Cheshire East risks being “a council of the retired, for the retired” unless it increases councillors’ allowances to enable young people to put themselves forward for election, members said.
All Cheshire East Council councillors currently have a basic allowance of £12,851, with the council leader having a special responsibility allowance of £29,517 on top of that and the deputy a responsibility allowance of £17,820, (writes local democracy reporter Belinda Ryan).
Committee chairs and others with special responsibilities have an additional allowance of up to £12,485.
The Independent Remuneration Panel recommended these allowances should increase by 2.5% for 2024/25 and 3.2% for 2025/26 backdated to April 2024 – which the Corporate Policy Committee on Thursday agreed to recommend to full council.
But concerns were raised that the low payments were a barrier to younger people standing for election because they could not afford to take time off from their paid employment to fulfil a councillor role.
Deputy leader Michael Gorman (Wilmslow) said: “One big issue is that we risk being a council of the retired, for the retired, focusing on issues that concern the retired.”
He asked: “Do member allowances have a bearing on this?”
He said the Cabinet system would bring “a huge increase” in responsibilities for portfolio members.
“They are not chairs. The workload will rise. We’ve got to look at that really in a mature way,” said Coun Gorman.
“It’s a full-time job.”
Coun Jos Saunders (Poynton) said Scotland and Wales had a better system where councillors’ allowances were set centrally.
Uncomfortable
Coun Janet Clowes (Wybunbury) said: “I feel very uncomfortable talking about what are relatively significant rises to allowances at a time when everything has gone up.”
Coun Rob Vernon (Macclesfield) said the allowance system was “flawed and outdated”.
“This idea that 50% of member time is voluntary and not eligible for remuneration, it locks in, by necessity, that the council is of the retired and of the independently wealthy,” he said.
“I’ve sat on this council for seven years, and yet I remain its youngest member by a decade and a half, possibly more.
“Twenty-five% of our population is under 25 but 1.2% of our elected council is under 40 and these policies entrench that.”
Coun Vernon said he was elected while still at university and had had to build his career around his council role, meaning he had never been able to fully commit to a five-day, full-time job.
But he said the biggest issue was the allowance Cabinet members will get when the council reverts to a Cabinet system in May.
“As per this proposal, we are to pay the political lead for adult social care in this borough, £29,206,” he said.
“It is a full-time role where you are making life-changing multi-million pound decisions with a budget of more than £170 million for £29,000 a year.
“In a couple of weeks’ time, the minimum wage for a full-time 40-hour job will be £26,400 and we’re asking the deputy leader who works 60-hour weeks, to do so for £34,000 a year. It’s obviously inadequate.”
The committee agreed to recommend to full council that the panel conducted a review of councillor allowances for Cheshire East as a large unity authority in a Cabinet system for May 2026 and report back as part of the six-month review once the new system was operating.
The panel will also consider allowances for members appointed to the Cheshire and Warrington Combined Authority and the Cheshire Pension Fund Committee.
Eight councillors voted for the recommendations, two against and three abstained.
