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County councillors across Wales could receive pay rises of more than £1,000 from next April.

The body which sets the pay for councillors across Wales is proposing increasing councillor salaries by £1,066 per year to £18,666.

The Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales is also recommending increasing the basic salary of council leaders. This would see Caerphilly Council leader Sean Morgan’s yearly wage rise to £62,998 if plans go ahead – an increase of £3,598.

The current basic salary was a 4.76% rise on the previous figure after the panel said the “imbalance” between the basic salary and the average salaries of their constituents – measured against the Office for National Statistics’ 2020 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) data – needed to be reduced. 

This year’s increase is intended to retain the link between a councillor’s basic salary and average earnings and it will be aligned with three-fifths of the all Wales 2022 ASHE figure. 

The panel said the salary, paid on a basis of working three days a week, had fallen behind average earnings since the 2017 elections, which is why it has retained the link established last year – and it is “fully aware of the current constraints on public funding and the impact its decisions will have on budgets”. 

The basic salary is intended to “provide a fair and reasonable remuneration package” and is also intended to ensure people aren’t financially disadvantaged from serving as councillors. 

The pay rises for council leaders have also been determined in line with the ASHE figure. This means the leaders of Wales’ biggest councils, such as Cardiff and Rhondda Cynon Taf, will receive a salary of £69,998 from next April.

The panel has also recommended the pay for the largest opposition group leaders on both band B and C councils (which includes Caerphilly County Borough Council) is increased by £1,599, taking their salaries to £27,999.

Senior salaries paid to the leaders of other political groups, presiding officers or civic heads, such as a mayor or chairman, which aren’t paid by all councils, have been frozen. 

Town and community councils will, it is recommended, have to pay their members £156 a year (equivalent to £3 a week) towards the extra household expenses (including heating, lighting, power and broadband) of working from home and £52 a year for office costs required to carry out their role, or alternatively allow members to claim full reimbursement for office costs. 

The panel will be consulting on its plans until Friday, December 8. 

Councils must accept the pay awards, when confirmed by the panel, but individual councillors are able to decline all or part of the pay rises.