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July budget: four more years of pay restraint for nurses

George Osborne announced a pay rise of only 1% per year for the next four years for all public service workers. 

Nurses face another four years of pay restraint with annual rises of only 1%, chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne announced today.

Presenting his budget to the House of Commons, the first since the Conservatives won the general election in May, Mr Osborne said the government ‘will continue with recent public sector pay awards with a rise of 1% per year for the next four years’. 

He said: ‘There is a simple trade-off between pay and jobs in many public services. 

‘I know there has already been a period of restraint, but we said last autumn that we would need to find commensurate savings in this parliament.’

NHS workers in Scotland and Wales received 1% pay rises in 2015/16 as did those in England earning up to £56,500. 

There has still been no pay award in Northern Ireland for the same period. 

Only staff at the top of their pay bands got a 1% increase in 2014/15 in England.

The chancellor said the government’s priority is the NHS and it will fully fund NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens’ five-year plan for the health service. 

He added: ‘That plan requires challenging efficiency savings across the health service – which must be found. 

‘But it also requires additional government funding.’

The government committed to an extra £10 billion a year in real terms funding for the NHS by 2020.