Duo of advisers to Mayor Philip Glanville look set to receive £37,000 annually

Philip Glanville, Mayor of Hackney

Mayor of Hackney Philip Glanville’s duo of advisers look set to receive £18,500 a year each for their work for him – on top of the basic allowance of around £10,000 that they receive as Hackney councillors.

Cllr Rebecca Rennison and Cllr Sem Moema were appointed last month by Glanville following the mayoral election at which he gained a whopping 69 per cent of the vote.

Both will advise him on housing issues – one on affordable homes, the other on homelessness.

Though the amount in remuneration to be paid to the pair by Hackney’s ratepayers is yet to be finalised, a report refers to a “cost” of £37,000 annually to create two mayoral adviser posts. It will be considered at a council meeting tonight.

Cllr Abraham Jacobson, a Liberal Democrat and one of the few opposition voices on the council, said the sum was “not to be sniffed at”.

Councillors are also being asked to approve changes to the council’s constitution to allow Glanville to appoint “any number of mayoral advisers” – even though he has already appointed two.

A spokesperson for the council insisted that the absence of any mention of advisers in the current version of its constitution should not be taken to mean that the Mayor was not entitled to appoint any.

Asked what, therefore, was the point of changing the constitution, they told the Hackney Citizen: “The constitution has to be updated so it reflects the current position as to the council’s corporate governance and decision-making processes. That is a legal requirement.

“If it is not updated to reflect that the mayor has appointed mayoral advisers then it would be out of date.

“The council has a duty to ensure its constitution is always updated to keep apace of changes in its corporate governance. The mayor does not make changes to the constitution, full council does, hence the report going to full council tonight.”