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‘Ban Assembly members from being councillors to stop their double salaries’
Ross Lydall3 Sep 2009
City Hall politicians should be banned from boosting their pay by doubling up as local councillors, an independent review has urged.
The Senior Salaries Review Body recommends London Assembly members should not carry out other paid publicsector work, and calls on the Mayor and Assembly to consider restrictions that could save about £250,000 a year in pay.
The report found that 12 Assembly members topped up their basic £52,910 City Hall salaries with about £10,000 extra as borough councillors.
The highest earner was Tory Steve O'Connell, who earns £117,460 in total from the Assembly, Croydon council and the Metropolitan Police Authority.
Richard Barnes receives £105,519 as Boris Johnson's statutory deputy mayor and a Hillingdon councillor.
Another high earner is Kit Malthouse, on £109,340. He is not a councillor but tops up his Assembly pay with money he gets for being vice-chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority.
Two of the 12, Conservative Gareth Bacon and Labour's Navin Shah, are also in private employment.
The report called on Assembly members who sit on the MPA to voluntarily forgo their £9,570 annual allowance, as the police work is central to their
main job.
The £25,613 allowance received by Brian Coleman as Tory fire authority chairman — he earns £88,997 in total — was about £6,300 too high and
should be frozen, the report added.
The body wants Assembly members to declare earnings outside City Hall, and the amount of time they spent on these duties. But the report has led to anger at City Hall and claims review
body chairman Bill Cockburn had failed to understand the issues.
“It's probably the worst public document I have seen in a long time,” one source said.
Mr Coleman said Assembly members were underpaid in comparison with the Mayor's aides. He said: “We are working full-time to do our best for the capital's residents, and those of us with
roles on functional bodies [such as the MPA or fire authority] are working all the hours that God sends.”
Assembly chairman Darren Johnson — whose City Hall salary of £63,468, is supplemented by £12,977 from Lewisham council, where he leads the Green group — backed a joint inquiry into pay, but said this had to tie in with work being done by the Committee on Standards in Public Life.
He said: “The report does not suggest members should not be taking posts in other organisations, whether it be charities or other boards or quangos.
"I think it would be impossible to have any rules
on this. There are definite benefits in some Assembly members having a continued presence in, and feel for, local government.”
The SSRB rejected demands from the Assembly Tory group for higher salaries to be paid to senior politicians.
Tory group leader Roger Evans said the report had to be taken seriously.
A spokeswoman for the Mayor, who told the body his £143,911 salary was “entirely appropriate”, said it was too early to comment.
She added that a response was being prepared for a meeting of the Greater London Authority's standards committee, which will consider the report's recommendations next month.
Reader views (4)
And the politicians have the cheek to complain about our pay!
- Investment Banker, London, 03/09/2009 13:22
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Assembly members do absolutely nothing for their "pay" as all executive power is held by the Mayor. Local councillors consider their role as a paid job rather than representing their constituents. If it is felt that Assembly members and local councillors need payment, how about the statutory minimum wage?
- Patrick, Dalston, 03/09/2009 12:00
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This must be a conflict of interest, why do you let these people get away with this ?
- Reg, Yorkshire, 03/09/2009 09:44
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The terrible irony about Steve O'Connell is that, during his time as Croydon Council's Deputy Leader and its "Cabinet Member for Public Protection and Crime Reduction", crime in the borough soared. Despite the borough having more reported rapes than anywhere else in the capital, last year charges were only brought in 16 per cent of cases - less than half the Met Police average.
If O'Connell were doing his 3 jobs brilliantly, nobody could quibble about his mega-bucks income. Trouble is, he's worse than useless.
- C.Nichol, London, 03/09/2009 08:14
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