A council has been accused of “champagne socialism” after voting to increase allowances by 10%.

Thanet District Council’s ruling Labour group argue the boost is justifiable because they have the lowest allowances in Kent, but opposition members have dubbed the move “distasteful.”

Elected members in the district receive a basic allowance of £4,570, an amount frozen since 2012/13 and the lowest in Kent.

But during a meeting of TDC’s full council at its base in Cecil Street, Margate on October 12, the authority’s ruling Labour group recommended all councillor allowances increase by 10%.

“There is no good time to increase member allowances, but there is also a point where it ceases to be sensible to avoid doing so,” council leader Cllr Rick Everitt (Lab) told members.

“None of us is here for the money whether that’s the basic allowance or the special responsibility allowances but it’s unreasonable to expect people to give up so much of their time for an ever-decreasing rate of compensation.”

Under the proposals, the basic allowance which all councillors receive would increase to £5,027 per year each - a total additional spend of £25,592.

Councillors who have extra roles such as cabinet posts or committee chairs get a special responsibility allowance on top of their basic allowance - with these also set to increase by 10%.

At TDC, they range from £400 to just over £18,000 - with the council leader taking the biggest extra allowance.

However, the council’s opposition Conservative group slated the decision.

“It's right none of us do this for the money, nor should we,” said group leader Cllr Reece Pugh (Con).

“We all do this in this chamber because we really care about making a positive contribution and difference to all of our residents' lives, it’s as simple as that.”

“Just for the record I’d like to remind our colleagues on the other side of the chamber of their alleged socialist credentials - I know champagne has gone up quite a lot in the last couple of years,” said Cllr John Davis (Con).

“I think it’s extremely churlish that when we’ve just awarded 5.7% to the dustmen who work very hard in adverse conditions that they would want to award themselves a 10% increase, but then I guess the Labour Party’s got to get its income from somewhere,” he quipped.

Responding, Cllr Kristian Bright (Lab) said: “This is purely about being socialist.

“This is purely about allowing anyone to represent their community, be they nurses, care workers, teachers, people on zero hours contracts.”

The council’s deputy leader Cllr Helen Whitehead argued that low allowances “skews democratic representation based on income and age and independent income.”

Citing the Local Government Association’s 2022 census statistics, she pointed out across the country 40% of councillors are retired, only 32% are employed, and only 16% are under 45.

“I’m actually surprised that some people in this chamber think that they do deserve a members allowance because a lot of the time they're receiving money for doing absolutely nothing,” argued Cllr Bertie Braidwood (Thanet Ind.)

The recommendation passed with the Conservative group and Thanet Independents voting against it.

TDC will now recommend the 10% increase to the East Kent Joint Independent Remuneration Panel - which will get the final say.