Give councillors a pay hike: they deserve it

It’s an interesting observation and perhaps a sore one. A pay rise for local politicians that will see their roles compared to MSPs for the first time has been met with indignation from all angles. First outlined in February, the rise made headlines again this week after Finance Secretary Shona Robison approved recommendations produced by the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC) report.

Golden goodbyes, a bumper 19 per cent pay rise for councillors and council leaders making the same as an MSP at Holyrood? Heavens no. How dare they pay the foot soldiers of our democracy anywhere near the wage of a Holyrood hot shot?

“Councillors are supposed to be there to serve their residents, not serve themselves,” said a miffed John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

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In my experience, an overwhelming number of local councillors do serve their residents. And they should be properly compensated for their contribution to local democracy. The SLARC review of councillor remuneration was the first since 2011. It suggested that councillors, who are meant to work on a part-time basis, see their pay rise from £21,345 to £25,300 per year.

Running a council like Glasgow City or the City of Edinburgh is a hugely complex and burdensome task. In Glasgow alone there are more than 635,000 constituents. That is why the committee recommended that leaders of those councils be compensated the same as an MSP at £72,200 per year. To put it into perspective, Glasgow City Council was offering a salary of over £200,000 for a chief executive back in February. The pay rises for local politicians represent a 0.04% increase on the overall 2023-24 local government settlement in Scotland costing £4,685,780 across all councils. As for “golden goodbyes”, the severance payments are calculated on a case-by-case basis but are anticipated to be worth up to a year’s earnings.

The wage councillors are currently being paid has led to the majority of councils being run mostly by men over the age of 55. That is not representative of Scotland’s population. Women, young people and people with disabilities struggle to get involved with local politics because the pay doesn’t match the responsibilities. Bullying and misogyny are two diseases that cropped up in the SLARC survey when assessing the demographic make-up of councils. There’s hope the impending pay rise will encourage a more diverse group of candidates by the 2027 Scottish local government elections.

Now, I’m not saying that MSPs aren’t out there working hard for their constituents. I just think that local politicians deserve a bit more kudos. I’ve worked with many in my time as a reporter that do truly commendable work for their communities. Councillors are on the front lines of democracy. It might not be as sexy as shaping the national policy agenda, but a good councillor can really make a difference in the day-to-day lives of their constituents. Look at councillor Richard Bell’s current campaign to save the iconic Lyceum Theatre in Govan and return it to community ownership. Or Thomas Kerr’s successful campaign to have the Mount Vernon Park play park cleaned up and refurbished.

Being a local councillor is billed as a part-time role with formal duties supposed to take up about 26 hours per week. But 40 per cent of councillors surveyed by the SLARC said their role as a councillor was full-time. I can empathise. The requirements of jobs across the board these days typically require far more from us than the hours we are given to do them.

Councillor Thomas Kerr (Image: Newsquest)

Some councillors clock eight hours at their day job before spending up to four hours in council and community meetings. Then there’s the hundreds of pages of boring council paperwork to scrutinise on top of that. And there are thousands of emails from constituents at all hours, many of whom are disengaged from the democratic process and feel left behind by the national government. One councillor I spoke to described speaking to a constituent on the phone who was considering suicide. Others are faced with balancing family life and the consuming nature of the job. It can put serious strain on relationships. When the council is under extreme financial pressure, it weighs even more heavily on representatives who need to deal with angry taxpayers. If council staff worked under the conditions that councillors do, they would strike.

We need to place more value on local government. A pay rise is an okay start. The relationship people have with the UK Government and the Scottish Government is so broken after years of scandal and austerity that council politics might be the only way to earn some trust back in the system; they just need more devolution powers to do so. Rebuilding faith in democracy starts locally. We need to encourage more people to shake off their ambivalence, run for office, communicate with their representatives and connect with their immediate communities again.

Local communities deserve better than what they are getting from the national government. The best way to do that is to put more power in the hands of the bodies that understand their town or city best. And by all means, ramp up the scrutiny of those in office to ensure that they are actually doing their job for the people.

The pay rises are due to come into effect in April 2025. In the meantime, the SLARC report suggests we should no longer look at the role of a councillor as either part-time or full-time, but rather the role should be treated as a public office within Scotland’s democratic processes like MPs and MSPs. With the independence agenda firmly on the back burner, let’s give more glory to the councils.