Government tight-lipped on scrapping 1% pay cap

DOWNING Street has described as “speculation” reports that Theresa May might be preparing to end the long-standing 1% cap on pay rises in the public sector.

The Sun reported an announcement of an end to the seven-year cap was expected to form the centrepiece of Chancellor Philip Hammond’s autumn Budget.

With the Treasury due to send out letters within weeks setting out the remit for public sector pay review bodies for next year’s pay round, pressure is mounting on Mr Hammond to allow them greater flexibility to recommend more generous rises.

According to The Sun, one plan under consideration could see the lowest-paid public sector workers, along with groups with the biggest retention problems such as nurses and senior civil servants, granted a pay rise at least in line with inflation next April, with restraint for others lifted in 2019.

Asked whether the Prime Minister was planning to end the cap, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: “The process is that the Treasury writes to the independent public sector pay bodies in the autumn to set out their remit, the departments submit evidence and those bodies make their recommendations and we confirm settlements for workforces. That process is ongoing and I’m not going to comment on speculation on what might or might not happen at the end of that.”