Nurses win a pay rise ... but spending stops there, warns Treasury

NHS staff were offered a pay rise of at least 6.5 per cent yesterday – but the Treasury warned the deal will not be repeated for teachers, soldiers or civil servants.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt yesterday confirmed the death of the Government’s public sector pay cap with the announcement of the boost for health workers, which will cost £4.2billion over the next three years.

Under the terms of the deal, approximately 1.3million NHS employees will receive a pay rise of at least 6.5 per cent over three years.

Some staff will receive increases of up to 29 per cent, if they are the lowest paid employees in their specific roles.

The deal will be funded with new cash from government reserves.

Public sector unions seized on the announcement to call for bumper pay rises for other public sector workers.

But the Treasury moved quickly last night to stress that the health service was seen as a ‘special case’.

Sources confirmed that the 1 per cent pay cap – which had been due to run until 2020 – had been abandoned across the board.

But they warned that there will be no new money to fund additional increases, meaning any extra pay rises would have to come from efficiency savings or cuts to services.

Ending pay restraint for all 5.4million public sector workers would cost an estimated £5billion a year, which Philip Hammond is unwilling to find.

A Treasury source said: ‘ The Chancellor said there was light at the end of the tunnel [on austerity] and this is proof that that was not just words. But this is not a free-for-all on public sector pay. The 1 per cent cap has gone as government policy, and pay review bodies for other workforces are free to make the case for higher awards. But departments are funded on the basis of 1 per cent and that will not change. The NHS is being treated as a special case.’

Labour called for the pay rises to be extended to the other four million state employees, with health spokesman Jonathan Ashworth demanding: ‘When will the rest of the public sector get a pay deal?’

Half of the NHS workers are at the top of their pay band so will receive a 6.5 per cent increas, but the other half will get between 9 per cent and 29 per cent.

The pay of the lowest-paid staff, such as porters and cleaners, will increase by 15 per cent, while nurses are being offered their biggest wage increase in a decade.

Nurses with one year’s experi- ence will see their salary rise by 21 per cent, from £22,650 to £27,400 over three years. Midwives and physiotherapists are among those in line for the biggest increases.

Ministers hope the pay deal will boost morale and address the huge problem of staff shortages and retention.

Figures last month showed one in ten nursing posts were vacant, equivalent to 35,800 nurses.

Staff will now be asked to vote on the terms and if they all agree, the pay rises will start being introduced from July.

But the deal does not cover doctors, and the British Medical Association told the Government that it ‘must acknowledge the hard work and dedication of doctors’ next by giving them ‘a fair deal’.

A senior GP typically earns £103,000 a year while the average salaries of consultants range from £75,000 to £100,000 a year, depending

‘Not a public sector pay free-for-all ’

on their experience. But the BMA said doctors’ real pay had fallen by 20 per cent in the past decade due to rises in inflation and cost of living.

Downing Street said the pay deal for the NHS was ‘ an important and generous offer that recognises the professionalism and dedication of health workers up and down the country’.

Mr Hunt told MPs the deal ‘reflects public appreciation for just how much [NHS staff] have done and continue to do’.

Public sector pay restraint has played a key role in the Government’s efforts to clear Britain’s huge budget deficit left behind by Labour.

It became a major issue at last year’s general election, when Theresa May was publicly challenged by a cash-strapped nurse during a live TV debate.