MLAs to get £2,260 more to run their offices

Politics

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

By David Gordon

Assembly members found themselves at the centre of another expenses row last night, after a £2,660 hike brought their individual office running allowances up to £72,660 a year.

The increase, which will add up to £287,280 to the annual taxpayer-funded bill for the Assembly, has come into effect ahead of an independent review of members' remuneration.

It is being defended at Stormont as an automatic inflation-linked measure, based on long- standing provisions established by the NIO. But the same allowance jumped above the inflation rate a year ago, when it was increased from £48,000 to £70,000 by Secretary of State Peter Hain.

It has also been learned that the new increase is based on an inflation measurement not normally favoured by Government.

The Assembly confirmed that the £2,660 hike was calculated according to a Retail Price Index (RPI) inflation figure of 3.8%.

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) is the preferred Government measurement for inflation and is traditionally lower than the RPI level. The most recent CPI inflation figure was 2.5%.

The CPI rate is also often the basis for pay round negotiations in the private and public sectors.

Assembly pay and expenses levels are the subject of a study by the Senior Salaries Review Body.

Its report, due later this year, is expected to recommend a salary increase from the total of around £43,000 a year. MLAs' pay fell well behind their counterparts in Edinburgh and Cardiff during the long period when devolution was suspended. Any proposal for a significant salary rise at Stormont may provoke a major bust-up.

Reacting to the new office costs increase, Matthew Elliott of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "The never-ending growth in MLAs' expenses is an added burden for taxpayers at a time when we are all paying far too much already."

The office costs allowance is primarily used to cover staff salaries and constituency office rental costs.

"It has been the subject of a number of recent controversies, not least over the number of MLAs who have family members on their Stormont payroll.

Assembly politicians — unlike MPs — are permitted to rent constituency offices from relatives.

A number of MLAs fall into this category, including ex-Minister Ian Paisley Jnr who has been renting his Ballymena office from a firm headed by his father-in-law.

Some members rent premises from their political parties and are not required to provide independent rental valuations for party-owned premises.

An Assembly spokeswoman last night said the £2,660 increase was introduced this month.

"Office Costs Allowance (OCA) is paid to meet the expenses incurred by a member in connection with carrying out his or her Assembly duties," she added.

The disparities between the Assembly and Westminster on the use of office expenses are among the issues being highlighted in the Belfast Telegraph's Open Stormont campaign.