Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
6.6% increase in special responsibility allowances for Haringey's 'elite' councillors
The Full Council meeting of Haringey Council on 14th May approved increases in both the Basic Allowance for all councillors and the Special Responsibility Allowance for those councillors who are portfolio holders or chair committees. 1.9% and 6.6% respectively.
The Tottenham & Wood Green Independent has published an article where the council justify the £48,000 expenditure as: “Money that would have been spent by the council on pension contributions has instead been reflected in allowances.”
For these inflation-busting austerity-imposing councillors it is a case of 'I don't share the cuts I made to your services'.
Here is the detail of the increases as set out in the Members' Allowances Scheme.
While the Basic Allowance increase is relatively modest. there are sizeable increases in the allowances for the leader, the cabinet, opposition leader, various committee Chairs, and the Mayor.
The basic allowance for all councillors increases from £10,500 to £10,703. The extra £203 being a 1.9% increase.
In addition, some councillors get Special Responsibility Allowance for the posts they hold.
The Mayor's allowance goes from £15,750 to £16,797. An increase of £1,047 being 6.6%.
The Deputy Mayor gets a £260 increase from £3,936 to £4,196. A 6.6% rise.
The Leader Allowance increases by £2,093; going from £31,497 to £33,590. A 6.6% rise.
The Cabinet and Opposition Leader also get a 6.6% increase of £1,569; with the allowance increasing from £23,622 to £25,191.
The Chair of Overview & Scrutiny Committee gets a £1,426 increase from £21,479 to £22,905. Another 6.6% increase.
The Chair of Corporate Committee, the Chief Whip, the Chair of Regulatory Committee, the Chair of Alexandra Palace & Park Board, the Opposition Deputy Leader, and the Opposition Chief Whip get increases from £15,750 to £16,797. An increase of £1,047. Yes, 6.6%.
The four councillors serving on Overview & Scrutiny Committee get an allowance increase from £14,317 to £15,268. An increase of £951. Which is 6.6%.
The Chair of Pensions Committee, the Chair of Staffing & Remuneration Committee, and the Chair of Standards Committee get an increase from £7,876 to £8,398; being £522 at 6.6%.
Tags for Forum Posts: allowances, austerity, councillors
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
-
Martin thanks for publishing this. I'm not sure if the explanation offered by the T&WG Independent is correct (i.e. that the source of the funding is ex-pension contributions).
At the Full Council meeting last night – mainly the Mayor Making ceremony – the Council rubber-stamped the recommendation of Tuesday night's Standards Committee to abolish the Borough's Area forums and Area Committees, that would save a similar amount of money.
This is another loss for local democracy. They met only four times a year but in my experience, were well attended, which contradicts the claims I've heard.
The amounts paid to those chairing those committees could and should have been significantly reduced – and the local Area forums continued.
-
Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
-
Councillors have a choice when there's a small but real saving like this. ('Real' in the sense that it's not actually a cut which they are pretending is an efficiency saving.)
Okay, the total sum involved - £48,000 - is not large set within the budget as a whole. But the symbolism and the principle is huge.
Haringey's Labour councillors have in effect, announced to their electors that their allowances are more pressing and that they are more valuable, essential and deserving than any of the front line services they've slashed or plan to slash.
Clive, did the LibDems speak out and vote against this? Were there any Labour councillors present who spoke or voted against it? (Or even who abstained?)
-
-
Alan, on behalf of the LibDem Group, Martin Newton spoke out against the abolition of the Area Forums and Area Committees. We abstained on the matter of Councillor allowances.
The Labour Group voted, I think to a Member, to abolish the Area Forums and Area Committees and for the changes to Cllr. allowances.
-
-
Abstaining is what you do if you are genuinely unsure. Perhaps because something was sprung on you without enough time to discuss and think about it. This seems to have been what happened with Labour councillors - at least according to Cllr Joe Ejiofor.
On 15 May 2015 he tweeted: "In these times of austerity very unhappy at being bounced into voting for 2-6% rise in Cllr allowances yesterday 1% for staff = 1% for Cllrs."
Which I assume means he thinks all councillors should have got 1%. (Although again this would have favoured the higher paid.)
Clive, I can't believe you personally needed more than a few seconds to know that this rise in councillors'allowances is morally wrong. So did your Party stop you voting against it? Right now we need a principled opposition to Claire Kober and her right-wingers.
This story has other implications. Labour councillors are required to pay a percentage from their allowances into the Party funds. It was 5% when I was a councillor. I assume the LibDems have the same arrangement.)
Here are the total allowances payable from April 2015.
- "Leader" £44,293
- 8 x Cabinet" Members (£35,894) - Total: £287,152
- Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee £33,608
- Chair of Corporate Committee - £27,500
- Labour Chief Whip - £27,500
- Chair of Regulatory Committee - £27,500
- Chair of Alexandra Palace and Park Board - £27,500
- Opposition "Leader" - £35,894
- Opposition Deputy Leader- £27,500
- Opposition Chief Whip - £27,500
- 4 x Councillors serving on Overview and Scrutiny Committee (£25,971) Total: £103,884
- Chair of Pensions Committee - £19,101
- Chair of Staffing and Remuneration Committee £19,101
- Chair of Standards Committee £19,101
Grand Total: £727,134
Assuming a 5% party tithe, some £36k is paid over to the parties' own funds.
Current Haringey councillors from both parties are welcome to correct me if I've got this wrong.
The total allowances listed here are not the whole story. Because additional allowances are paid to councillors who are nominated to external quangos such as "London Councils".
To be fair, if you know which councillors are so nominated you can search on each of the external bodies' websites to discover how much councillors get. An improvement on past years.(I had to make a personal appointment to see the records of one such body. But it still takes some time and persistence.
In the past I've suggested that full transparency would require the complete list to be published on Haringey's own website. As far as I know this was ignored.
-
Permalink Reply by John D on
-
Alan - what are these allowances for ?
Are they to compensate for out-of-pocket expenses so as to avoid the necessity to claim for every Remembrance Day poppy bought because a Councillor is supposed to show support ?
Or are they payment for work done in representing the constituents - in which case they are wages. If the latter, do councillors pay income tax on their allowances ?
-
-
Are they to compensate for out-of-pocket expenses? Yes.
Are they payment for work done in representing the constituents? Yes. But technically the allowances are not wages nor salary. However, the allowances are treated as taxable income and councillors pay income tax on them in the usual way.
-
Permalink Reply by Gordon T on
-
The front of the Council Tax Guide 2015/2016 declares "Haringey council tax frozen for a sixth consecutive year".
The councillors who did that, thus reducing council income and increasing the scale of cuts to services, decline to follow that self-denying ordinance in their own incomes.
Tom Lehrer, on learning that Kissinger had won the Nobel Peace prize, said "Satire is dead". Rings a bell.
-
-
Funny that the Council Tax Guide doesn't mention that the freeze is made possible by funding from Central Government.
" A freeze in 2015 to 2016 means there has been 5 successive years of freeze funding provided by the government and a total funding package of £5 billion. " -
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-...
If you haven't done anything creditworthy, take credit for something that someone else has done.
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
