I'm not blaming anyone in particular. 100% of the pressures in politics are short term, 95% of the policy dilemmas are long term, and so government is basically a dialogue of the deaf. A wonk in one corner saying "we need difficult tax reform" and a PR guy responding "give me something for the Mail"

Worth noting that this data captures pay on 31 March each year - so reflects the end of the 2024/25 pay deal (which was a 5% uplift).

And doesn't yet show the impact of the 2025/26 pay deal announced earlier this year.

Overall civil service pay is now back above 2010 levels in real terms, for the first time since 2021.

And this really shows how recent pay deals have focused on the lowest paid - AO/AAs have seen a rise of 11.5% in real terms since 2023.

Though interesting that relocating SCS roles is still proving a challenge

Will be interesting to see what the government feels confident enough to commit to in the spending review in a couple of weeks

Also interesting that this follows the Politico story yesterday on govt looking at automating the work of many officials - even if this (and the £ savings attached) are *very* much blue-sky thinking at the moment

www.politico.eu/article/uk-g...

As we @instituteforgovernment.org.uk have always said, it's more efficient to target £ savings rather than numbers of people