Public servants in poorer regions to get lower pay

[oldironside]

George Osborne will announce plans to pay lower salaries to public sector workers in poorer parts of the country in his budget next week.

The chancellor will argue that public sector pay should mimic the private sector and be more reflective of local economies. He intends to start the process in three Whitehall departments in the coming financial year, as part of a phased introduction.

Critics say the move will entrench economic divisions between north and south and depress regions of the country already struggling in the economic downturn.

It has not yet been decided if localised pay will apply only to new staff or to existing staff as well, but it was being stressed that no current employee would suffer a pay cut. Instead pay levels will gradually be adjusted to take account of costs, leading to larger pay rises in the south-east where some labour shortages exist.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/mar/16/public-servants-poorer-regions-lower-pay

What the UK needs is...

It does NOT need...

... or...

[LeftishBrit]

1. Cameron and Osborne are such arrogant, vicious idiots

They have a virulent hatred of poorer areas of Britain, especially the North. They also hate the public sector,despite the fact that they themselves have worked for it for almost all their working lives. This is indeed one of the ugly paradoxes of modern Conservativism: government managed by people who despise government. If someone applied for a job with a firm in the private sector, and kept sneering at the firm and saying they wanted to bring it down, they wouldn't get a job there. Yet you can become Prime Minister while having contempt for the public sector, and that is very worrying.

[fedsron2us]

2. There is actually a more fundamental issue here than simple pay differentials

Last edited Sat Mar 17, 2012, 12:42 PM - Edit history (1)

Although he may not realise it Osbourne's move on public sector salaries lights the blue touch paper on the whole issue of national tax rates. If it costs less money to build, staff and run a hospital in Newcastle than London then surely that difference in costs should be reflected in local tax rates as it would in the USA or Switzerland. Why should people in Scotland, Wales and the North pay the same rates of national tax as those in the South East when their services cost so much less to provide. This is particularly true of areas such as VAT and fuel duty where the income differential is not going to be clawed back by the tax system. As usual the Tories and Osborne want it both ways. They would like regional and local pay for public workers but they will not give the people of the regions control over their local levels of taxation or how their money is spent. Thus even in areas of tax that are supposed to be 'local' such as Business Rates and Council Tax the Treasury want either explicit control over the charge or else try to control local councils through 'capping'. In reality Osbourne is simply asking the regions to provide a hidden subsidy to the parts of the country where the Tory vote is strongest. This move should be a massive boost to the Nationalists in Scotland and Wales who now have some real ammo on the cost of the Union to fire at their enemies in Westminster. The English regions may also have pause for thought at what exactly they are getting out of the current constitutional arrangement. I suspect we may look back and see this move as another nail in the coffin of the United Kingdom as a political entity