TPA slams DCLG Select Committee plan to hike councillors’ allowances
Jan 2013 10

TPA slams DCLG Select Committee plan to hike councillors’ allowances8

Responding to the DCLG Select Committee’s report on councillors’ allowances, Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:

“With local authorities up and down the country having to rein in spending and many public sector staff facing a pay freeze, the last thing anyone should be proposing is a hike in councillors’ allowances.

“No-one thinks that their local authority would be doing a better job if only the councillors were taking more of our cash. The MPs on the DCLG select committee appear to be seeking to create a whole new class of professional politicians, which would be bad news for hard-pressed taxpayers.

“Being a councillor is not a full-time job and there are scores of town halls around the country which function perfectly well with councillors taking modest allowances.

“It would also be wrong to take the power away from councillors over the setting of their allowances. They should continue to set the rate and allow voters to hold them to account at the ballot box for that among the many other decisions they take. Otherwise, the power gets handed to some unelected quango which the public is unable to hold to account at all.”

 

Previous TPA research into Councillors Allowances can be found here

 

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  • Bob Horsforth

    The City Councillors from Horsforth have had their noses in the trough for far to long…

    • Sir Talbot Buxomley

      So stand for election then and beat them and then YOU take zero Cllr allowance!

  • ScaryBiscuits

    I think it should be added that this committe has a Lib/Lab majority. Although it is another example of how Cameron is failing to lead a coherent government, with Coalition MPs failing to obey the whip or align themselves with government policy.

  • Greychatter

    Rochdale Labour controlled council are ptoposing exactly the same dodge.

  • Old Blue Eyes

    I submit that councils were better run when councilors didn’t get any allowances. Then you got people standing for election who did so with a desire to serve the community. Now you get people who are in it for what they can get out of it.

    • Garfield

      I wouldn’t be so sure. You have to remunerate councillors otherwise you will never get a cross-section of society. The lower paid will be busy making ends meet to support their families and spending all their time working (at NMW) and won’t even have time to work for the community. Even volunteers get paid expenses.

  • EppingBlogger

    The “report” (aka opinion) also exhorts “It is vital that communities have councillors to whom they can relate.
    Political parties have a critical role to play in raising the proportion
    of women, younger people and black and minority ethnic people serving
    on their local council.”

    Is it really supposed that white and white, black and black, young and young talk only to each other and no one else.

    What next – every council needs a teacher, a baker and a candlestick maker to “represent” like folk.

    Daft idea.

  • Garfield

    Can you tell HMRC to stop treating it as an income (as it is only to cover expenses) and not tax it, therefore, there would be no need to increase the allowances in order to atrract the best local people.