Agenda item

Report attached.

Councillors considered a report of Councillor Munsif Dad BEM JP, Leader of the Council, informing members of the recent annual review of the members allowances scheme and the recommendations of the Council’s Independent Remuneration Panel.

Councillor Dad provided a brief introduction to the report which recommended the deletion of special responsibility allowances for group whips and group secretaries from 1^st April 2026 and the freezing of all other allowances for 2026/27.  These proposals had been considered and recommended for approval at a recent meeting of the Leader’s Policy Development Board.

The report indicated that the statutory role of the independent remuneration panel was to advise the Council in respect of the allowances and expenses paid to councillors.  By law, the Council was unable to amend its members allowances scheme without having regard to the recommendations of its remuneration panel and this would have to be done at a meeting of the Council as a whole, although the panel’s recommendations were not binding on the Council.  The Council was therefore able to take decisions about members allowances that differed from the recommendations of the remuneration panel.

By law, the Council had to have a scheme for the payment of members’ allowances.  The scheme:

• had to provide for payment of a basic allowance.  The basic allowance had to be paid to every councillor and every councillor had to be paid the same amount;
• might provide for the payment of special responsibility allowances which were paid to councillors who had special roles and responsibilities;
• might provide for payment of a childcare and dependent carer’s allowance.

The Council’s members allowances scheme permitted basic and special responsibility allowances to be increased on 1^st April each year in line with the NJC local government pay award provided such “inflation only” increases had been sanctioned by the Council’s independent remuneration panel within the last 4 years.  An inflationary increase could be made to the allowances scheme for 2026/27 as such increases had been sanctioned by the remuneration panel in 2024.  However, the members allowances scheme had recently been reviewed by the Leader’s Policy Development Board which had recommended that allowances should not be increased in respect of the 2026/27 municipal year and should instead be frozen at the current level.

The Leader’s Policy Development Board had also recommended that the special responsibility allowances payable to each political group whip and secretary should be removed with effect from 1^st Apil 2026.  In making this recommendation the Board was mindful that no other local authority in Lancashire paid such special responsibility allowances and that these particular allowances had been considered to be anomalous by the LGA Peer Review Team when they had returned for their review visit in the Autumn 2025.  Each such allowance was currently £784.00.

To assist members, a copy of the revised members allowances scheme was included in the report at Appendix 1.

Councillor Khan indicated that Conservative Group supported the freezing of allowances and added that members generally did not become a councillor for monetary gain.  The allowances available went some way to covering associated costs, such as for time off work.

Councillor Judith Addison remarked that the list of special responsibility allowances still included an amount for Chair of Area Council, a role which no longer existed.  She suggested that this allowance should be removed at the next available opportunity to update thescheme.

Resolved                                    -    That the Council:

(1)    Having considered the views of its independent remuneration panel as set out in paragraph 4 of the report, agrees to amend the members allowances scheme to remove the special responsibility allowance payable to each political group whip and group secretary, with effect from 1^st April 2026.

(2)   Accepts the recommendation of the Leader’s Policy Development Board and agrees to freeze members allowances, keeping them at the 2025/26 level.