A Work in Progress

Labour insiders have recently returned to the progress being made by Councillor Luke Charters, who spreads his time running his own business, campaigning for the parliamentary seat in York, starting his own family and being a Deputy Cabinet member in Newham.

They seem to suggest that his remuneration might be in excess of any value he brings to the council.

Luke, a local Newham small business owner, was previously the independent chair of Newham Council’s Audit Committee. For the 2022 local elections the Labour Party imposed him as a Labour candidate for Newham Council. Upon his election in May his career immediately progressed when he was both elected unopposed as Vice-Chair of Labour Group and became the Mayor of Newham’s deputy cabinet member for Inclusive Economy, Housing Delivery, Climate Emergency, and Council Performance and Transformation. (In Southwark a deputy cabinet member receives an annual special responsibility allowance of £3,088 but in Newham it is £19,242).

We decided to look at some other, neighbouring boroughs. With the exception of LBTH, none of them have the same mayoral model of government. They do operate with Chairs, vice-chairs and committees.

In Barking and Dagenham, Deputy Chairs get £2,500.

In Waltham Forest, Vice Chairs take an additional £2,379 pa.

Tower Hamlets doesn’t seem to pay Deputy Chairs. Nor does Redbridge; but Special Project Leads get £2,850.

This caused us to wonder about the pledge given by Fiaz in 2018, before she became mayor.

This was the Pledge from candidate Rokhsana Fiaz:

“I will…reduce the number and cost of Special Responsibility Allowances”

Apparently, this is still a work-in-progress.