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Tory councillors vote themselves huge hikes in pay and perks
Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor14 Jul 2010
David Cameron faced new embarrassment today as it emerged that Tory councillors have awarded themselves bumper pay rises of up to 58 per cent at a time of deep cuts to public services.
The Conservatives were accused of hypocrisy after Barnet Counncil voted for large hikes in their allowances.
Barnet - the council that pioneered the “easyCouncil” model in the style of a no-frills airline - last night authorised huge increases in the taxpayer-funded allowances for its politicians.
From August 1, Cabinet members will see their allowances rocket from £17,454 to £27,580 - an instant pay hike of £10,126 each.
Council leader Lynne Hillan will now get £47,027 - a pay hike of £7,351 or 15 per cent.
In future years, Ms Hillan is also entitled to a total of £64,824 a year, although she and other councillors agreed this year to forego £7,200 of the allowance owed.
All councillors will get a further £10,000 in basic allowance.
The Barnet move comes just days after the Tory-dominated Local Government Association recommended a wider pay rise of 2.3 per cent for all councillors.
Local Government Minister Grant Shapps today slammed the authority, declaring its stance is “simply not justifiable” at a time when public sector workers are facing pay freezes.
Mr Shapps warned Barnet to “think twice” about its plan. “Whether it's a Labour council in Newham or a Conservative one in Barnet increasing pay when others are losing their jobs both looks and feels wrong.
“I think councils will struggle to justify such a casual approach to spending taxpayers' money and I urge them to think again,” he told the Standard.
Shadow local government minister John Healey said: “This outrageous pay hike is a real test for the Lib-Con coalition to match their tough words with actions. It shows a big gap between their rhetoric and the reality on the ground.”
Alison Moore, leader of the Barnet Labour group, added: “It it absolutely obscene that at a time of savage service cuts, public sector pay freezes and anticipated job losses through the easyCouncil programme that top Barnet Tories want to almost double their pay.”
Brian Coleman, cabinet member for the environment, already pockets around £53,000 as a member of the London Assembly, and another £28,000 as chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.
Mr Coleman defended the changes, saying that the council will save money because councillors will no longer be able to claim mutliple allowances.
“My answer to Grant Shapps is this: localism, localism, localism. We are delivering efficient services and should be trusted with devolved decisions.
“I think people will understand that this is a scale which brings us into line with the independent scale set by London Councils and is already being used by a number of councils - Newham have done it as have Croydon.
“I will be taking the money that I'm entitled to, no more and no less.”
The council decided to ditch the old system whereby allowances were set by a local independent remuneration panel, and switch to pay scales favoured by London Councils.
The proposal to hike councillors' allowances in Barnet will last four four years. It was controversially added to the agenda only the day before the meeting, where the Tory majority forced it through by 38 votes to 22. The one Conservative who abstained, Kate Salinger, was immediately stripped of seven committee posts as punishment.
Reader views (21)
Dont come pedaling this cutbacks bunkum around this neck-o-the woods whilst these practices are going on Cameron.
- stuart, chesterfield,derbyshire, 20/07/2010 20:06
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So, according to the anti-DC regardless brigade, he's clairvoyant? Surely it is what he does in response to this news rather than the fact that he's in the same political party as these obviously selfish councillors that is important.
Just as a bit of a heads up - the Conservative Party isn't a single cell organism with a single guiding thought process (as is apparently the Labour Party, given the assumptions of their supporters here). There's bad 'uns as well as good 'uns. It's how the good 'uns react to the others that defines the tory leadership, not knee-jerk critics who haven't a good thing to say of them regardless.
- Rogan, Irving, 15/07/2010 00:00
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Everyone slagging down DC are making like he knew about this beforehand? Weird - they must have a very high opinion re his mental telepathy abilities. Or perhaps they are suggesting he ok'd it beforehand?. It is his RESPONSE to such information that is important, not the politically suicidal idiot councillors' mind-numbingly stupid actions.
It's par for the course, I suppose, for political opponents to try and smear the whole for the actions of the few. Dumb, mindless and infantile, but inevitable.
- Rogan, Irving, 14/07/2010 23:07
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Here in Camden the Lib -Dem Tory alliance councillors who had been running the show in Camden refused to divulge the earnings of their top management. After being in power for the last four years they still refused to tell their electorate how much they were earning, even refused to do so under the freedom of information act. Needless to say they were kicked out in the recent elections. We now know exactly how much they were earning and the reason they were the only borough in the country to refuse to publish their earnings. It would take too long to go through the full list, but you can judge for yourselves when I tell you that Moira Gibb leader of the council was on £200k per year and had thought she had done such a wonderful job she gave herself a £16k bonus for her efforts.
See the 'Camden New Journal' for more information.
- Jimmy, London England, 14/07/2010 22:33
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Filth, filth and filth. Mr Coleman seems to have such an inflated opinion of his own value to the taxpayer that I fear he may explode! And wouldn't that be a pity.
- Unsurprised, London, 14/07/2010 22:23
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Well David you had better resolve this now - your credibility is already under question and if you allow these councillors to do what MPs have done - noses in the trough - then on your head be it!!!
- peter, Vienna, Austria, 14/07/2010 20:34
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Brian Coleman is a member of Barnet Council, he is also a london assembly member and chair of LFEPA (London Fire brigade)
As chair of LFEPA 2 days after the coalition announced a 2 year pay freeze for all public sector workers, He and the conservative members of LFEPA ( probably some independants as well although the minutes haven't been published yet) voted themselves a 35% increase in allowances.
Yep thats THIRTY-FIVE PERCENT PAYRISE.
Now he's done it again at Barnet. We know Coleman has no shame.
I believe the PM said "we are all in this together".
He omitted "unless you are a greedy fat pig conservative councillor."
Apparently Coleman reckons the taxpayer is getting value for money. I haven't noticed any increase in productivity or efficiency from Coleman. The only thing he is consistently good at is increasing his expenses.
I work for the fire brigade and have no problem with a pay freeze, however to have elected representatives blatantly taking the mick makes me very, very angry.
We can't allow coleman to get away with it.
- simon, kingston, 14/07/2010 20:21
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As the Minster states , 'What planet are these people living on ". Ministers take a 5% pay cut these councillors take an enormous percentage rise. In the end it down to strong leadership. Surely people who do not follow the party policy should be asked to leave the party.
We learn from Lord Mandelson just how dreadful was thirteen years of Labour rule. For which the poor , homeless and unemployed will suffer most from for decades. So surely Cameron should put his foot down now.
- Alan., ENGLAND. Fed up with most politicians, 14/07/2010 20:18
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The election was only 10 weeks ago at which time there was no mention that the existing allowance system was inadequate. Yet now they need huge increases. These people are suppose to be representatives of the community and set an example. Frankly all they care about is lining their own pockets. Every single person in Barnet who voted for these greedy selfish Conservative councillors should hang their head in shame. They may have deferred some of the increase this year but next year the full increase kicks in. The only person to come out of this mess with any credibility is Kate Salinger, the sole discenting voice, and she has been kicked off every single committee she sits on. As a Barnet ratepayer I am utterly, utterly, utterly fed up.
- Mr Reasonable, New Barnet, 14/07/2010 19:02
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When are government going to bring in laws to stop all politicians, local and national, from voting on their own pay rises? The current system is an absolute insult to democracy.
We even have the ludicrous situation where council leaders, who only run a borough, pay themselves more than the PM gets. BoJo also earns roughly the same basic salary as Cameron. (The New York Mayor's normal salary is about £127k, though mega-rich Bloomberg declined it and takes $1 a year.)
Public sector pay for all senior officials should be capped and regulated where rises are decided by an impartial body and/or voters. Increases should be related to their performance.
- Ian Kemp, London, 14/07/2010 19:02
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Why are they allowed to decide their own remuneration!!! The MP expenses scandal has already tought us that the trough will be milked for all its worth, clearly councils are no different.
- DZ, London, 14/07/2010 18:46
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I don't know why anyone is surprised: this is about par for the course for the dictatorship of greed that Barnet embodies. After all, they are the Council where a mere eight people passed a development - Brent Cross - based on nothing more than commercial gain, with no benefit to anyone. This is the Council who lost tens of millions to Icelandic banks, overspent by, what, eighty million on one development and makes illegal cuts to services. But, they want more tiny "apartments", concreting over what little green space they have left, and yet more shops. Oh, and an incinerator to pollute most of North London.
Kate Salinger is the only decent and thinking Tory on the whole Council - so, not surprising she gets penalised for having ethics and morals, eh?
- Alison Hopkins, Brent, London, 14/07/2010 18:28
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Here we go again!
Same ol...same ol
What's new then David?
- SatPat, London England, 14/07/2010 17:28
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Breathtakingly stupid and self-serving effrontery even by the trugh swilling standards of our political classes. Cameron needs to comment on this without delay.
Are the voters of Camden meekly going to accept this, or are they going to bombard their councillors with phone calla and emails of protest?
- Jayceeyoukay, Surrey, UKI, 14/07/2010 16:58
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The day that local councillors became 'paid officials' rather than representatives of the community was the end of local democracy. Local councillors now just see their role as just a job. Real people are having to tighten their belts so lets abolish pay for councillors - it will get my vote!
- Patrick, Dalston, 14/07/2010 16:46
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Typical of the Tories. The same thing is happening in Croydon where the residents pay outrageously high council tax despite dwindling services. Yet the Tory council have voted themselves inflation busting pay rises while preparing to lay off hundreds.
This stinks but expect more of the same as this is how the Tories always operate. One rule for them and the rich, another for the ordinary working man.
I'm not surprised there are none of the usual reactionary posters making comments in defence of this blatent piece of rank hypocrisy!
- Veritas Noire, Purley, 14/07/2010 16:42
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Barnet Council is host (in the biological sense) to Brian Coleman, who claimed £8,231 from the London Assembly for taxi rides between April 2007 and March 2008, despite having free a Travelcard. He previously had run up a £10,000 cab bill.
He once notoriously ran up a taxi bill of £656 in just one day, during which kept a cab waiting two-and-a-half hours.
Cutbacks? What cutbacks? They're just for poor people.
- Arfur Towcrate, Staffycher, 14/07/2010 16:35
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The Barnet Cabinet cannot even claim competence - they lost millions in Iceland's banks, overspent by £10 million on a railway bridge, tried to remove sheltered accomodation on-site wardens, and acted against the interests of the borough by ramming through the Brent Cross planning scheme.
Double Our Pay! Drinks All Round! Pip! Pip!
- Jay, London, 14/07/2010 16:04
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It'll take a lot more than this to embarass Flash!
- Steve, Brentford, 14/07/2010 15:47
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This should come as no real surprise to anyone should it.
- Mike Melbourne, Bedford, 14/07/2010 14:50
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chinless cameron can't keep his own rabble in order so much for listening to the electorate they are no better than the other rubbish
- anon leicestershire, leicestershire, 14/07/2010 13:57
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