A suggested five-per-cent increase in basic allowances for Lincoln’s city councillors is set to be rejected in favour of a more modest amount next week.
City of Lincoln Council’s Independent Remuneration Panel has put forward a suggested increase of five-per-cent, which would give each councillor an additional £250 per year.
However, Leader of the city council, Cllr Ric Metcalfe, will propose to a meeting of the full council on Tuesday 22 February that the suggested increase is rejected in favour of a reduced 1.75 per cent increase – an additional £88 per year.
Councillors at City of Lincoln currently receive less than the average basic allowance paid at all councils in the county, at £5,040 per annum.
Cllr Ric Metcalfe said: “I’d like to thank the Independent Remuneration Panel for its hard work in pulling together their proposal for a five-per-cent increase on councillors’ basic allowances for 2021/22.
“However, at a time when households across the city are struggling to make ends meet due to the significant increase in the cost of living in recent months, it is incredibly hard to justify accepting this amount.
“Therefore, at Tuesday’s meeting, I will be proposing a 1.75 per cent increase instead. This is the equivalent of just £1.70 extra per week, per councillor.
“It is important that our councillors are properly remunerated for the work they do and are not left out of pocket when carrying out their duties, but this must be balanced against doing the right thing when our residents’ household budgets are so hard pressed.
“The proposal to full council will be to adopt a policy of only accepting allowance increases in line with pay awards to our officers which, for 21/22, is likely to be the same 1.75 per cent.”
In addition to its proposal to increase councillors’ basic allowances, the Independent Remuneration Panel has suggested that there is no increase this year in the special responsibility allowances granted to those councillors with additional duties, such as committee chair, political group leader, executive member etc, but that the amounts allocated to each role are looked at ahead of next year’s allowance review. Cllr Metcalfe will suggest that this proposal is agreed.