County Councillors get 6% pay rise

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Powys County Councillors will receive a 5.71% pay increase this year, equating to an extra £1,066 and taking their basic pay up to £18,666.

At the council’s annual meeting on Thursday, councillors will receive a report on the basic pay and expenses that “must” be paid by the council.

The increases follow the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales (IRPW) agreeing the salary increases, expenses and benefits for 2024/2025 when they met in February.

The IRPW’s decision came into force for all of Wales’s local authorities on April 1.

Increases would also be made to the salary of the leader, deputy leader and cabinet members on top of the basic rise.

The roles of scrutiny committee chairmen, and leader of the opposition also get a rise of £533 this year, going up from £8,800 to £9,333 which is paid on top of the basic salary.

The role of scrutiny committee vice-chairmen goes up to £4,667 which is up from £4,400, and is also paid on top of the basic salary.

This year the council is also allowed to pay one more senior salary – with the IRPW allowing a band B council such as Powys – to increase the number of senior salaries from 17 to 18 if they should wish to.

In Wales – local authorities are placed in three bands based on population figures.

Band A – which pays more includes councils with a population of over 200,000 people.

Band B – which includes Powys is in the 100,000 to 200,000 population bracket.

Band C – which pays less, are those with a population of under 100,000 people.

IRPW chairwoman Frances Duffy said: “In reaching our decision to continue the link between the remuneration of elected members of principal councils, and the average earnings of their constituents (ASHE).

“The panel is fully aware of the current constraints on public funding and the impact its decisions will have on the budgets of principal authorities.

“The panel is also mindful of our aims and objectives to provide a fair and reasonable remuneration package to support elected members and to encourage diversity of representation.”

The council report states that councillors can choose to “forego” all or part of their basic salary and would need to notify the council’s chief finance and s151 officer (director of corporate services Jane Thomas) about this.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service shows that during 2022/2023, no councillors in Powys chose to forego part of their salary.

The response said that in 2021/2022, one councillor chose to forego £150 of their salary.

The increases in Powys are set to be:

·      Council leader salary will go up to £62,998, an increase from £59,400.

·      Deputy leader salary will go up to £44,099, an increase from £41,580.

·      Cabinet member salary will go up to £37,799, an increase from £35, 640.

·      Other roles with a senior salary – scrutiny committee chairmen, planning committee chairman, council chairman and leader of the opposition can all now receive up to £27,999, an increase from £26,400.

The deputy civic leader, and leaders of other political groups (with no less than 10% of council membership) and deputy committee chairmen can receive up to £22,406.