Regional pay rates under fire

Yorkshire's Labour MPs have slammed the government's plans to introduce regional pay rates for public sector workers.  The New Economics Foundation published a report on 16 July saying that the plan could cost £1.5bn to the Yorkshire economy.

Wakefield MP Mary Creagh said: "This report confirms what we already knew. The government's plan to move to regional and local pay bargaining will hit Wakefield's public sector workers hard. Many households are already seeing their incomes squeezed by rising food, fuel and energy prices, the VAT hike to 20%, and wage freezes. This latest attack on hard working people could cause a race to the bottom in the north as wages struggle to keep up with the rising cost of living. This will also hit the regional economy as people have less money to spend.

I voted for a Motion in the House of Commons last month that expressed concern about the impact of regional pay and opposed the weakening of national pay structures. Sadly the Government failed to listen to these concerns and the Motion was defeated. Labour will continue to oppose these ill-thought out plans."

Read the report here

The Yorkshire Post covered the story here: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/business-news/regional-pay-rates-plan-under-fire-1-4743262