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£28 million: the annual payout to our councillors
Katharine Barney, City Hall reporter02.12.08
Councillors in London are taking home £28million a year in pay and allowances, it is revealed today.
Leaders of some of the most deprived boroughs have awarded themselves incomes of more than £70,000 a year, according to a Standard survey.
It comes despite warnings of service cuts after low government funding awards. The survey, based on a Freedom of Information request, showed councillors claimed a total of £27,996,476, including £1,562,860 given to leaders.
The money was agreed by councillors and figures are based on a basic allowance and top-ups according to position. Croydon paid out £1.45million with their councillors receiving the largest allowance of £11,596. Meanwhile Hillingdon paid £1.3million. Barnet, Hackney, Havering, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Newham, Southwark, Waltham Forest and Wandsworth all paid more than £1million.
The largest individual payments went to the directly elected mayors in three of London's poorest boroughs.
Sir Robin Wales, the mayor of Labour- run Newham took home £76,194, mayor of Lewisham Steve Bullock got £75,844 and Jules Pipe, mayor of Hackney, £73,085 even though the borough is the second most deprived in the country.
Mark Wallace, campaign director of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "This is an obscene amount of money, particularly in the middle of a recession. These very same councillors have been complaining their councils are strapped for cash, but seem to have no qualms paying themselves excessive amounts. Council leaders earning huge amounts from some of London's poorest boroughs should be particularly ashamed."
It comes after the Government said 24 of London's 33 authorities would get the minimum funding increase of 1.75 per cent - well below inflation. Council leaders warned of cuts in services and some boroughs, such as Lambeth, have been forced to delay work.
Others have made staff cuts with Hammersmith and Fulham council losing 566 posts in the last three years through natural wastage.
London Councils chief executive John O'Brien defended the payments. He said: "London's council leaders play an important and hugely challenging role running multi-million pound organisations.
"Leaders, like all councillors, are driven by a desire to make their areas better places to live, work and visit. They can work around 150 hours a month.
"In return they receive a median salary of around £48,000, around £4,500 less than the basic fee for a non-executive director of a FTSE 100 company - and much less than backbench MPs who aren't responsible for running services."
A spokesman for Newham council said their mayor carried "immense responsibilities locally, leading a council with a budget of £280million". He added that he would earn five times as much in a similar private sector role.
Council leaders have no holiday, sickness, pension or maternity benefits.
