Plans to give Sunderland's councillors first pay rise since 2012 take big step forward

Every financial year, Sunderland City Council is required to renew the members’ allowances scheme and to consider the recommendations of an independent panel.

The latest report from Sunderland’s Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP) suggested for the 2025/26 financial year that the basic allowance, which is available to all 75 city councillors, is “increased in line with the increase in the CPI published in February 2025”.

The panel also recommended that the basic allowance “is increased annually in line with the increase in the CPI published in the February prior to the relevant financial year, with this indexation to apply up to the maximum permitted period of four years”.

However, the panel did not recommend that the indexation is backdated, nor that it should be applied to special responsibility allowances (SRAs), an additional allowance applying to a small number of senior councillors on the local authority.

The current basic annual allowance able to be claimed by a Sunderland city councillor is £8,369, which has remained at the same level since 2012.

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At a meeting on January 16, 2025, Sunderland City Council’s Labour cabinet agreed to “note the recommendation of the IRP and refer the report to full council for their consideration”.

Labour’s councillor Michael Mordey, council leader, said “no further changes are proposed for future schemes during the four year period referred to”, going up to March, 2029.

At a decision-making full council meeting on Wednesday (January 22) at City Hall, the allowances rise was approved by a majority vote and is set to come into force in the 2025/26 financial year.

An amendment to the allowances scheme was proposed by the Wearside Liberal Democrats, which proposed cutting the basic allowance for all councillors by five per cent and other changes.

This included scrapping special responsibility allowances received by the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and vice-chairs of council committees, reducing a number of other special responsibility allowances and stopping councillors being able to claim for food, drink and home broadband bills on expenses.

Councillor Paul Edgeworth, leader of the Wearside Liberal Democrats, said the amendment was a “balanced sensible package that gets rid of indefensible allowances and expenses”.

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“It will help show that councillors are willing and able to share the burden of savings and cuts that the Labour Party are imposing on local services,” he said.

After being put to the vote, the Lib Dem amendment failed to win support in the council chamber, with 11 votes for and 42 against.

The cabinet report and the associated changes to the councillor allowances scheme was approved by a majority vote later in the meeting.

Councillor Michael Mordey, Labour leader of the city council, addressed the Lib Dem amendment at the City Hall meeting this week.

“This is not about allowances, this is about Paul creating a political issue to attack other councillors in the chamber on a party political basis,” he said.

“This Labour Group over many many years and councillors across the chamber should not be setting their own allowances, it is done by an independent remuneration panel.

“We either accept them or we don’t […] I would ask colleagues to reject the amendment of the opposition.”

Cllr Mordey added: “Throughout Tory austerity this Labour Group took a conscious decision to not accept any rises during the age of austerity.

“Some councillors in this chamber rely solely upon a basic allowance, they are impacted by inflation and with recent inflation, the allowance is significantly lower than it should be.

“I personally believe it’s time where [an increase] is looked at […] it is CPI in February and it works out, if it’s accepted, as less than £4.50 a month before tax.”

Councillor Antony Mullen, leader of the Sunderland Conservatives, said the Conservative group’s submission to the independent panel didn’t propose any increases to allowances and instead, proposed cuts to allowances.

While raising concerns about the level of activity from council vice-chairs of committees, Cllr Mullen described the formal deletion of deputy cabinet members and their associated special responsibility allowances as the “right move”.

The Labour cabinet report item on increasing basic allowance was eventually put to a vote and approved by 44 votes in favour and 16 against.

Lib Dem councillor Paul Edgeworth, speaking after the meeting, described the result as a “total insult to hard-working council tax payers”.

Meanwhile, councillor Antony Mullen noted “Labour councillors voted to pay themselves more whilst we submitted plans to cut allowances to the IRP”.

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Other IRP recommendations from the panel which went before full council included revising the allowance available to opposition leaders to £5,000, provided the group concerned comprises at least eight members.

It added if no opposition group had at least eight members, the allowance would be available to the single largest opposition group leader, or divided equally between groups where the largest are of equal size.

Currently, the leader of the majority group in opposition can claim an allowance calculated as a percentage of the council leader’s SRA, up to a maximum of 25 per cent.

The leader of the second largest group in opposition can currently claim an allowance calculated as a percentage of the majority opposition group leader’s allowance, up to a maximum of 50 per cent.

The final recommendation of the panel was that no provision be made in the members’ allowances scheme for a SRA to be paid in respect of the positions of deputy cabinet members or cabinet secretary.

The positions do not form part of the current ‘slimmed-down’ cabinet announced by council leader Cllr Mordey when he took office last year, however the roles were occupied in the cabinet of his predecessor, councillor Graeme Miller.