Agenda item

1.1    That the Council note and consider the recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel for Members’ Allowances as set out in Appendix 1;

1.2    That the Council adopt the Scheme for Members’ Allowances from 16 May 2017 as set out in Appendix 2; and

1.3.   That the Council agree to undertake a review of Members’ Allowances within 12 months.

The Council considered a report on Members’ Allowances for 2017/18.

In light of the decision to change the Council’s governance from the Executive model to the Committee model, it had been necessary to review Members’ Allowances and to prepare a new scheme of Members’ Allowances at Annual Council.  This was recognised as one of the key elements of work that needed to be delivered as part of the transition to the Committee model of governance.  As a result there was early engagement with the Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP) to prepare a new scheme of Members’ Allowances that could be used for the Committee model.

It had been recognised by the IRP and Group Leaders that the detail of the new roles under the Committee model would not be fully understood until the Committee model had been in operation for some time.  In light of this there had been a recommendation from the IRP and a commitment from Group Leaders to undertake a review within the first 12 months.

The report and recommendations of the IRP for 2017/18 were shown in Appendix 1 attached to the report.

In preparing the report the IRP carried out through research and benchmarking.  The IRP met on a number of occasions to consider its research, including meeting with Group Leaders.

In summary, the IRP had recommended a 1% increase on the Basic Allowance for 2017/18, which is an increase from £4,250 to £4,300 per annum.  The IRP’s recommendations for Special Responsibility Allowances were set out in Appendix 2 attached to the report.  The IRP had considered Travel Allowances and recommended that for 2017/18 they continue to be paid in accordance with HMRC mileage allowance.  The IRP recommended that Subsistence Allowances and the Dependent Carer’s Allowances for 2017/18 remained unchanged.

Group Leaders had recognised that the preparation of a new scheme for Members’ Allowances had been a difficult exercise for the IRP.  Group Leaders had welcomed the opportunity to engage with the IRP.  Discussion with Group Leaders had identified differences between the recommendations of the IRP and the views of the Group Leaders.  These were highlighted at paragraph 4 of the report.

In addition, it was recommended that the Mayor should receive a separate allowance.  This was not part of the IRP’s role and was at the discretion of the City Council.  In recognition of the significant number of duties that were carried out annually by the Mayor, it was recommended that the Mayor should receive a multiplier of 1.0.

The recommendations were considered to be an appropriate set of allowances to reflect the roles carried out by the Councillors.  However, it was also recommended that the allowances were reviewed within 12 months as part of the wider review of the operation of the Committee model of governance.

It was proposed by Councillor Gregson and seconded by Councillor Bayliss and on being put to the vote it was agreed and

RESOLVED: That the Council 

1.  note the recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel for Members’ Allowances as set out in Appendix 1;

2.  adopt the Scheme for Members’ Allowances from 16 May 2017 as set out in Appendix 2; and

3.  agree to undertake a review of Members’ Allowances within 12 months.