Councillors received almost £1m in allowances

Jim McMahon

Oldham Council spent close to £1million on allowances and expenses for councillors last year — putting it in the top 20 per cent of local authorities in the country.

Research from the TaxPayers’ Alliance has revealed that for 2014-15 the council paid out £941,000 to elected members. Of the 386 (of 408) who responded to the request for information, only 67 paid out more. Thse who paid less included Westminster City Council and North Yorkshire County Council.

A breakdown shows each of Oldham’s 60 councillors received a basic allowance of £8,950, with some getting more because of their committee roles.

Former council leader Jim McMahon was paid £26,850 for the year as council leader, plus the basic allowance.

Compared with authorities nationally, Oldham pays out a relatively high amount - but not when compared to others Greater Manchester councils. Oldham councillors claimed only £2,000 in expenses for the year.

The amounts paid have been unchanged for past three years, but the total paid out has risen slightly since 2012/2013 because of differences in the number of committee positions.

Councillor Arooj Shah, cabinet member for performance and corporate governance, said: “Oldham Council pays less to its councillors compared to some authorities in Greater Manchester. The system considers the out of pocket expenses and the time taken to carry out council business.”




Greater Manchester figures

Of the Greater Manchester local authorities that provided their overall amount, Wigan Council paid out the most to councillors in allowances and expenses with an overall 2014/2015 figure of £1,157,948.

Tameside Council — a similar authority to Oldham when looking at size and number of councillors — was the second highest in the region with £1,112,038.

Salford City Council (£969,176) was the other authority in the region to pay out more than Oldham.

An annual figure wasn’t provided by Manchester City Council. With 96 councillors in its chamber, who all receive a basic allowance of £16,043 and with the council leader being paid £40,067, Manchester City Council paid out at least £1,580,195 — the highest in the region by far.

This estimated figure does not take into account expenses or additional allowances councillors receive for committee roles. The basic allowance for a councillor in Manchester is one of the highest in the country.

Rochdale — again a similar-sized authority to Oldham — paid out £712,506 to its councillors during 2014/2015.