES

 

ANNUAL ALLOWANCES

(and number of recipients)

 

Basic Allowance (81)

 

£12,418

Leader of the Council (1)

 

£43,000

Deputy Leader (1)

 

£31,250

Cabinet Member (8)

£22,500

 

Cabinet Associate (4)*

 

 

£12,500

Select Committee Chairmen (including Health Scrutiny) (5)

£10,000

Planning & Regulatory Committee Chairman (1) & Council Overview & Scrutiny (1)

£12,000

Audit & Governance Chairman (1)

 

£9,000

Lead Member for Scrutiny of the Police & Crime Commissioner (1)

 

£8,000

Local Committee Chairmen (11)

 

£8,000

 

Pension Fund Board Chairman (1)

£8,000

 

Pension Fund Board Vice-Chairman (1)

 

£1,500

 

Committee Vice-Chairmen (Select Committees (including Council Overview & Scrutiny and Health Scrutiny), Planning and Audit) (8)

£1,500

 

Local Committee Vice-Chairmen (11)

 

£1,500

 

Chairman of  Council (1)

£18,000

 

Vice-Chairman of Council (1)

£8,000

 

Officers of Political Groups

£170 per Member

 

Members of the Adoption and Fostering Panels (2)

£1,000

 

Opposition Group Leader (2)**

£5,000

 

 

 

 

 

              * Cabinet Associates received an interim payment of £5,000 in 2013/2014.

 

              **Any Group with a minimum of 10% of the elected members of the Council.

 

(b)     That, the following arrangements for implementation of the changes to the Basic and Special Responsibility Allowances be approved:

 

(i)            the amended scheme takes effect from 1 April 2014.

 

(ii)           for the next two financial years, the scheme will be adjusted annually in accordance with the Consumer Price Index.

 

(iii)          In recognition of the clear intention that the amended scheme should take effect from 21 May 2013, a one-off payment, equivalent to any increase that the Member would have been eligible for, be made to each Member. 

 

(c)     That other allowances within the Scheme be set as follows:

 

OTHER ALLOWANCES

 

Travel (cycles/motorcycles/ cars)

 

Passenger rate

20p/24p/45p per mile

 

 

 

5p per mile

Subsistence

(breakfast, lunch, tea and evening meal)

 

£5.30/£7.25/£2.90/ £9.00

Overnight

(outside London/

London)

 

£85.80/£97.85

Co-optees

None

Childcare

 

Up to a maximum of £8.00 per hour (per child)

Care of Dependants

Up to a maximum of£14.50 per hour

 

(d)     That the increase to the Childcare Allowance to a maximum of £8.00 per hour be effective from 6 May 2014.

 

(e)     That the requirement for Members to use registered childminders for the care of their child or children whilst carrying out an approved duty be amended as follows:

 

that payments for the care of children under eight are restricted to registered childminders and other statutory approved childcare providers, unless the childcare takes place in the Members’ own home.’

 

(f)      That the agreed Scheme of Allowances remain in place until May 2017, subject to review by the Independent Remuneration Panel as necessary to take account of any changes to roles and responsibilities.

 

[NOTE: Under the Local Authorities (Members’ Allowances)(England) Regulations 2003, the Council is required to have regard to the recommendations of its Independent Remuneration Panel before any changes can be made to the Scheme of Allowances.]

 

(g)     That the Independent Remuneration Panel be thanked for its hard-work and diligence over the years.

 

(h)     That, in light of the Scheme of Allowances being set until 2017, the Chief Executive be asked to review the Terms of Reference of the IRP and, upon completion of this work, make appointments to the newly constituted IRP.

 

Supporting documents: