What’s next in David Cameron’s intray? If he’s feeling butch and fancies a fight, he might want to consider bringing public sector pay and pensions into line with the private sector.
Policy Exchange believes aligning public sector pay would save £6.3 billion in public spending and create up to 288,000 new jobs. Its report, Local Pay, Local Growth, which it published yesterday, points out that the average ‘premium’ for public sector workers is now seven per cent higher than workers doing similar jobs in the private sector. In some parts of the country, that premium rises to as much as 25 per cent.
The think tank argues this is unfair, and that the money could be better spent tackling local unemployment. This is all very persuasive, but Cameron knows that the trade unions and Labour will hardly be willing to roll over on this.
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