Councillors’ allowances and expenses

Mayor’s allowances

The Mayor of Newham is a directly elected Mayor and is entitled to an annual allowance of £93,575. The Mayor does not recieve a basic allowance.

Councillors’ allowances

Basic allowance

All councillors and the Mayor are entitled to a basic allowance to cover all travel on council business within the borough, subsistence costs and incidental costs such as the use of their home including telephone rental costs. The approved basic allowance for 2024/2025 is £15,960 and will increase retrospectively on 1 April 2024 by the Local Government Pay Settlement (LGPS) award applicable for 2024/2025, and be the allowance until the 31 March 2025.

Note: The basic, special responsibility, carers, travel, subsistence and co-opted member allowances are uprated each year, from the 1st April, when the average percentage increase in the local governance pay settlement is known - unless the average increase in the local governance pay settlement is below 1%, in which case no increase will be applied.

Special responsibility allowances

Councillors who hold certain positions, such as holding a portfolio within the executive or being the chair of a committee are paid a special responsibility allowance (SRA) to cover their expenses in carrying out their extra duties.

Councillors are paid the SRA in addition to their basic allowance. If a councillor holds more than one position, they will be paid only one SRA, for the position which has the highest rate.

The following bands will apply to the allocations and payment of special responsibility allowances:

Band	Newham based roles in band	Payment per annum (£ for 2024/2025 excluding LGPS. LGPS % increase for 2024/2025 when known will be applied retrospectively from 1 April 2024)
IRP5	Directly elected Mayor	£93,575
5	Cabinet Member (2 to 9)	£38,430 (additional supplement of £5,652 per annum for the cabinet member appointed as Statutory Deputy Mayor) (Excludes Basic allowance)
4	Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Deputy Cabinet Member Commissioner Chairs of major regulatory committees (Strategic Development & Licencing) Chair of Health and Wellbeing Board	£20,346 (Excludes Basic allowance)
3	Committee Scrutiny Lead Member/Chair of Scrutiny Sub-Committee Chief Whip of Majority Group	£16,955 (Excludes Basic allowance)
IRP2	Other Committee Chairs (Local Development, Pensions, Audit Committee) Chair of Council Leader of Principal Opposition Group	£15,523 (Excludes Basic allowance)
1	Vice Chair of Council Majority Party Group Secretary Assistant Whip of Majority Group Chief Whip of Principal Opposition Second Opposition Group Leader	£3,956 (Excludes Basic allowance)

Co-opted members' allowances

Some committees are required to have non councillors among their members known as co-opted members. These co-opted members are entitled to an allowance to cover out-of-pocket expenses.

Committee/sub-committee/commission	Annual allowance (£)
Committee Member	£565
Independent Chair	£ 1,356

Subsistence allowances

Councillors and co-opted committee/commission members are reimbursed for the actual subsistence costs they incur while carrying out council duties outside Newham. This allowance is limited to a maximum daily rate of £31 for meals and a maximum overnight rate of £119.50 per day for accommodation.

Allowances and expenses claimed

2020 - 21 allowances paid to councillors and co-opted members (PDF)

2019 - 20 allowances paid to councillors and co-opted members (PDF)

2018 - 19 allowances paid to councillors and co-opted members (PDF)

2017 - 18 allowances paid to councillors and co-opted members (PDF)

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