Appendix A
Report and Recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel
To Salford City Council
Wednesday 16th November 2016
Review of Allowances for the City Mayor and Deputy City Mayor’s
1.0 Background
1.1 This report contains the recommendations made by the Independent Remuneration Panel appointed by Salford City Council to make a recommendation to Salford City Council on the remuneration of the City Mayor, Deputy City Mayor (Statutory) and Deputy City Mayor.
1.2 The Independent Remuneration Panel was established under the Local Authorities (Members Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003 to review the Members’ Allowance Scheme and to make recommendations to the Council regarding the scheme.
1.3 Following the election in Salford of a City Mayor in May 2012, an Independent Remuneration Panel was convened to undertake a review of the Members’ Allowances Scheme in accordance with the abovementioned legislation. The recommendations of the Panel were reported for the posts of City Mayor and Deputy City Mayor to the Council meeting on 18th July, 2012 which recommended that the City Mayor’s Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) be set at £69,000 and the Deputy City Mayor allowance set at 65% of the City Mayor’s remuneration representing £44,850 from May 2012. In relation to all other Member positions the report of the Independent Panel to council on 19th September 2012 recommended that the existing scheme of allowances as amended to reflect the mayoral governance arrangements from May 2012 remained unchanged.
1.4 The Panel were informed of the previous Independent Remuneration Panel recommendation from 2012 that the Basic Allowance and Special Responsibility Allowances should benefit from any cost of living increases applied through the NJC Pay Award.
1.5 With the election of a new City Mayor in May 2016, the scheme of allowances required amendment to take account of the City Mayor’s restructure of the senior positions within the Cabinet. The changes related to the removal of the two Strategic Assistant Mayors and the addition of a second Deputy City Mayor with one of the Deputy’s having the statutory responsibility in line with the legislation. An interim financial position was adopted pending the recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel.
Previous 2012 / Current Interim Position 2016City Mayor / £69,000 (no Basic Allowance) / £69,000 (no Basic Allowance)
Deputy City Mayor / £44,850 (1 post no Basic Allowance) / £60,000 (2 posts @ £30,000 no Basic Allowance)
Lead Members / £190,672 (8 posts at £23,834 inc Basic Allowance) / £166,838 (7 posts @ £23,834 inc Basic Allowance)
Executive Support / £81,904 (4 posts @ £20,476 inc Basic Allowance) / £81,904 (4 posts @ £20,476 inc Basic Allowance)
TOTAL / £386,426 / £377,742
2.0 Terms of Reference
2.1 The Terms of Reference for the Independent Remuneration Panel were as follows:
· The Independent Remuneration Panel is established in fulfilment of the Local Authorities (Members Allowances) Regulations 2003;
· The Panel will review the allowances for the City Mayor, Deputy City Mayor (Statutory) and Deputy City Mayor with recommendations to Council for a final decision;
· The Panel will consider information from a wide range of sources and must be satisfied that they have been provided with relevant material to enable recommendations to be formulated;
· The Panel will meet as required to consider evidence and develop recommendations;
· The Panel will be supported by officers of the City Council as appropriate.
3.0 Review Process
3.1 The Panel were clear that as an Independent Panel their recommendations would be objective and based upon the evidence submitted. The Panel were acutely aware of the difficult economic climate and budget pressures facing the City Council and the challenges facing Elected Members in managing this. In addition, the Panel also recognised that the quality of local democracy depends on the ability of council’s to attract people to serve on the Council. Whilst financial reward should not be the main driver for standing for election, the level of remuneration should be set at a level as to not exclude sections of the community. Nevertheless restraint in pay was something the Panel were acutely aware of and acknowledged.
3.2 The Panel felt it was important to have a process for the review and as such considered the following:
· the context in which the roles are operating under a mayoral model;
· the nature of the roles in terms of powers, responsibilities and accountability;
· historical precedent for special responsibility allowances;
· take account of the NJC pay awards from 2012 – 2016;
· a formula which linked financially the positions within the Mayoral Team to reflect the level of roles, responsibilities and ensure synergy with the City Mayor;
· consider the differential between each of the positions;
· consider comparators and pay differentials between the Elected Mayors.
3.3 The Panel explored the governance arrangements and role descriptions for the City Mayor and both Deputy positions which informed them of the significant legal powers, executive responsibilities and accountabilities for each. The Panel also considered the role descriptions of the remaining posts within the Mayoral Team to inform them of the breadth of work being undertaken.
3.4 The Panel reviewed available benchmarking data on other public roles as follows:
· Elected Mayors and Deputy City Mayor’s allowances across the country;
· Cabinet Members Allowances across the country;
· AGMA Leaders, Deputy Leaders and Cabinet Members Allowances;
· Members of Parliament;
· Mayor of London;
· Interim Mayor of Greater Manchester & GM Police & Crime Commissioner;
4.0 Findings of the Panel
4.1 The Panel initially considered the role, powers and responsibilities of the City Mayor, Deputy City Mayor (Statutory), Deputy City Mayor and Mayoral Team Members with reference to the council constitution and the role descriptions for each position.
4.2 The Panel noted that all of Salford City Council’s executive functions are vested in the Elected Mayor, who can choose to exercise the functions personally or delegate specific executive functions as appropriate. In the event these functions are delegated, the Elected Mayor can withdraw this delegation at any time or on any delegated decision. These executive functions account for around 90% of the Council’s responsibilities, with the remaining 10% deemed to be non-executive such as planning and development control functions, licensing, registration and amending any Members Allowance Scheme.
4.3 Throughout the review the Panel considered the roles for each of the posts and having reviewed the role of the Deputy City Mayor (Statutory) and Deputy City Mayor, the Panel concluded that they were closely aligned to the City Mayor’s responsibilities from both an internal and external perspective. It is clear that the roles will require a full-time commitment from the post holders. The Panel also noted that other local authorities operating under a mayoral model only had one Deputy City Mayor as part of their structures.
4.4 The Deputy City Mayors will support and represent where necessary the City Mayor in all constitutional functions. The Deputy City Mayor (Statutory) in line with the legislation will assume all of the powers and executive functions in the absence of the City Mayor. The Panel were advised that the council’s scheme of delegation reflects the legislation and whilst it has appointed a Statutory Deputy City Mayor, both roles carry the same level of responsibility and both deputies have delegated and authority to take decisions in the absence of the City Mayor.
4.5 In addition, the Panel noted that the Deputy City Mayor (Statutory) had been allocated an extensive internal portfolio of responsibilities including the reform agenda and the Deputy City Mayor (Non Statutory) had been allocated an extensive external portfolio of responsibilities including the Greater Manchester devolution agenda.
4.6 The Panel felt it was important to have a clear methodology for the review of both the Deputy City Mayors remuneration as a percentage, or other identified formula of the payment for the substantive role of the City Mayor. The Panel also felt that the other Mayoral Team positions would benefit from this approach to ensure consistency.
4.7 The Panel sought clarification on the pay awards for staff employed on National Joint Council (Green Book) terms and conditions which are negotiated annually between the Local Government Association and the Trade Unions recognised for national collective bargaining purposes. At the point that the pay award for staff is agreed the recommendation of the previous Independent Remuneration Panel was that this would be applied to all Member Allowances.
4.8 The Panel were informed of how the NJC Pay Awards had affected the Basic Allowance since 2012 (see below) and in addition were advised of the decision of the previous City Mayor and Deputy City Mayor not to implement the percentage awards to the special responsibility allowance for their positions. The Panel were further advised that if the percentage increases had been implemented as recommended by the previous Independent Panel the City Mayor’s Special Responsibility Allowance would be £71,935 and the Deputy City Mayor £46,758. The Panel were further advised that the new City Mayor has chosen not to accept this level of remuneration pending the outcome of this review.
· NJC Members Basic Allowance 2013/14 £10,180.80
· NJC Members Basic Allowance 2014/15 £10,236.81
· NJC Members Basic Allowance 2015/16 £10,404.84
· NJC Members Basic Allowance 1st April 2016 £10,508.88
4.9 In relation to pay benchmarking the Panel recognised the mayoral model is difficult to assess using the sources of information available. It was difficult to compare comprehensively the roles and responsibilities of the other Elected Mayors and the governance arrangements in which they were operating. In addition size of population was used as an indicator but this did not take into account the social/economic makeup for each authority. The Panel noted that when the Police & Crime Commissioners came into being, the Senior Salary Review Panel made recommendations based on the complexity of the role and the size of the police force area.
4.10 The Panel considered the role and responsibilities for other public roles and discounted the remuneration of AGMA Leaders as not relevant for benchmarking purposes due to the extent of the executive powers constituted to the Elected Mayor under the mayoral model of governance.
4.11 The other aspects of pay considered included (1) the City Council’s Pay Policy Statement and (2) the Review Body on Senior Salaries 2015.
5.0 Recommendations
5.1 The Panel recommended the implementation of a formula for setting the City Mayor’s and Deputy City Mayor’s Special Responsibility Allowances. In order to establish consistency the Panel recommended the use of the Basic Allowance from 1st April 2016 of £10,508.88 as the baseline and despite the wider Mayoral Team not being part of the Terms of Reference, in order to make the formula workable a bottom up approach was recommended.
Basic Allowance (BA) £10508.88City Mayor / x 7.0 BA / £73,562.16
Deputy City Mayor x 2 / x 3.5 BA / £36,781.08
*Lead Member x 7 / x 2.5 BA / £26,272.20
*Executive Support x 4 / x 2.0 BA / £21,017.76
TOTAL / £415,100.76
* Not included within the Terms of Reference
5.2 The Panel recognised that the recommended Special Responsibility Allowance for the City Mayor was close to the remuneration taking into account the NJC pay award increases which totalled £71,935. The Panel benchmarked the recommended remuneration allowances and were comfortable that the formula implemented placed the positions of City Mayor and Deputies close to the median of other local authorities operating under a mayoral model. The Panel recognised that the Lead Member and Executive Support Members were positioned slightly beyond the median positions of other local authorities operating under a mayoral model. Council would need to give financial consideration to this element of the recommendation given the Lead Members and Executive Support Members were not included within the Terms of Reference.
5.3 The Panel endorsed the recommendation from the previous Independent Remuneration Panel that the Basic Allowance should benefit from any cost of living increases applied through the NJC Pay Awards.
5.4 The Panel recognised that should the NJC Pay Award percentage increase dramatically in future years a further Independent Review Panel should be convened to review the position.
5.5 The Panel reiterated they have acted independently and in accordance with the Terms of Reference set for the review. The recommendations contained within the report were based on the roles, responsibilities and supporting information made available to the Panel. However, the Panel remained aware of the continued financial position of the City Council and added that Council should take this account when considering the recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel.
· Alison Page, Chief Executive, Salford CVS (Chair)
· Julie Charge, Director of Finance, Salford University
· Phil Cusack, Chairman, Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
· Neil McInroy, Chief Executive, CLES
· Liz McQue, Chief Executive, North West Employers
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