Councillors - payment and legal requirements
Payment
Currently two types of allowances exist for councillors.
- Basic allowance (paid to all councillors)
- Special responsibility allowance (paid to those councillors who carry out special duties such as being the chairman of a committee or who are a member of the council’s cabinet)
In addition, councillors can claim for travel and subsistence allowances.
In May 2014, the basic allowance for a councillor in Hounslow was set at £9276 per year, but this is subject to review.
Each local authority can decide how to pay these allowances but are required to set up independent panels to recommend local schemes of allowances.
Legal requirements
To be eligible to stand as a candidate at a local government election in England, you must:
Be at least 18 years old on the day of your nomination
Be a British citizen, an eligible Commonwealth citizen (with indefinite leave to remain in the UK or not require leave to remain in the UK) or a citizen of any other member state of the European Union
Meet at least one of the following four qualifications:
- You are, and will continue to be, registered as a local government elector for the local authority area in which you wish to stand from the day of your nomination onwards
- You have occupied as owner or a tenant, any land or other premises in the local authority area during the whole of the 12 months before the day of your nomination and the day of election
- Your main or only place of work during the 12 months before the day of your nomination and the day of election has been in the local authority area
- You have lived in the local authority area during the whole of the 12 months before the day of your nomination and the day of election
You do not need any formal qualifications to become a councillor.
No deposits are required to stand for council elections.
Apart from meeting the qualifications for standing for election, you must also not be disqualified from standing. There are certain people who are disqualified from being elected to a local authority in England. You cannot be a candidate if at the time of your nomination and on the day of the election:
- You are employed by the local authority or hold a paid office under the authority (including joint boards or committees)
- You hold a politically restricted post
- You are the subject of a bankruptcy restrictions order or interim order
- You have been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of three months or more (including a suspended sentence), without the option of a fine, during the five years before polling day
- You have been disqualified under the Representation of the People Act 1983 (which covers corrupt or illegal electoral practices and offences relating to donations) or under the Audit Commission Act 1998
A person may also be disqualified from election if they have been disqualified from standing for election to a local authority following a decision of the First-tier Tribunal (formerly the Adjudication Panel for England or Wales)
The full range of disqualifications is complex and if you are in any doubt about whether you are disqualified you must do everything you can to check that you are not before submitting your nomination papers. More detailed guidance on the qualifications and disqualifications when standing as a candidate is available in the Guidance for Candidates and Agents published by the Electoral Commission.
