What Credit Crunch?


Huge Pay Hike for W12's London Assembly Rep

The London Assembly representative for Shepherd’s Bush is to get a new allowance for his work, adding an extra £55,000 to his salary.

Kit Malthouse, who represents the West Central constituency, is to receive the allowance for his role as Vice-Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA). This will come on top of the £54,000 he already earns as a London Assembly Member. 

Previously, Assembly Members appointed to the MPA were not paid any extra but new legislation has now made this possible.

The amount Malthouse will receive is calculated on the basis that he will be doing the job five days a week. MPA documents say his role “is a significant one in terms of the time commitment, the complexity of the issues that have to be dealt with and the public profile,” and add that Malthouse “believes this is a full time role”. 

But this has prompted questions about how the Vice-Chairman will also be able carry out his LA constituency work as well as his duties as Deputy Mayor for Policing - his third role.

In a BBC interview, London Assembly Member Jenny Jones of the Green Party said:  "It looks very greedy to me. I think that if you are getting paid for doing three jobs, you should do three jobs and I think that is absolutely impossible. To me this is snouts in the trough and I just find it very unacceptable."

Malthouse told ShepherdsBushW12.com: "My position as MPA Vice-Chairman means that I am working for my constituents to get the best policing for London. In addition to that, I attend to all my duties here at City Hall which includes plenary sessions of the London Assembly and the Mayor's question time. I handle case work from constituents in my West Central constituency in the same way an MP with ministerial duties would." 

When asked about his constituency work since his election as West Central representative last May – a constituency which comprises the City of Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham and Kengsington and Chelsea – Malthouse said he had brokered a deal between the police and Hammersmith & Fulham Council to police the Westfield shopping centre, introduced the knife crime operation “Blunt 2”, and brought in the Congestion Charge western extension consultation.   

The move to award extra money to LA members aroused some controversy at the first MPA meeting chaired by Mayor Boris Johnson: “Although it attracted only minimal discussion, there was some criticism of plans to pay London Assembly members an allowance for their work on the (Metropolitan Police) Authority,” the MayorWatch website says.

The £55,000 is meant to be paid to the head of the MPA, but as Johnson himself has taken on this role, Malthouse will receive the allowance instead.

But the Allowance Scheme could hardly have come in at a worse time: according to the Financial Times, the MPA has around £30m deposited in collapsed Icelandic banks and it is still not clear how much, if any, it will be able to get back.

The new allowances came into effect on 10 October.

Yasmine Estaphanos

17 October 2008