Hounslow councillors get a pay rise

Hounslow House

Councillors will be paid more, and the system of payment for taking extra responsibility will be ‘standardised’

Hounslow councillors are to receive a pay rise.

The New Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources, Cllr Max Mosley, will set out a new system of renumeration at the Borough Council meeting on Tuesday 21 July.

He will announce an increase in the basic rate of pay for an ordinary councillor from £13,500 to £15,000 and introduce a new scale of payments for Cabinet Members and other posts carrying extra responsibility, such as the chairs of council committees.

“The Special Responsibility allowance for councillors is not set by an independent body”, he told The Chiswick Calendar. “It is left to individual councils to decide. Our system is outdated and not very transparent and it needed a refresh, so I have been given the job of doing that.

Cllr Max Mosley

“People are confused why the chair of one committee is paid more than the chair of another and what it needed was standardisation, with a clear, transparent methodology”.

Max is an economist with the Good Growth Foundation, a think tank focused on Britain’s economic growth, for which he now works part time to allow for his council duties.

Council Leader Cllr Shantanu Rajawat

Winners and losers

The biggest winners will be the Council Leader, Cllr Shantanu Rajawat, whose salary will be set at £75,000 since he works a five-day week for the council – an increase of £15,804 (basic allowance + special responsibility allowance) and the Deputy Leader, who can expect an increase of £10,454. Cabinet Members will receive an increase of £8,670.

The biggest winner amongst the minority parties on the Council will be Leader of Reform, Cllr Tony Brown.

Leaders of the minority parties will be paid a percentage increase based on the size of their group on the council, so Conservative Leader Jack Emsley, as leader of the biggest opposition group will be paid an extra £4,000 to reflect the fact his 17 councillors now form 27% council members, giving him a total increase in his salary of £5,411.

Leader of the Conservative Group Cllr Jack Emsley

The Leader of the Reform group Tony Brown will receive a total increase of £7,906 (basic allowance + special responsibility allowance), reflecting his status as leader of the second biggest opposition group, his eight councillors making up 13% council members.

The increase in his salary is larger than Jack’s despite the fact his group is smaller because prior to the last election there was a set payment of £1,300 over and above the basic allowance, which did not reflect the size of a minority group’s influence in the council.

Leader of the Green Party group Guy Lambert will receive a total increase of £3,067 as the three Green councillors represent 5% council members.

London Boroughs set their own rates of pay but there are guidelines set by London Councils which give the boroughs some basis for comparison.

Hounslow Council’s payments for the Council Leader and the basic allowance for councillors are in line with the recommendations of the most recent London Councils Remuneration Panel in 2023, but their payments for Cabinet Members are significantly lower.

A Hounslow Cabinet Member’s salary will be £45,000 whereas London Councils recommend they be paid between £53,215 and £62,529.

‘Remuneration can help reduce barriers to public life”, say the London Councils Remuneration Panel, “and support a wider range of people, including those in low paid or unpaid work, to undertake public service’.

Cllr Max Mosley at Strand on the Green

“The new system is based on a basic allowance of £15,000 on the expectation that councillors devote one day a week to working for the council, and all other positions are based on how many more hours work the position entails”, Max told us.

Cabinet Members are expected to put in two days a week in addition to the one day they spend on working for their ward. Chairs and vice-chairs of committees are renumerated according to how many meetings and briefings they are expected to attend.

“No one gets paid overtime. We have averaged that out, so they are all paid the same rate for equivalent jobs”.

That means there will be some losers as well as winners. Among the losers are the deputy chief whip and the chief whip of the opposition, the chair of the Audit Committee, the chair of the Licensing Committee and the chairs and vice-chairs of Local Area Forums, who will all be paid less.