After a bit of prompting Newham has published details of the allowances and expenses paid to councillors during the financial year 2011/12.
The basic allowance paid to all councillors (except the mayor) is £10,829 per annum, less a £60 fee for using their council laptop for personal use and a £35 data protection registration fee. Around half of the council also receive additional ‘special responsibility’ allowances.
In total our 61 councillors raked in £1,210,323 in allowances last year. That’s an average of £19,841 each.
The table below shows the top dozen earners on the council.
| RA | WALES (Mayor) | 81,029 |
| AR | BAIKIE | 46,389 |
| IK | CORBETT | 42,811 |
| RJ | CRAWFORD | 42,811 |
| LT | HUDSON | 42,111 |
| U | DESAI | 41,776 |
| C | MCAULEY | 41,776 |
| A | KELLAWAY | 37,635 |
| CW | FURNESS | 37,291 |
| JH | LAGUDA | 33,499 |
| EH | SPARROWHAWK | 33,499 |
| Q | PEPPIATT | 29,358 |
It is worth bearing a couple of things in mind while looking at this list:
Firstly, ordinary Newham people earn the second lowest wages in London at just £29,518 a year. A dozen councillors earn that or more just from their allowances, never mind any additional income they enjoy from their regular jobs.
Secondly, as recently as 2002 the basic allowance for councillors in Newham was just £533 a year. As council leader Robin Wales received an additional special responsibility allowance of £16,631. That scheme was replaced as soon as Sir Robin became mayor, when allowances rocketed to over £9,000 for councillors and £65,000 for the elected mayor.
Things have only got worse (or better, if you are lucky enough to be among the favoured few) since then.
A copy of the full report, listing all councillors, can be downloaded from the Newham website.
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