Hounslow Councillor Allowances: Leader’s Package Could Rise To £75,000

Hounslow Council is due to vote on higher basic and special-responsibility allowances, including a proposed £75,000 package for council leader Shantanu Rajawat. Conservatives oppose the changes, while Labour says fairer payments would widen access to public life.

Hounslow councillors are set to consider a new allowance scheme that would raise council leader Shantanu Rajawat’s total annual package by almost £16,000.

The Labour-led authority’s full council is due to debate the changes at Hounslow House on Tuesday, 21 July. The proposal appears on the agenda as a variation of the Members’ Scheme of Allowances for 2026-27 and is being presented by finance and resources cabinet member Max Mosley.

Under the plans reported by MyLondon, every councillor’s basic allowance would increase to £15,000, while the special responsibility allowance attached to the council leader’s position would rise to £60,000. Because the two payments are combined, Rajawat’s overall package would be £75,000 a year.

Hounslow’s current published scheme lists a £13,466 basic allowance and a £45,730 leader’s special responsibility allowance, producing a total package of £59,196. On that like-for-like basis, the proposed package would represent an increase of £15,804, or approximately 26.7%.

What Do the Proposed Hounslow Councillor Allowances Mean?

All elected Hounslow councillors receive the basic allowance to cover the time and costs associated with their duties. Additional special responsibility allowances, known as SRAs, are paid to councillors holding roles with substantially greater workloads, such as the council leader, cabinet members and committee chairs.

The authority’s rules state that a councillor cannot receive more than one SRA, although that payment is added to the universal basic allowance.

Other reported changes include increasing the planning committee vice-chair’s SRA from the currently published £5,716 to £10,500. The allowance for the leader of a second minority party, a position held by Reform UK, would rise from £1,370 to £7,742. Area forum chairs, however, would receive £7,500 rather than the £8,780 listed under the current scheme.

The increase for the second minority-party leader has been described as almost 483%, but that percentage applies only to the additional SRA. Including the basic payment, the total package would rise from £14,836 to £22,742, an increase of about 53%.

The proposed basic allowance remains £960 below the £15,960 recommended by the London Councils Independent Remuneration Panel. Its benchmark package for leaders of larger London boroughs is £78,052, consisting of the basic allowance and a £62,092 SRA. Hounslow’s proposed £75,000 leader package would therefore be £3,052 below that figure.

Labour And Conservatives Clash Over Increases

Hounslow Conservative group leader Jack Emsley said his councillors would oppose the scheme. He argued that the changes showed “what Labour’s priorities really are” and claimed all but four Labour councillors would receive an additional allowance.

“There’s a serious debate to be had about fair remuneration, but this goes well beyond that,” he told MyLondon. “We’ll be voting against.”

His claims about how many councillors would benefit are part of the opposition’s criticism and have not been presented as findings of the independent remuneration panel.

Labour representatives said the opposition was engaging in political “grandstanding”. They argued that councillors should not be prevented from taking on public duties because of their personal finances and said the proposed payments were still lower than the independent panel’s recommendations.

The administration also said changes were intended to make the system more accessible and transparent while reflecting the amount of time required for senior council roles.

The proposed Hounslow councillor allowances remain subject to approval by the full council. At the time of publication, no final decision record had been published, making the council vote and subsequent minutes the next confirmed stages.