Sunak wants to balance the books on the backs of hardworking public servants

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has written to government departments in advance of the spending review next month warning them that public sector pay must be kept under control.

In his letter to Secretaries of State Sunak said “Those working in the public sector have, on average, better remuneration packages than those in the private sector, with Covid also demonstrating the significant value of job security”.

General Secretary of Prospect Mike Clancy, responded:

“The idea that public sector pay has to be cut to ensure fairness with the private sector has never been accurate, in fact we know from our recent Judicial Review that the Cabinet Office has been advising Ministers that pay levels and pay increases in the civil service are increasingly lagging behind the private sector.

“A decade of pay austerity has seen the gap widen particularly for specialist and highly skilled posts. Many civil service employers openly admit they can’t compete on pay with other areas of the private and public sector in the battle for skills.

“If the Chancellor wants a proper and informed debate about pay he should agree to our repeated call for a pay review body which would ensure that decisions on pay are truly about fairness, and not about trying to balance the books on the back of dedicated public servants.”