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Rishi Sunak, the UK Chancellor, has indeed confirmed that this week’s spending review will likely include a pay freeze for many public sector workers in England, saying that it was “completely reasonable” to consider wage policy in the context of the economy affected by Covid. .
The prospect of a return to the pay freeze that lasted from 2010 to 2018 has drawn ire among opposition parliamentarians and unions, with Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC, calling it “morally obscene and bad economics.”
Government sources have already raised the possibility of a wage freeze in Wednesday’s spending review, which will cover just one year given the uncertain state of the economy amid the coronavirus.
NHS England doctors and nurses are expected to be exempt.
When asked to confirm the salary freeze, the chancellor told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “I cannot comment on the future pay policy before the expense review, but what I would say is that when we released the review In terms of spending, I told the departments that when we think of settlements it would be completely reasonable to think of them in the context of the broader economic climate – that’s reasonable.
“Second, I think it would be fair to also think about what is happening with wages, jobs, hours throughout the economy, when we think about what is right in the public sector.”
When asked whether he was therefore not ruling out a pay freeze, Sunak said: “You can ask me any question and say, are you ruling it out or ruling it out? When we launched the spending review, we said that when we think about sectoral payment that should be made in the context of the general economic climate. I think it’s completely reasonable.
“And we’ve also talked about fairness: we need to see what’s going on with wages, jobs, employment, hours, across the economy, when we calibrate and figure out what is the best we can do for the public sector as well.”
The chancellor denied that this amounted to a return to austerity, which the government has said has ended.
“You won’t see austerity next week,” Sunak said. “What you will see is an increase in government spending on daily public services, a fairly significant one, in addition to the increase we had last year.
“So there is absolutely no way anyone can say that this is austerity. We will spend more money on public services than before. “
Sunak also declined to confirm a longer-term extension for an increase in universal credit payments, introduced due to the coronavirus pandemic, which will end in April.
The chancellor said the change was made as part of the “acute phase of this crisis,” adding: “We keep everything under review and we will make the decisions that are right for the economy.”
O’Grady said she was “very concerned” about the likelihood of a new public sector wage freeze.
She said: “Millions of key workers took care of us during the crisis and continue to take care of us, and I think it’s time we took care of them. We saw the ministers join millions of us at the door, applauding firefighters, garbage collectors, welfare workers. I don’t think this is the time to reward them with a real pay cut. “
“The prime minister only in June promised that this was the end of austerity, there would be no more austerity. Surely the government does not believe that it can reintroduce austerity for the very people who risk their health, and in some cases their lives, to help the rest of us.
He added: “There is still time for the government to step back and encourage them to think again. This is not smart policy, it is morally obscene and it is also bad economics. “
