'Public sector pay obviously has got to reflect prevailing conditions, and in particular inflation has come way down,' Mr Darling told Sky. -- PHOTO: AP
LONDON - A PAY freeze for Britain's six million public sector workers would be one of the least painful ways of rebalancing the public finances, the head of the country's independent spending watchdog said on Sunday.
ELECTION PRESSURE
WITH an election less than a year away, debate over how to curb the deficit has become a hot political issue.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour government, trailing in opinion polls, says the opposition Conservatives would make big cuts in public services. The Conservatives accuse the government of playing fast and loose with the public finances but have pledged to protect frontline services in schools and hospitals.
Mr Steve Bundred, chief executive of the Audit Commission, criticised politicians for failing to be honest about the need for cutbacks and said health and education should not be excluded.
'At a time when inflation is likely to be between 2 per cent and 3 per cent, a pain-free way of cutting public spending would be to freeze public sector pay,' he wrote in the Observer newspaper.
Britain's public deficit is forecast to reach 175 billion pounds (S$417.6 billion) this year, more than 12 per cent of gross domestic product.
In an interview on Sky television, Finance Minister Alistair Darling did not rule out a pay freeze and said the government would be looking at wage settlements over the next few weeks.
'Public sector pay obviously has got to reflect prevailing conditions, and in particular inflation has come way down,' Mr Darling told Sky.
'And of course we have got to be fair with regard to people who work in the private sector, many of whom have seen their pay conditions somewhere near freeze.'
