Councillors in Basingstoke and Deane will likely have their pay frozen next year.

Members of the borough council voted to keep their allowances in line with any change in pay awarded to officers, with it likely that the government will freeze the pay of council employees for the 2021-22 year.

It comes after one councillor labelled the possibility of members voting to increase their pay whilst members of the public have seen massive dips in their income this year as "morally wrong and socially unjust".

But all councillors will be entitled to at least £7,299 - with the most handsomely paid councillor receiving more than £31,000 over the course of the year.

Cllr Colin Phillimore, the independent representative of Overton, Laverstoke and Steventon, told the meeting: "These are extraordinary times.

"I believe it is morally wrong and socially unjust [to increase councillors' pay] at a time when many of our residents are struggling with the effects of a global pandemic, economically and medically.

"Our residents that are furloughed have experienced a 20 per cent reduction in their pay, our brilliant nurses are only being offered a derisory one per cent increase in their pay, public sector pay is frozen, and council tax payers have had to stomach an increase."

Cllr Phillimore was supported by Cllr Andy McCormick (Labour, Brighton Hill South), who said that it was "extremely unfair for councillors to have a pay rise when our staff don't".

Allowances for borough councillors in Basingstoke and Deane, which they can choose to return all or a part of, are set by an index which sees it linked to the pay change of the employees of the council.

Whilst the government has announced a public sector pay freeze for 2021-22, this is still subject to the negotiations.

But after an assurance from BDBC's head of law and governance, Fiona Thomsen, that councillors' allowances would only go up in the event that the government backtracked and awarded officers an increase, a majority of councillors backed the scheme.

Ms Thomsen said: "I can one hundred per cent guarantee that it is linked to whatever the officers may get."

Councillors backed the motion by 49 votes to 2, with only Cllr Phillimore and his Overton colleague Cllr Ian Tilbury voting against.

Three councillors - Terri Reid, Clive Sanders and Mark Taylor - abstained, all of whom are standing down at May's elections.