Allowances set to increase for councillors in St Albans
St Albans councillor allowances are set to increase over the next three years. Picture: Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust - Credit: Archant
Allowances paid to councillors in St Albans are to increase this year – with further inflationary increases agreed for the following three years.
Every member of St Albans district council is eligible for a 'basic allowance' of £5,590, which is set to increase by 2.5 per cent to £5,730.
The council agreed that this allowance should then increase by inflation annually for the next three years, from 2021/2022 to 2023/2024.
However some of the councillors eligible for a 'special responsibilities allowance' - or SRA - will see their allowances drop.
An SRA can be claimed by councillors holding certain positions, such as portfolio holders or committee chairs. They currently range from £2,965 for some committee chairs, £9,485 for cabinet members and £13,575 for the leader of the council.
The SRA payable to the chair of planning committees will increase by £105, from £3,105 to £3,310, but the SRA payable to chairs of overview and scrutiny, audit committee, health and wellbeing partnership and the licensing and regulatory committees will be cut by £165 - from £2,965 to £2,800.
However money payable to the chair and members of the licensing sub-committee per meeting should increase by £20 - from £100 to £120 and from £80 to £100. Overall the changes will increase the amount paid to councillors in allowances by £8,515, from £431,876 in 2019/2020 to £440,391.
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The changes are in line with recommendations made by the independent remuneration panel, and were adopted by a meeting of the full council on Wednesday, January 15.
The council also agreed that for the following three years - 2021/2022, 2022/2023 and 2023/2024, the basic allowances and the SRA payments will increase by the rate of inflation, in line with the CPI (consumer price index) figure for February.
For every future increase by one per cent the overall cost will increase by £4,404. Meanwhile the hourly rate paid to councillors claiming childcare or dependent relative allowance will remain at £8.45 per hour this year - but can be higher if the child or relative has additional needs.
The allowance will increase by inflation over the next three years, from 2021/2022 to 2023/2024.
