Brown fuels public-sector anger with curb on pay rises

Salaries: Teachers and civil servants win awards at or below inflation while the Lord Chancellor receives a 12.6 per cent increase

Gordon Brown's determination to maintain "long-term discipline" on public spending provoked an angry response from unions yesterday after he imposed what amounted to a pay freeze on teachers.

While teachers had to settle for a 2.9 per cent rise, exactly in line with inflation, the armed forces, who are preparing for war in Iraq, fared slightly better. Most ranks receive a 3.2 per cent rise, with 3.7 per cent for the two lowest ranks.

Top civil servants will receive a 2.25 per cent basic increase, although bonuses will take most to about 3 per cent. Judges will be paid another 2.75 per cent, although their political master, Lord Irvine of Lairg, the Lord Chancellor, has won a 12.6 per cent increase.

MPs and ministers, after several sharp rises in recent years, will be paid another 2.25 per cent, in line with the civil service settlement.

The modest increases, which will cost the Treasury more than £800m, were recommended by a series of pay review bodies. Unions claimed the bodies had come under pressure from the Treasury only to endorse rises broadly in line with inflation.

Mr Brown, speaking in Wolverhampton, said he was determined to "lock in" the Government's "tough and disciplined" approach to inflation, tying improvements in pay to reform in the public services.

"That is why, just as we must have discipline on pay in the private sector, there must be continued and long-term discipline in the decisions – as today – on public-sector pay," he said. "And as we look forward to the conclusion of other pay negotiations, let us remind ourselves that every pay settle-ment must be linked to productivity so that investment in our public services is matched by reform."

His comments were seen as a warning that the Government was not about to offer fresh concessions to end the five-month firefighters' dispute.

But teachers' leaders warned that their 2.9 per cent increase would extend problems of recruitment and retention in the profession.

Downing Street said the package meant a newly qualified London teacher starting in 1997 had received "a real increase of 68 per cent" as their pay would have risen from £14,280 to £26,460 this September. But teachers' leaders pointed out that most of the increase would have come from annual increments as they moved up the pay scale and that rises in the starting salary had been pegged to the level of inflation in four out of the past five years. Yesterday's package means a new starting salary of £18,105 (£21,522 in inner London) and a top salary for heads of the largest secondary schools of £94,098. The package gave bigger rises of at least 4 per cent to teachers in inner London – where the two main unions, the NUT and National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, have been taking strike action.

In addition, those at the top of the pay scale will qualify for a £4,000 performance-related pay rise in future, compared with £2,148 in the rest of the country. Heads and deputies will get rises of up to 10 per cent.

Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "The Government is treating teachers with contempt. It has frozen teachers' pay at the level of inflation. It will have no positive effect on recruitment and retention."

Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, said the measures would help London's pupils "in attracting and retaining senior and talented teachers". John Puckrin, a London branch secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: "Clearly, it will help in terms of retaining staff but the proposals won't do anything to help recruit good young teachers because they are skewed towards the top end."

The rises for the armed forces were welcomed by the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, as recognition of their "exceptional contribution". The pay of a private will increase from £12,578 to £13,045. At the other end of the scale a brigadier's salary rises from a band of between £73,737 and £76,880 to between £76,095 and £79,340.

The MP: 2.25% rise

In common with more than 500 backbenchers, Graham Allen will see his pay rise by 2.25 per cent from £55,118 to £56,940. A former union research and education officer, he says he took a pay cut when he became Labour MP for Nottingham North in 1987 on a salary of £18,500. Since then, MPs have had several above-inflation rises to bring their pay closer in line with other professionals. Today their increases are linked to civil servants' pay. Mr Allen claims most backbenchers could still earn far more outside Westminster. "I don't think anyone in the Commons of any party is in it for the money," he says.

Nigel Morris

The teacher: 4% rise

Kim Knappett said the package would help retain senior teachers in London – but would not attract enough new teachers to overcome the acute staffing shortages. Ms Knappett, 38, deputy head of science at Forest Hill Boys' School in Lewisham, south London, has been a teacher for "15 or 16 years". Currently earning £33,000, she will get a rise of 4 per cent – plus an extra £1,856 through the doubling of "threshold" rises, payable to good teachers at the top of the pay scale, for inner London. "It is going to help retain staff but not going to help us recruit younger staff," she said. But, she said, the younger teachers at her school were struggling to pay their rents on their lower salaries.

Richard Garner

The soldier: 3.2% rise

Sergeant Craig Winter, of the Queen's Royal Lancers, has one consolation as he prepares for what may be a lengthy military deployment in the Gulf. The pay band for sergeants is to rise by 3.2 per cent, slightly above inflation, from £23,722 - £29,244 to £24,532 - £30,178. Those on the lowest pay, such as lance corporals and privates and their equivalents in the RAF and Royal Navy, will see wages rise by 3.7 per cent. The longer separation allowances for personnel on extended postings away from families will also be uprated. The top military brass will get awards slightly below inflation, fixed at 2.25 per cent.

Nigel Morris

The judge: 7.15% rise

Lord Woolf, the most senior judge in England and Wales, was one of the biggest winners in yesterday's public sector pay round. His annual slary from April will rise to £200,236, an increase of £15,000. The Senior Salaries Review Board recommended that the Lord Chief Justice's salary had "slipped" by £10,000 below that of the most senior civil servant, the Cabinet Secretary. Lord Woolf also benefited from an across-the-board pay settlement for judges of 2.75 per cent and a 4.4 per cent increase that they will receive from April as the second and final stage of last year's pay rise.

Robert Verkaik