MORE than 120 councillors have second jobs as political staffers, an exclusive data analysis by The National has found.
The popularity of the role for councillors is largely down to flexibility, it has been argued, after we put our findings to politicians. As the local authority role only has a base salary of just over £18,600, many representatives are evidently having to take on extra responsibilities to make ends meet and parties are facilitating.
Last week, all 32 local authority chiefs at Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) passed a motion condemning the Scottish Budget as a “massive real-terms cut in councils’ core funding”. The implications of this on councillor pay is yet unknown, with a joint-review due to begin in early 2023.
