Public sector pay rises frozen at 1%

PAY rises for the public sector will be fixed at just 1 per cent for the next four years – weeks after it emerged MPs will be getting a 10 per cent hike.

The Chancellor said the latest squeeze on the pay of nurses, policemen, firemen and teachers will save taxpayers at least £5 billion a year by 2020.

But the unions hit out at the ‘miserly’ increases at a time when MPs are in line for a generous pay rise, taking their salaries from £67,060 to £74,000.

The Chancellor will see his pay rise by 5.2 per cent to £141,505.

Although the 1 per cent award is equivalent to a small real-terms rise because inflation is so low, when inflation starts to rise it will become a real-terms cut. Mr Osborne told MPs that the pay restraint was necessary to save jobs in the public sector.

He added: ‘I know there has already been a period of restraint, but we said last autumn that we would need to find commensurate savings in this Parliament.

‘To ensure we have public services we can afford, and protect more jobs, we will continue recent public sector pay awards with a rise of 1 per cent per year for the next four years.’

Dave Penman, of the senior civil servants’ union FDA, said: ‘The Chancellor said today that “Britain deserves a pay rise and Britain is getting a pay rise”. Unless, of course, you’re a public servant. Public servants are being asked to deliver a further £13 billion of spending cuts, yet many of them will be taking home less pay than they did in 2010.’

Unison’s Dave Prentis said: ‘Capping wages at a miserly 1 per cent for four more years for public sector workers will hasten the reluctant exit of many dedicated staff from our hospitals, schools and local councils.

‘Pay austerity might be over for MPs, but it’s set to continue for many more years for everyone else in the public sector.’

Shadow Chancellor Chris Leslie said the continuation of the 1 per cent policy was ‘difficult and a lot more than public sector workers were expecting’, but ‘we accept that pay restraint is sadly necessary’.