The Issue: Should allowance system change after councillors gave themselves big hikes?

Oxford city councillor
Bev Clack

Many councillors, like myself, are financially secure and have time to do the job. But if we are to have a healthy political life and a thriving democracy, we have to find ways of encouraging people from a range of backgrounds to stand as local councillors.

We tend to think of politics as a public duty performed by a small and exclusive elite who make decisions with little knowledge of the people they represent. Politics should involve everyone because it dominates our daily lives, from how often your bins are emptied, to how your street looks, to how children are educated or how the sick are looked after. The more people we have as councillors who come from the wards they represent, the more likely we are to make the right decisions for our communities.

Everyone has a role to play in the political life of their community beyond placing an X on the ballot paper.

Participating in your local community is time-consuming but it is also hugely rewarding.

Getting unsightly graffiti removed from a neighbour’s wall or liaising with the police to tackle local problems is satisfying for all concerned. And we should all be able to play our part, no matter how big or small. But for many people, this is easier said than done. With the pressures of work and the demands of family life, a life in local politics is not an obvious option. But this shouldn’t be a bar to standing for election.

We will not attract a variety of candidates unless we address the thorny issue of remuneration. If we are serious about having a politics that better represents our community we have to reconsider how to support people who do not have the the financial resources or time to do this important work. That might be through introducing a sliding scale of councillor allowances, with more paid to those who need it, and less to those who don’t. It might be through encouraging employers to give workers time off to fulfil their civic duties on behalf of others.

Unless we find ways of making our politics more accessible to all, it will continue to be the preserve of an increasingly unrepresentative elite, and we will all be the poorer for it.

NO

South Oxfordshire district councillor Margaret Davies, who voted against the allowance increase

Recently SODC decided to increase councillors’ allowances substantially, immediately after they had stood for election and with every seat contested. It seems that people were attracted to the task before the rise in allowances. There is no evidence of a shortage of candidates.

So why do people give up their time to sit on a council? I think the one overriding reason is that they believe they can make a positive difference to their local communities. It is therefore a vocation, not a job.

Should their allowances be set by central government? No, because there are so many differences in size and workload. SODC has no housing stock, no “council houses” unlike Oxford City Council, so there is no allocation, appeals, maintenance, financing of housing – it is a lighter role.

Yet they are both district councils. SODC councillors work with their parish and town councils, attending meetings over a wider rural area, but Oxford City Council has very few lower-tier councils.

Those are just two examples; there are many others. What formula could possibly reflect the different roles? The decision is best left to local independent remuneration panels that look at the work involved and the level of responsibility assumed by cabinet or executive members, those in representative roles and those chairing committees. Different councils exist and different tasks exist within those councils.

Should employers help more? That might help councillors in academia or the professions, but it would be unlikely to help the bulk of the population and especially those employees earning less than the living wage or on short-term contracts.

The term of a council is typically four years, a long time to make a major commitment to remain living in one area. It is longer than an undergraduate course, for instance. Perhaps shorter council terms might attract a wider range of candidates.

Do councillors need allowances at all? Yes.

The solution is to take the advice of the independent remuneration panels which carry out detailed studies and comparisons to implement their advice.