FIGURES showing that more than half of Scotland’s councillors own property while only seven percent are tenants “underlining” barriers for minority groups seeking elected office, an investigation has found.
The National’s exclusive series delving into the registers of interests of almost 1200 local authority members in 31 council’s has already uncovered that almost 60% have second jobs, with 124 employed as parliamentary staffers for MSPs and MPs. We told how the £18,600 councillor salary has been cited as a factor, with umbrella body Cosla campaigning for a Real Living Wage to be brought in.
In the third and final instalment, our analysis focused on the housing entries of each councillor where publicly available. We categorised entries from 28 local authorities, with Highland, East Dunbartonshire and East Ayrshire stating the housing entries for the register are available in person only and there was no legal requirement for it to be online, while Moray and Falkirk did not respond to our press request. Glasgow entries stated the location.
