Plans to cut pay for public workers slammed by Coventry MPs

[dutchman]

Budget plans to reduce pay for thousands of public sector workers in Coventry and Warwickshire have been attacked by city MPs.

Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson blasted Tory chancellor George Osborne over plans for local variations in public sector pay, and cutting the 50p income tax rate for the richest earning over £150,000.

With both measures expected in tomorrow’s Budget, Mr Robinson was joined by fellow city Labour MP Jim Cunningham in blasting: “What planet are they on?”

Conservative MPs in Warwickshire backed the chancellor, insisting both controversial policies could help boost private sector jobs and growth in the long run.

But Rugby MP Mark Pawsey urged the chancellor not to cut the 50p tax rate, saying: “I don’t think now is the right time.”

The chancellor is expected to announce a phased scrapping of national pay agreements, which result in public sector workers on the same grades getting similar pay regardless of local variations in private sector wages.

Mr Pawsey supported Mr Osborne’s view that the resulting higher pay for public sector workers in the regions made it more difficult for private firms to compete when hiring workers.

But Mr Robinson, Coventry North West MP, said: “This is taking money out of the regions and putting it back in London. I don’t know what they’re thinking of. It will depress the West Midlands economy further.

“It will hit living standards further and have a knock-on effect on private sector firms, with less money in the regional economy.”

On the 50p tax rate, Mr Robinson said: “What planet are they on? To worry about the best off at this stage is the wrong priority. It shows we’re not ‘all in this together’.

[dutchman]

This won't be a popular view but there's no reason why people should be paid the same amount regardless of where they live. It costs far more to live in London for example than in Liverpool.

It was a concession won by the leaders of national unions in the 1960s at the height of their influence, more to bolster their own positions than the people they were supposed to represent. As a result we now have a shortage of public workers in London and the South East and a glut of unemployment in the rest of the country.

Welfare benefits could also be based on what people could earn doing a job locally, not on some supposed 'national average'. Housing benefit is already limited in a similar way.