News round-up 17/6: Public sector pay freeze will save £1.5bn Your daily round-up of all the key stories affecting local government Spending Review Up to £1.5bn will be saved in the upcoming Spending Review through a public sector pay freeze, according to Treasury estimates, says the Financial Times. Hundreds of millions of pounds of further savings will be garnered through the ending of “pay progression” in several Government departments, it adds. Departments set to terminate pay progression mechanisms as part of their Spending Review settlements will include the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Department for International Development and the Home Office. More broadly, “only a handful” of departments are still “holding out against the Treasury”, reports the paper, including defence, transport and business. Speaking over the weekend, Prime Minister David Cameron pledged that “efficiencies” would be found in defence spending, but that the army, air force and navy would not see reductions in number. In other public sector news, the FT describes the publication of a Government-commissioned IPPR report into the civil service as foreshadowing “far-reaching changes in the relationship between ministers and their officials”. It recommends giving the Prime Minister responsibility for choosing permanent secretaries, and permitting the appointment of larger personal teams by Ministers in order to “drive policy implementation” in their departments. Whitehall The Conservative MP Dominic Raab has said nearly half the departments in Whitehall should be shut to save billions of pounds, the Daily Telegraph reports. Devolution LGA chair Sir Merrick Cockell has said people living in England should have their own minister to fight their corner because they are faring worse than Scotland and Wales in spending decisions, the Daily Telegraph reports. It says Sir Merrick said in an interview with the newspaper that when he met his Scottish and Welsh counterparts he “sat there in amazement” that they “are not having to endure the savings that we have to.” And more... lgcplus/news/news-round-up-17/6-public-sector-pay-freeze-will-save-15bn/5059914.article
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:46:41 +0000
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