WECA mayor set to receive £20,000 pay rise

The West of England metro mayor is set to receive a £20,000 pay hike over four years – about 30 per cent – to exceed the salary of an MP.

An independent remuneration panel is recommending a £5,000 rise every year for the next four years, on top of usual annual salary awards.

Backdated to last May when Labour’s Dan Norris was elected into office as head of the West of England Combined Authority (WECA), it takes his income from £67,000 to £87,000 by 2024/25, which is also higher than Bristol city mayor’s wage.

The panel’s report, expected to be approved at a WECA committee on Friday, also recommends slashing the allowance for the deputy mayor’s role, which is currently unfilled, from about £15,000 to zero and paying two committee chairmen £5,625 for the first time.

Conservative Tim Bowles was the first West of England mayor, elected in 2017 – photo: WECA

It said the metro mayor at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, “generally regarded as a near comparator” of WECA, earned £95,600, which will go up to £97,500 from April, while the average allowance for all combined authority mayors was £73,600.

The report said: “The panel has accepted that the mayor’s allowance falls well short of what is reasonable for such a prominent regional decision-making role, with significant strategic budget and service responsibility.

“The allowance is also at a level that the panel believes is unlikely, in the future, to attract candidates from diverse backgrounds willing to make the career/personal sacrifices necessary, given the legal restrictions on the post-holder.

“It is however recognised that an immediate increase to anything approaching the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough level was unlikely to carry support either within the authority or among the electorate.

“Equating the allowance to that of a Member of Parliament was considered but evidence shows that the personal powers and responsibilities of the mayor of a combined authority are substantially in excess of those of an MP.

“We believe therefore that a sustainable and reasonable solution lies in an allowance pitched at the mid-point between the current salary of a Member of Parliament (£81,932) and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough 2021/22 allowance (£95,600). That mid-point is £88,766.”

The panel proposed a phased move of £5,000 a year and then return to a basic annual pay award only in 2025/26.

It was argued the metro mayor has to represent far more constituents than an MP – photo: WECA

Winston Duguid told WECA’s overview & scrutiny committee on Monday that he was all in favour of the pay increase.

The committee chairman and Lib Dem B&NES councillor said: “I feel quite strongly about the metro mayor’s salary and I find it an anomaly he’s paid less than Bristol’s mayor or an MP.”

Duguid added: “To get someone really good who isn’t at the end of their career, whether they’re in the charitable sector or private or public sector, the remuneration has been an inhibitor on some of the people who’ve wanted to do the job, so I feel very strongly about this.”

Norris said after the meeting:  “Quite rightly this is a matter for the independent panel. I do not have, nor would it be appropriate for me to have, a vote on this.”

Bristol mayor Marvin Rees received a £9,000 pay rise in May 2020 to match an MP’s salary at the time, £79,468.

Adam Postans is a local democracy reporter for Bristol 

Main photo: WECA

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