Edinburgh councillors vote for pay hike with most set to receive 11.6 per cent rise

Senior Edinburgh councillors have backed giving themselves a pay hike, with only one member speaking out in opposition.

In February, Edinburgh Council agreed to freeze pay for senior councillors – including political group leaders and committee conveners – at the previous year’s levels.

But at Thursday’s meeting, all political groups except the SNP voted in favour of raising pay for senior councillors, with most getting an uplift of £4,637 to their annual pay packets – an 11.6 per cent jump.

Council committee conveners, as well as the SNP, Conservative and Liberal Democrat group leaders, will all get £4,637 added to their annual pay, bringing them to £44,644 per year, up from £40,027 from the previous year. And the depute council leader, Labour’s Mandy Watt, will also get a £4,637 pay hike, bringing her total compensation to £52,669, up from £48,032 before.

A council spokesperson said the increase in pay for senior councillors was intended to match the pay hike given to non-senior councillors by the Scottish Government.

While local authorities have the power to set the pay of senior councillors, the rates for all other councillors are set by the Scottish Government, including the council’s leader and Lord Provost, based on the fidings of the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC).

Earlier this year, it mandated that the salary for most councillors be raised to £25,982 per year, up £4,637 from their previous pay of £21,345, which stood unchanged for several years. Labour councillor and council leader Jane Meagher is paid £71,519 per year, while Lord Provost Robert Aldridge is paid £53,640.

Councillors approved the pay rise at the City Chambers this week. | Google Maps

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Depute council leader, Labour councillor Mandy Watt, said: “I sat down and read the guidance, and it does say that in your approach to this, you should be doing councillor remuneration from the bottom up, not the top down.

“I very much appreciate the support that I’ve had [from officers] to get all this together.”

An SNP source said: “Councillors have been chronically underpaid for decades, and normally I’d take the view that we remunerate the position held, rather than the individual holding it.

“But the current crop of administration conveners are so inept that we could not support them getting a pay hike.”

A council spokesperson said: “While we don’t set the rates of pay for non-senior councillor roles it’s appropriate that we publish them and provide elected members with the opportunity to scrutinise rates for full transparency.

“The increase in senior councillors’ remuneration was agreed by council this week, and now includes the increase to the councillor basic pay set by the Scottish Government.”

Only one member, Labour councillor Katrina Faccenda, spoke out against the pay hikes.

She said: “I think you should take note of which councillors are getting extra money, and you should work out whether you are getting value for money from those councillors.

“Since this is public money, and I don’t think anyone in here would support the misuse of public money, I’d ask the public to have a look at that, and work out if they think that in Edinburgh Council, the extra money they have to spend to subsidise councillors is being used in the right way.”

Cllr Faccenda, who will not financially benefit from the pay increase for senior councillors, voted to support the hike. Meanwhile, independent councillor Ross McKenzie voted with the SNP to oppose the pay hike.

Green co-convener, councillor Chas Booth, said: “Greens think it is right that people are paid appropriately for the work they do, and we welcomed the recommendations of the Scottish Local Authority Remuneration Committee around councillors’ salaries.

“Pay is a significant barrier to people from marginalised groups entering politics, and if we want to see more diversity in our councillors to reflect the rich diversity of the communities we serve, then we need to ensure people without independent income can become elected representatives.

“However, we acknowledge that while so many people in Edinburgh continue to face a cost-of-living crisis caused by years of austerity which is now being continued by the Labour government at Westminster, the Labour council administration doesn’t feel that big increases in senior councillor pay were not appropriate.

“Therefore Green councillors were happy to support their proposals around this.”