Wakefield: Councillors reject £200-a-year pay rise amid local authority funding pressures and ‘not appropriate’ claims
Councillors in Wakefield have unanimously voted in favour of rejecting a recommendation to accept an increase to their allowances.
An independent panel proposed that district councillors receive a pay rise during the current financial year to keep pace with inflation.
Wakefield Council leader Denise Jeffery told a meeting that councillors felt it was “not appropriate” to accept the recommendation as the local authority faced financial pressures.
Elected councillors are allowed to claim basic allowances and expenses in line with recommendations by an independent remuneration panel (IRP).
Panel members recommended that the basic allowance be increased from £13,906 to £14,142, in line with the consumer price index (CPI).
Coun Jeffery told a full council meeting on Wednesday (July 16): “We do thank the people that look into it but we haven’t accepted the report for some time.
“We thank them for the time and effort but we won’t be accepting a pay claim at this time.”
Councillors previously voted to freeze allowances during the 2024/25 financial year as residents across the district continued to struggle with cost of living pressures.
Wakefield pays the third-highest amount to councillors out of the five West Yorkshire local authorities.
Leeds pays the highest (£17,902) and Calderdale the lowest (£10,744).
The freeze will also apply to councillors with special responsibilities who receive further pay, including the council leader, deputy leader, cabinet members and committee chairs.
David Pickersgill, cabinet member for resources, said: “The panel’s role is to provide an independent assessment of the responsibilities attached to the different roles, compare us to neighbouring councils and to recommend changes to allowances.
“However, they are recommendations and council may not wish to adopt them.
“The controlling group (Labour) has discussed this and believes that even a cost of living increase isn’t appropriate this year, when we are trying to implement such a tight budget across the rest of our services.”
Councillors of all political parties voted in favour of refusing the recommendation.
The decision is expected to save the taxpayer almost £27,000.
Just under £1.3m was paid to the council’s 63 elected members during the 2023/24 financial year, according to figures published on the authority’s website.
Councillors’ allowances are expected to be reviewed again after next year’s ‘all out’ local elections, when all seats in Wakefield will be contested.
A review of allowances was previously carried out in 2021 when the IRP recommended that elected members give themselves a 2.75% increase.
Councillors again unanimously voted against the proposed increase, a move which saved the authority around £32,000.