Councillors in Newcastle have voted to award themselves a 5.77% pay rise next year.
A majority of members on Newcastle City Council agreed on Wednesday evening to an increase in their annual allowances.
It is just the fourth time in the last decade Newcastle councillors have accepted an uplift, with city politicians generally reluctant to do so at a time of ongoing budget cuts at the civic centre and as many of their residents struggle with the cost of living.
The decision will see a councillor’s annual allowances increase from £9,660 to £10,218 and the ‘special responsibility’ allowance for the council leader rise from £19,320 to £20,436, with the overall cost of the various increases estimated to be £55,000 in 2025/26.
Another increase will then be applied again in 2026/27, which will again be set at the same percentage increase given to the local authority’s lowest-paid staff.
A report from an independent panel recommended the level of pay given to councillors “needs to increase to more accurately reflect councillors’ responsibilities and to narrow the equality gap with other areas”.
Newcastle’s current allowance is 17% below the North East average, with Northumberland’s £17,919 being the highest, and is the lowest among England’s core cities.
The council leader in Newcastle is also the lowest paid both in the region and compared to the other core cities of Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, and Sheffield.
Colin Ferguson, who leads the council’s Lib Dem opposition, told Wednesday night’s council meeting there was a cross-party view that councillors voting on their own pay “isn’t the right mechanism”, with members having repeatedly called over the years for a standard national rate to be set by the Government.
Cllr Ferguson added that becoming a councillor “shouldn’t be the reserve of the wealthy or the maximally flexible” and that the low allowances were a barrier for some people wishing to enter local politics.
Lib Dem colleague Mark Mitchell revealed that he had spoken to one prospective councillor who was unwilling to take up the role because it would result in their benefits being reduced, adding that an objective system to decide on pay rises would result in councillors “not being seen to be in it for ourselves”.
But Chapel ward independent councillor Marc Donnelly said residents would think it “more acceptable for us to be still taking snuff rather than awarding ourselves a pay rise”, referencing the abandoned civic tradition of passing the Lord Mayor’s 1815 snuff box around council meetings.
He called for the uplift to be included in an upcoming public consultation on the council’s budget for next year.
After Labour moved an amendment to the independent panels’ recommendations that set the 2026/27 increase at the same rate as the council’s lowest paid staff rather than simply repeating the 5.77% uplift, deputy council leader Alex Hay said it was important to keep councillor allowances broadly in line with the civic centre workforce.
54 councillors voted in favour of accepting the pay rise and 11 against. Those opposed were Labour’s Jane Byrne, Conservative Doc Anand, Green councillors Nick Hartley and Khaled Musharraf, Newcastle Independents Tracey Mitchell and Nix Joanne, and independents Marc Donnelly, Margaret Donnelly, Lawrence Hunter, Habib Rahman, and Thom Campion.
