The Committee considered the recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel on the scheme of Members’ Allowances.

The Local Authorities (Members Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003 as amended required all local authorities to appoint an Independent Remuneration Panel to advise on the terms and conditions of their scheme of Members' Allowances.  The Regulations required the Council to have regard to the advice of the Panel when approving a new scheme.

A Panel had been convened to make recommendations on the scheme to be adopted with effect from 1 April 2022, and the Panel had met on three occasions.  The Panel consisted of Clare Jones (Education sector representative), Lorna Jamison (Health sector representative and Chair of the Panel), Bob Locker (Residents sector representative) and Suzie Tobin (Voluntary sector representative).  No business sector representative could be recruited to the Panel on this occasion despite best efforts to do so.

In formulating its proposals, the Panel had reviewed a range of background information and comparative data and circulated a questionnaire to all Councillors.  The questionnaire provided information about the operation of the scheme, Councillors' workloads and Councillors' views about the present arrangements.  The Panel had also interviewed all Political Group Leaders and the Chief Executive to discuss the workload and responsibilities of Members and to ascertain if they had any suggestions for improving the current scheme. 

The Panel had recommended that the Basic Allowance be increased to £5,500 per annum from 1 April 2022 with any increases to the Basic and Special Responsibility Allowances (SRA)s in 2023/24 and 2024/25 linked to annual staff pay awards.  The recommended increase to the Basic Allowance reflected the increased responsibilities and workload, the skills sets now required of a Councillor in a more commercially driven local authority environment including a large services and property portfolio, the requirement to engage in policy development and direction, the need to challenge proposals and assess risks and the pressures associated with communication with constituents in a digital environment. It also acknowledged the overall time commitment of Councillors and addressed the historical deficit of Runnymede’s Basic Allowance when compared with other local authorities in Surrey and the South East. 

The Panel hoped that the increased Basic Allowance would make the role of Councillor more viable for persons of working age and those who had family commitments.  The Panel also considered that it better recognised the social value of the role performed by Councillors and hopefully encouraged greater diversity in membership which would be more representative of the community the Council served. The Panel agreed that the current arrangement under which 50% of the time of Councillors was not remunerated should continue in order to retain the public service element of being a Councillor at an appropriate level. 

The Panel had assessed the SRA paid to Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council and considered whether this sufficiently reflected the increasing workload and responsibility associated with those offices.  The SRAs for Leader and Deputy Leader were low in comparison with other Authorities in Surrey and the South East.  The Panel therefore recommended that the SRA for Leader of the Council be increased from £10,368 to £11,000 with the SRA for Deputy Leader being 50% of that, namely an increase from £2,592 to £5,500.  The Panel considered this an appropriate increase which better reflected the workload and responsibilities associated with these high profile roles, would assist succession planning to those offices, and be more in line with SRAs paid in other local authorities for these roles.

The Panel had reviewed the restriction placed on Members who served on Corporate

Management Committee.  Currently a Councillor could only receive a SRA of £1,296 for being a member of Corporate Management Committee if he or she was not entitled to any other SRA.  The Corporate Management Committee currently had 12 Members. At the current time, only 2 councillors were eligible for the Special Allowance for serving on that Committee and the remaining 10 Councillors did not get a SRA as they received an SRA for holding other offices. The Panel acknowledged the increased workload and responsibilities involved in serving on this Committee and considered that the restriction should be removed and that all Members of that Committee should be paid an SRA of £1,296 regardless of any other offices that they held.

The Panel had reviewed the SRAs for Chairman and Vice- Chairman of Standards and Audit Committee which were low compared to SRAs paid to other Chairmen. In addition, since the last review 3 years ago, the Committee had taken an increased role for the oversight of the governance and financial operation of the Council.  On this basis the Panel considered that the SRA for Chairman and Vice Chairman of this Committee should be increased from £1,710 to £5,184 and from £648 to £2,592 respectively which was in line with SRAs paid to the Chairmen and Vice- Chairmen of main Committees.  It was noted that Surrey County Council would determine any level of allowances received by Members in connection with the Runnymede Joint Committee.   

Regarding the SRA paid to Political Group Leaders other than Leader of the Council, the Panel knew from its research that a small number of local authorities paid Political Group Leaders a flat rate plus a payment per member in their group or just a payment based on number of members in their groups.  The Panel considered that the current SRA of £3,888 for Political Group Leaders was too high and that it was fairer for the SRA to be based on number of members in a group and recommended a figure of £425 per member which was consistent with the SRA paid to the Leader of the Council if a per head basis calculation was applied.

The Panel considered whether an SRA should be paid to those Councillors who led particular projects but were advised this was not legally permissible.

The Panel did not recommend any other changes to the amounts and types of SRAs

which included retaining the current arrangement where no Councillor was paid more than two SRAs.  The full cost of adopting all these changes was estimated to be £65,000 per annum. As a provision of £16,000 had already been made in the 2022/23 Estimates, a further annual sum of £49,000 was required. If the Council accepted the recommendations of the Panel, the costs for the following three years would be as follows:

The Council had to have regard to the recommendations of the Panel when determining its scheme of Members' Allowances and decide whether it wished to accept the recommendations from the Independent Remuneration Panel in their entirety or, if not, what changes it would wish to approve.  The Committee asked that its thanks be passed on to the Members of the Panel for the diligent work that the Panel had done in putting forward the recommendations.

The Committee supported all of the Panel’s recommendations. The increase to the Basic Allowance reflected the time and effort required to be expended by Councillors at Runnymede which was a local authority which had its own Direct Services Organisation and housing stock and had large Commercial Services and Community Services functions. 

All Members apart from the serving Mayor currently received an allowance of £1,000

for serving on a Member Working Party (MWP). This was an allowance received by

Members which was separate from the Members’ Allowances Scheme. Some Members of the Committee asked whether this MWP allowance would be continued. The Committee agreed that as it was recommending an increase in the Basic Allowance and in the amounts that some Councillors would receive for SRAs it would not be appropriate to continue to receive a MWP allowance.  The Committee accordingly agreed to recommend as set out in recommendation vi) below.  It was agreed that a Member would be advised where Runnymede would appear in the Basic Allowance list of local authorities in Surrey if Members were to receive £6,500 per annum (consisting of a Basic Allowance of £5,500 plus a £1,000 MWP allowance).  

Recommend to Full Council on 3 March 2022 that –

i)          the Council notes the recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel following the Panel’s review of the scheme

of Members’ Allowances;

ii)         the Council notes that the Panel recommends that 

            a)         the Basic Allowance be set at £5,500 per annum;

            b)        annual increases linked to annual staff pay awards be applied to the Basic Allowance and SRAs in the financial years 2023/24 and 2024/25;

c)        the SRA for Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council be increased to £11,000 and £5,500 respectively;

d)        the SRA of £1,296 for serving on Corporate Management Committee be paid to all Members of that Committee regardless of any SRAs they receive for holding other offices;

e)        the SRA for the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Standards and Audit Committee be £5,184 and £2,592 respectively;  

f)         the SRA for Political Group Leaders, other than Leader of the Council, be based on £425 per Member of their respective Groups;  

g)        that no other changes be made to the scheme of Members’ Allowances;

iii)        the Committee recommends that the Panel’s recommendations be accepted;  

iv)        subject to the Council accepting the Committee’s recommendation, the Members’ Allowances Scheme set out at Annex ‘2’ to the Panel’s report, be adopted with effect from 1 April 2022;    

v)         subject to the Council accepting the Committee’s recommendation, a supplementary revenue estimate be approved in the sum of £49,000 to cover the increased costs of the scheme in 2022/23 and subsequent years’ increases be added to the Medium Term Financial Strategy; and

vi)        the annual allowance of £1,000 received by all Members apart from the serving Mayor for serving on a Member Working Party, which is an allowance received by Members which is separate from the Members’ Allowances Scheme, be discontinued for 2022/23.