Councillors in Camden are set to give themselves a 1.75% increase in their allowances.

The rise is in keeping with the increase in the pay rise for council staff and will be backdated to April, just before the local council elections.

However it is well below the current 9.1% inflation rate.

It means that all 54 ward councillors will be paid a £10,985 basic allowance to cover cost of intra-borough travel and subsistence if the increase is formally approved by the full council meeting on Monday (July 4)

In 2020-21 their basic allowance was £10,505.04.

The increase, including National Insurance payments, will cost the council £18,800.

At June’s audit and corporate governance committee Conservative leader Cllr Gio Spinella pointed out the allowances paid by Camden are on the “lower side” and said Brent and Edinburgh pay a higher rate .

He said: “I believe that the council allowances should be a bit more reflexive of the cost of living.”

Cllr Spinella said at some point the “hair shirt of austerity” has to “meet the realities of where we are in terms of living” and participation in democracy should face as “few barriers as possible.”

Ordinary ward councillors in Edinburgh currently get an allowance of £19,571 and the leader’s annual salary is £58,719.

In 2021 Brent councillors received a £12,484 allowance and the leader got
£39,748.

The 1.75% increase in Camden follows advice from an independent panel looking at pay for councillors in London.

The review said the impact of “huge changes” such as covid and the cost of living crisis “has had a major impact on the demands placed on all councillors and of those councillors charged with special responsibilities.”

Council leader Georgia Gould is due to be paid £42,655, up from £40,800 in 2020-21 and her nine cabinet members will get £26,660 for their role, up from £25,500 in 2020-21.

Liberal Democrat opposition leader Cllr Tom Simon, will receive £17,355 for his role and Camden mayor Cllr Nasim Ali is paid the same amount.

The opposition leader’s allowance was £16,599.96 in 2020-21.

The Council has decided to annually uplift all allowances – other than the
Dependent Carers Allowances which is set at the London Living Wage – in line with the national cost of living increase in the local government pay settlement for officers awarded for the previous financial year.