Friday March 20th 2026
Edinburgh City Chambers
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Joe Sullivan
Edinburgh councillors passed a pay rise for 21 of their own members – and spent most of the debate on the issue arguing about the history of government in the council.
At Thursday’s full council meeting, councillors voted to grant a pay increase to extra pay most ‘senior councillors’ – party leaders and committee conveners and vice-conveners – get.
But despite there being an opportunity for debate on the issue, councillors instead took the opportunity to disagree with one another about decisions made in the past.
By law, all councillors were granted a 3.3% base pay increase this year, but council officers recommended that the same increase be granted to the extra pay senior councillors get.
The Labour administration backed applying the increase, while the SNP group opposed it.
SNP group leader Simita Kumar said: “Councillors undertake a huge amount of work. I’m grateful that we’ve had better pay progress this term.
“However, we are requiring our staff and services to achieve savings. So how can we justify the increase?
“We have an administration that is made up of three parties who are trying to pull the wool over residents’ eyes.”
Edinburgh is governed by a minority Labour administration, which is in most cases supported on votes by the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives – but not always.
Liberal Democrat councillor Lewis Younie appeared to take issue with Cllr Kumar’s statement around his party being in the administration.
He said: “I think the SNP voted with the administration on the visitor levy. Does that make you part of the administration? No.
“Voting from opposition to have things amended in the budget is something that happens with every chamber where there is a minority administration.”
The debate then swung to which councillors are marked as senior councillors, and why.
Some in the chambers hold a belief that Labour has granted convener and vice-convener roles on various committees to the Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups to prop up their administration.
Another councillor chimed in: “We do have a council which is overpopulated with [senior councillors] because of the particular choices that have been taken by three groups in the council that are not necessary for the running of committees, but to maintain the political agreement that is here.”
Later in the exchange, Conservative councillor Phil Doggart said: “I think it’s quite important to realise that the SNP group on the last council were very happy to exclude the largest party on the council.”
Councillors continued to disagree about past decisions around why certain senior councillor roles exist, and whether the current arrangement in the council functioned as a coalition.
Almost entirely absent from the discourse was the question of whether the pay rise should be applied to the extra pay senior councillors get.
Im summing up the administration’s position, Labour councillor and finance convener Mandy Watt noted Edinburgh’s council tax increase was the lowest in Scotland.
She added that the increase in salaries will easily be met. All party groups, minus the SNP, voted for the pay increase to be applied for the extra pay senior councillors get.
Cllr Watt will get almost £900 more per year after the vote, together with the £857 pay boost for all councillors, putting her salary up to £54,407 per year.
Another 14 councillors, including the leaders of the SNP, Liberal Democrat and Conservative groups, got hikes of over £600 per year, which with the base pay increase put them on £46,138.
Council committee conveners got the same pay hike.
Depute council convener and Labour councillor Lezley Marion Cameron would get a boost of just over £300 to her SRA, bringing her up to £37,868.
Green group co-leaders, councillors Chas Booth and Kayleigh Kinross-O’Neill, would each get an SRA increase of just over £300 as well, bringing their compensation to £36,488.
The pair make less than other parties’ group leaders as the Green group splits their leadership role between two councillors
Vice-conveners would get an uplift of just over £350 on their SRAs, which with the base pay hike would bring them to £37,868 per year.
Council leader and Labour councillor Jane Meagher will bring home £73,879 this year, and Lord Provost Robert Aldridge will get £55,409.
However, their rates of compensation are set by statute, and therefore councillors have no power to amend them.
The party leaders who could get hikes of over £1,400 between the base pay boost and SRA increase are Conservative councillor Iain Whyte, Liberal Democrat councillor Ed Thornley and SNP councillor Simita Kumar.
Meanwhile, Labour committee conveners and councillors Stephen Jenkinson, Margaret Graham, Conor Savage, Joan Griffiths, Tim Pogson and James Dalgleish could get the same increase.
About a third of the 63 councillors who sit on Edinburgh Council are senior councillors.
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