Ipsa defends ‘cost neutral’ plan to amend salaries and expenses
The body that sets MPs’ salaries has confirmed it is to press ahead with plans to give them an 11 per cent pay rise in 2015.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) intends to raise salaries for members of Parliament by £7,600 to £74,000.
But the pay watchdog has insisted the move will not cost taxpayers “a penny more”, because "resettlement" payments will be abolished, some allowances for MPs’ second homes will be scrapped and pensions will be reformed.
The 11 per cent pay rise is also intended to be a “one-off”, with future salary increases for MPs linked to average earnings.
However, the plans for a double-digit increase have drawn criticism from all quarters, including MPs themselves.
When the proposals were first floated last week, prime minister David Cameron said: “I think it would be wrong for MPs to get a big pay rise at a time of public sector pay restraint.”
Chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, added that such a pay rise would be “wholly inappropriate”.
But Ipsa has defended the changes. Its chairman, Sir Ian Kennedy, said: “We are sweeping away the out-of-date and overly generous benefits, and introducing a one-off uplift in pay. Crucially, thereafter MPs’ pay will be linked to everyone else’s.
“We have designed these reforms so they do not cost the taxpayer a penny more,” he continued. “When taken with the tens of millions we have saved by reforming the business cost and expenses regime, we have saved the taxpayer over £35 million with the changes we have introduced since 2010.”
The watchdog added that public opposition to the pay rise was not as widespread as reports had suggested, and a consultation had found the public was “split down the middle” on its plan.
Andrew McDonald, Ipsa's chief executive, said: “This shows us something important: this is an issue where the public has a more nuanced, and split, opinion than the reactive howls of ‘outrage’ from some commentators and politicians."
Ipsa was established in 2009 in the wake of the MPs’ expenses scandal, and was also designed to avoid MPs having to vote on their own salary increases. The body does not therefore need parliamentary approval to push through the 11 per cent pay rise.