Sunderland councillors refuse to accept 'entirely inappropriate' 12% rise in allowances

Allowances will remain the same for Sunderland councillors in the next financial year, after members voted to reject a proposed rise

Elected members of Sunderland City Council are entitled to a ‘basic allowance’ of £8,369 every year.

This week, a recommendation by an independent panel to increase this was blocked, meaning the allowance will remain at the same level it has been since 2012.

The pay freeze was backed by the council’s ruling Labour group and all opposition councillors at a full council meeting on January 27 – though there were concerns that a cut was needed rather than a freeze.

Councillor Graeme Miller, leader of the council, said he originally asked the independent remuneration panel (IRP) to look at basic allowances in 2019 as part of a wider review of allowances.

This included considering the median level of basic allowance, in reference to that paid at other metropolitan authorities, and the history of changes to allowances in Sunderland.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the council chief said it would not be right to accept any increase in allowances at this time.

“As people will see from cabinet on January 12 [2021], cabinet, myself very much included, did not support any increase at this time given the financial pressures and challenges that the city’s residents are facing due to the Covid-19 crisis,” Cllr Miller said.

“When I asked the IRP to look at this process it was 2019, there was no Covid crisis and the first year of that work was to look at special responsibility allowances and we looked at that and that’s why we cut 14 allowances saving over £140,000.

“The second element of the work that the independent panel was going to do was about the basic allowance to see where it was in relation to like-minded councils.

“Since then, we have a Covid crisis and it’s entirely inappropriate to be looking at taking any sort of rise at this point in time given that the residents of the city are taking such financial pressures because of that public health crisis.”

The IRP had suggested an increase in basic allowance that would have seen annual payments rise by around 12%, from £8,369 to £9,420.

During this weeks council meeting, members of the public and Conservative and Liberal Democrat opposition group leaders asked the council leader to clarify his comments to the IRP and whether he asked for basic allowance to be increased.

Cllr Miller denied asking for an increase and said that he asked the independent panel to look at what the median allowance for councils of a similar size in the North East was, to “see what that would bring [Sunderland City Council] to.”

While noting the IRP had “done its job,” he added the Labour group would reject the recommendation to increase basic allowance.

“It’s an independent report from an independent remuneration panel, I cannot make it any clearer than that,” Cllr Miller went on to say.

“They were asked to look at special responsibility allowances and basic allowances over a two-year period during which the Covid pandemic has introduced itself.

“The Labour Group is absolutely clear, we will not be pushing or asking for any uplift in councillor allowances this year, it would be entirely inappropriate to do so given the financial pressures that our residents and businesses are suffering because of a global pandemic.”

Cllr Miller added that Sunderland had “one of the lowest basic allowances in the region” and that the cash saved from removing 14 special responsibility allowances last year had been diverted to frontline council services.

Following discussion, councillors agreed to reject the proposed rise in basic allowance.

While welcoming the move, Liberal Democrat group leader, Niall Hodson, said the IRP had “discounted all opposition suggestions” for allowances.

He added no change had been made to special responsibility allowances for cabinet and that all councillors should “take a cut across the board to show our solidarity with the public.”

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