Cambridgeshire County Councillors vote to give themselves £1,360 pay rise

Councillors have voted in favour of giving themselves a £1,360-a-year pay rise after agreeing to proposals put forward by an independent panel.

The panel, made up of local residents, business people, and members of the judiciary, considered the basic allowance paid to every councillor, last reviewed in full in 2021, and the additional amounts paid for special responsibilities.

The new basic allowance paid to all members of Cambridgeshire County Council, which was agreed at the full council meeting on Tuesday, will be £13,214 per annum from July 15.

This represents an increase from the basic allowance agreed in 2021 of £11,854.65 per annum. But the council says it remains lower than the basic allowance paid to members at comparable county council authorities, which average £14,429.

It also reaffirmed that no more than half the council – 30 members – should be eligible for additional ‘special responsibility allowances’ (SRAs) for bearing significant additional responsibilities at any one time.

It also reaffirmed that no member should receive more than one SRA, even if they take on more than one of the identified offices the panel considered eligible for SRAs, which are:

- Leader of the council

- Deputy leader of the council

- Leader of the main opposition

- Leader of the minor opposition – group to have at least four councillors

- Policy and service committee chairs – times six

- Policy and service committee vice chairs – times six

- Audit and accounts committee chair

- Proposed new health scrutiny committee chair

- Pension fund committee chair

- Planning committee chair

- Combined authority board member

- Adoption and fostering panel member

Specific recommendations for amounts which should be paid in SRAs were also agreed including:

- Leader of the council to receive an SRA of 300% of the basic allowance – £39,642.

- Deputy leader receives an SRA of 65% of the leader’s allowance – £25,768.

- Leader of the main opposition should receive an allowance of 33% of the leader’s allowance – £13,082.

- Leader of the minor opposition party and the Combined Authority Board member should each receive a special responsibility allowance of 10% of the leader’s allowance – £3,964.

Full council agreed a recommendation that the chair of council receive an allowance of 33% of the leader’s allowance of £13,082 and the vice chair of council receive the same allowance as the leader of the minor opposition party and Combined Authority Board members.

In addition it was agreed that policy and service committee chairs will continue to receive an SRA of 60% of the leader’s allowance (£23,785), that the chair of the pension fund committee be increased from 25% to 30% of the leader’s allowance (£11,893) and the chair of the proposed new health scrutiny committee receive an SRA of 25% of the leader’s allowance (£9,911).

It was further approved that a council member on the fostering panel should receive a special responsibility allowance at the same rate as other panellists on the panel, which is currently £170 per day and £85 per half day meeting.

The total cost of the new members' allowance scheme will be £1,140,677, which is £122,490 more than the £1,018,187.09 budgeted for at the start of this financial year.