Local councillors across Northern Ireland will receive a 5% rise in their basic allowance from next month following unanimous approval from the Executive.
At present individual councils are responsible for setting the rate to be paid, within limits set by the Department for Communities. This results in councillors being paid different allowance levels depending on the council they serve. The Minister also said that he will amend the legislation to permit his department in future to determine the rate of the basic allowance to be paid to all councillors.
The Minister’s announcement is part of his department’s response to the recommendations of the Review of the Role and Responsibilities of Councillors in Northern Ireland report submitted to the Department for Communities last August, which covered a range of issues, including councillors’ remuneration.
The report, which was published today, states: "The [Basic Allowance] set at a maximum of £17,030 from 1st April 2023 was considered by 84% of those who responded to the survey to be inadequate because it does not reflect the more challenging roles undertaken by councillors. It was also noted as a barrier to entry for those considering entering politics as a councillor.
"The baseline BA, effective from 1 April 2025, should be £21,935 (this will be subject to two further increases to ensure full account is taken of the latest evidence base). Furthermore, it is recommended in line with the wishes of most councillors that the decision to pay these allowances should be removed from individual councils to deliver equity across all councils in NI."
The report also recommended that all councillors should receive the same Basic Allowance and that reference to “maximum” is removed from the legislation.
The last time that local councillors’ allowances were reviewed in NI was in 2013. It concluded that, at that time, 50 per cent of the median NI full-time wage for all employees (both public and private sector) for the year 2012 would be a fair basic allowance for councillors.This represented a recommended allowance of £12,000 p.a., which was an increase of 23. per cent on the previous allowance of £9,738.
The 2013 report also recommended that those councillors with District Electoral Areas (DEAs) with a mean electorate larger than 3,000 should receive an additional £1,200 p.a. representing an increase of 10% more to recognise the higher constituency workload.
Making the announcement, Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said: “I am pleased that the Executive has unanimously agreed to the proposals that I have brought forward. I have considered carefully the recommendations in the report and, in doing so, I needed to balance any increase in the basic allowance for councillors against the cost to ratepayers in what is an extremely challenging financial climate. I need to ensure that increases in rates bills are kept to the minimum.
The Minister continued: “Against a backdrop of wider public sector settlements generally in and around this level, I am content that this 5% increase for councillors is justified given the volume and complexity of council duties, the hours required to carry them out, and the fact that the role and responsibilities of councillors was last reviewed in 2013.
“I also accept that responsibility for setting the amount of the allowance actually paid to councillors should be removed from councils and instead set by my department. It is reasonable that councillors, across all council areas, should be paid the same amount of basic allowance.”
For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our politics newsletter here.
English (United States) ·