Public sector’s 3.5% pay rise is the biggest for a decade

But unions moan it’s not enough!

Union leaders last night complained that plans to give a million public sector workers the biggest pay rise in almost a decade were still not enough.

Ministers announced the Armed Forces, teachers, doctors, dentists, prison officers and the police would get boosts to their salaries of up to 3.5 per cent.

The bumper rises mark the end of the public sector pay cap, which has limited annual rises to 1 per cent for the past six years.

Members of the Armed Forces will receive a rise of 2 per cent with an extra one-off payment worth 0.9 per cent, meaning an average soldier will get £980 extra this year.

Teachers will receive a 3.5 per cent rise, worth between £800 and £1,366, while prison officers will get at least a 2 per cent increase.

Police officers will get a 2 per cent rise, taking average pay to more than £38,600 a year.

Junior and specialist doctors, gPs and dentists will get a pay increase of at least 2 per cent. Consultants will also get a pay rise of at least £1,150.

The institute for Fiscal Studies (iFS) estimated the hikes will cost around £800million per year extra, compared to the 1 per cent increases previously planned for.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury liz Truss said it was ‘fantastic news just before the summer for a million workers’. She told MPs: ‘we didn’t listen to the siren calls from the opposition for damaging splurges.

‘That’s why today we’re able to scrap the cap and increase public sector pay.’ But labour and the unions complained that departments had been told they will have to fund the increases through efficiency savings or cuts to services, rather than from extra cash from the Treasury.

Jeremy Corbyn called for public sector workers to get rises of 5 per cent across the board, but did not say how he would pay for it. He told an audience in Birmingham: ‘The government has said it’s going to lift the pay cap.

‘The reality is that it’s going to be an increase that’s below the rate of inflation.

‘The unions have said 5 per cent is what is needed for it and we support that.’

Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Peter Dowd said: ‘This is a mendacious PR exercise. After eight years of real terms pay cuts for employees in the public sector, our police officers, junior doctors, some specialist doctors, gPs, dentists, are all being offered a further real terms pay cut.’ Union leaders lined up to demand even higher increases. TUC general Secretary Frances o’grady said: ‘These pay settlements are a long way from good enough.

‘Many public sector workers will still get pay settlements that are less than inflation, so the pay misery will continue.’

Unison assistant general secretary Christina McAnea said the government was ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’, adding: ‘without extra money from the Treasury to fund these pay increases, services and jobs somewhere will have to be cut.’