The Report of the Herefordshire Independent Remuneration Panel will be considered at the annual Council meeting, 28 May 2021.
Herefordshire Council has published the Report of the Herefordshire Independent Remuneration Panel, making recommendations on Councillor's allowances, to be considered by Full Council on Friday 28 May, 2021.
The Independent Panel has reviewed existing arrangements and made recommendations on the allowances that may be payable. The report includes analysis of allowances paid by similar local councils across the country for comparison. The council must have regard to the report when making or amending the allowances scheme. Any decision will be taken by a vote at Full Council.
From a review of the benchmarking data, Herefordshire Council pays the 9th (out of 10) lowest basic allowance within the cohort of comparator local authorities. The Panel were unanimously of the view that this position needed correcting and that Herefordshire Councillors should receive a basic allowance more commensurate to other local authorities within the benchmarking cohort.
The recommendations made by independent Panel are based on the principles of the Dame Jane Roberts Councillor's Commission, which encourages people from a wide range of backgrounds to serve as local Councillors, to compensate Councillors for their work and have regard to the full range of commitment and complexity of their roles, while providing transparency and observing benchmarks.
The recommendations made by the Independent Panel include:
|
|
Current allowance rates |
New calculated figures if IRP recommendations accepted |
|
Basic Allowance |
£7,935.00 |
£9,394.28 |
|
Leaders SRA |
£31,741.00 |
£32,879.98 |
|
Cabinet Members |
£13,887.00 |
£16,439.99 |
|
Cabinet Support |
Unchanged and be an allowance of up to 50% of the band 2 allowance |
|
|
Chairman of the council |
£9,920.00 |
£11,273.14 |
|
Chairpersons of Scrutiny |
£9,920.00 |
£11,273.14 |
|
Chairperson of the Planning and regulatory Committee |
£9,920.00 |
£11,273.14 |
|
Chairman of Licensing Sub-Committee |
£5,951.00 |
£7,045.71 |
|
Chairman of A+G |
£5,951.00 |
£7,045.71 |
|
Member of the adoption panel |
£5,951.00 |
£7,045.71 |
|
Group Leader |
No change to the allowance rate, but decreasing the threshold from 5 group members or more to 3 members or more. |
|
That the current scheme in relation to payment of no more than one SRA per Councillor (with the exception of the Group Leaders' SRA) remain unchanged.
There are further recommendations on Childcare and Dependant's Carers' scheme, travel and subsistence scheme, and the continuing professional development of councillors continuing to be linked to members being eligible to qualify for the full basic allowance.