George Osborne made the announcements that business rates will be localised and local councils will be able to add 2 per cent to council tax to fund social care with some fanfare. Both of those are questionable decisions to say the least – more of which later. But in a matter of a couple of…
George Osborne announced a £3.8 bn pooled budget for health and social care in today’s Comprehensive Spending Review. To a certain extent this was a cheeky political attempt to steal some of Andy Burnham’s policy on health and social care integration. Genuinely building a system that links health and social care is good policy. It could help…
Another Spending Review, yet more bad news for public services and the people who work in them. There were three key mentions of public service pay and jobs in today’s statement, although there will be more implications hidden in the small print. Firstly, the Chancellor announced ‘further reductions in the number of people working in the public…
The most sweeping changes to our NHS since its inception were put in place on Monday. But as the new system grinds into gear the fight continues, including an immediate battle over the competition regulations at the heart of the ‘reforms’. There’s a chance to defeat this core element of the Government’s plans in Parliament…
Public service pay was squeezed yet further in the Budget. Most public sector workers have faced a two-year pay freeze – three years in local government – followed by the prospect of two years with increases capped at a measly 1 per cent, leaving real wages and living standards falling. Today the Chancellor announced yet another year…
A flurry of activity by unions, health specialists, politicians and campaigners has borne fruit today, with the announcement that the Government will re-write the NHS competition regulations that have caused such a furore. But vigilance will be needed to make sure the government can’t get away with a watered-down version of the same thing. As…
Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt has proposed new regulations under section 75 of the Health and Social Care Act. The Act became law last March after a long and hard-fought campaign, and these regulations (SI 257) are secondary legislation. This means they’re assumed to simply deliver the detail of the original Act and…
Amid the grim news from the Autumn Statement, many public sector workers will have breathed a rare sigh of relief when the Chancellor announced that the government would not be pressing ahead with local or regional pay in the NHS, civil service or prisons. But teachers have been singled out for a divisive and damaging…
Today the TUC published research by the New Economics Foundation which comprehensively debunks the government’s arguments for localising public sector pay. It also models the economic impact that the proposals could have, finding that they could cost the economy up to £9.7bn per year. Even in the ‘best case’ scenario, accepting the government’s highly contestable argument that public…
Over the last few days there have been reports that the Chancellor is considering introducing regional or local pay for some public sector workers in the Budget. As colleagues have blogged before, public sector pay supports local and regional economies, ensures fairness and transparency and promotes equal pay. Moving away from this to a system that would entrench…