Cllr Howard Sykes, LGA Liberal Democrat Group Leader, said, “Liberal Democrats have always believed that public sector workers should have a pay rise, and made that a key pledge in our general election manifesto – but a pledge that we made clear had to be funded by central government.
“Given that central government have refused to fund this to date, the 2% suggestion then came out of the blue. Councils have budgeted for the 1%, plus the substantial increases for those at the low end of the pay scales via the national living wage. We suggested a compromise of 1.5% which was dismissed by Labour, so supported the previously agreed line of 1%. A vote like this has only happened once before in the last 28 years.
The worry is now that the government will not fund this pay rise and it will be funded by job cuts and further cuts to Council services.”