Greenwich councillors voted to increase their basic pay by nearly 42 per cent in a move described by Conservative members as an “insult to the residents of this borough”.
The Labour administration said the decision originated in “injustice” and argued raising councillors’ allowances was securing the “future of local democracy”.
The move — which will see basic annual allowances jump by 41.8 per cent, from £11,906 to £16,882 — was backed by the opposition Green Party group.
Labour and Green councillors both claimed not raising their pay could shut out Greenwich residents in less financially secure positions standing for elected office in the future.
Councillors approved the pay rise at Wednesday evening’s full council meeting, with all Labour members and most Green members voting in favour of the decision that will cost borough taxpayers up to £800,000 extra every year.
Three Green councillors — Leonie Barron, George Edgar and Cllr Patrick Ives — abstained from the final vote. The Conservatives and Reform UK’s only councillor, Paul Banks, voted against. But all councillors will get increases, no matter how they voted.
The rise was proposed in order to bring Greenwich in line with the recommendations of an independent panel set up by London Councils, a cross-party body which represents all 32 boroughs.
In a review in 2023, the panel recommended London councillors receive a yearly allowance of £15,960, and then be uprated each year in line with broader local government pay awards. Greenwich used to follow the recommendations of the panel, but stopped in 2014.
Last year, Greenwich’s backbench councillors were the sixth lowest-paid in London. They will now be among the best-paid.
Council leader Anthony Okereke — whose total annual allowance from the town hall has gone up from £68,506 to £82,562 — said the increase spawned from “injustice”.
He said that the council had granted maternity leave to Mariam Lolavar, the cabinet member for health, adult social care and communities, even though there was no legal obligation to do so. Okereke said this made him realise “we don’t remunerate councillors properly”.
The council leader said he had heard from councillors across the country since the pay rise proposition was announced, including one elected care leaver who told him they found the councillor system “to be exclusionary by design” as “speaking candidly about hardships often invited unfair scrutiny”.
Okereke said: “This decision is about injustice. It’s about ensuring everyone can participate in democracy, not about who votes for who.”
Green councillor Jo Land said she was backing the increase because there was “nothing progressive about locking working-class people, disabled people, people on fixed incomes, unpaid carers, people on low wages, out of being elected representatives”.
Labour’s Jahdia Spencer spoke of the troubles of juggling her role as a councillor alongside being a “young, single professional”.
She said: “There’s another privilege that I would also recognise in this debate, and it’s the privilege of being able to reject this increase. This is a privilege that I do not share in this room.
“For some of us, most of us, we’re not in the same financial position. Some of us are fortunate enough to have financial security that increasing your allowance won’t make a material difference in your day-to-day lives. But this is not everyone’s reality.”
Conservative councillors were damning. Matt Hartley criticised the Greens for “failing their first official test” as the official opposition group.
Tory group leader Charlie Davis said: “It’s not only completely reckless, it’s an insult to the residents of this borough. No resident who voted for the Labour Party or the Greens in May went into the polling booth with the increase of councillors’ allowances as one of their most pressing priorities.
“And yet it’s clear that by bringing it forward, outside of the usual cycle, this administration considers it one of their top priorities. It shows how utterly out of touch this administration is with Greenwich residents.”
Backbench allowances in Greenwich will leapfrog those in Lewisham, where councillors get a basic £13,201 and Bromley (£13,475). They were already paid more than their colleagues in Bexley (£10,398).
Cameron Blackshaw is the Local Democracy Reporter for Greenwich and Bexley. The Greenwich Wire is a partner in the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which is a BBC-funded initiative to ensure councils are covered properly in local media. Additional reporting by Darryl Chamberlain.
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