A move to increase the basic pay for councillors in Sandwell by nearly £600 has been approved.

The proposal to increase the basic allowance for all 72 Sandwell councillors by £577 to £12,129 was backed by councillors at the local authority’s annual meeting on Tuesday 13th May. 

The report by the independent remuneration panel – the body tasked with setting councillor allowances – had recommended to Sandwell Council that the money paid to all councillors should increase after it was ‘frozen’ in 2022. 

Cllr Paul Moore, deputy leader and cabinet member for finance, said Sandwell’s allowance was the lowest in the West Midlands and still £600 behind Solihull and £1,000 behind allowances paid to councillors in Walsall and Wolverhampton. 

“I would stress that this report is independent and Sandwell’s member allowance is less generous than those adopted by neighbouring authorities and in no way can be considered excessive,” he said at the annual council meeting on Tuesday night. 

The move was approved by councillors with Conservative councillors Amrita Dunn and Les Trumpeter and Green councillor John Tipper voting against. 

The IRP had recommended three years ago that councillor pay should increase but when it was put to a vote a few months later, councillors went against the proposals and instead agreed to ‘freeze’ the majority of allowances. 

The panel had also again recommended that the council adopts yearly inflationary increases of up to 4%. 

In 2022, a pay award of £1,925 was offered to most local government staff across the UK, including those in councils and schools and while turning down the chance to increase pay, councillors also then voted to ignore the panel’s recommendation and turn down set yearly inflationary rises.

Sandwell Council is changing its committee structure which means the IRP, which also calculates how much councillors with ‘special responsibilities’ such as the leader and deputy leader as well as chairs and vice chairs of committees should also be paid, will be meeting again to decide on changes to those amounts following the restructure. 

The leader of the Labour-run council Cllr Kerrie Carmichael receives two-and-a-half times the basic allowance for the role – which was £28,584 in 2023/24.

Cabinet members receive £17,150 extra each, the chair of the council’s budget scrutiny committee and the chairs of the planning and licensing committees each receive £11,433 extra while the chairs of other scrutiny committees net a further £9,519.