Thread by @faisalislam

NEW:

To dig down into our 4000 person survey on cost of living cutbacks, I go to Peterlee, Durham, for #BBCNewsSix /Ten, and hear some hard on the ground realities, on food bank donors becoming recipients, donations drying up, uncollected prescriptions

bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0…

NEW:

Treasury spells out publicly theres no “automaticity” between inflation & wages, expectations of public sector wage rises matching inflation are “unrealistic” and could lead to a 70s style inflationary crisis.
Pay review bodies now reporting back…

bbc.co.uk/news/business-…

Chief Secretary, when asked if people should expect wages to match inflation:

“some of the answer to that is pay. But what we can't do is have unrealistic expectations around pay, which do in turn prolong and intensify this endless inflation problem”

When asked specifically about pub sector pay review bodies which have started to report back, & whether CPI at 9% was relevant, CST stressed their independence and decisions were for departments, but: “there isn't any automaticity, if you like between inflation and pay setting”

PRBs “need to be conscious if we ended up in a world where we are saying that all settlements, try and match inflation or indeed exceeded it, then ..we are actually creating the conditions whereby those expectations become baked in and become self fulfilling. that is the risk”

CST: “we need to be very careful to avoid, as I say, fueling an inflationary spiral in a way, which actually is to everyone's detriment, it will allow it to run away from us. that is, what the governments of the 70s failed to address & what we need to prevent occurring in 2020s.”

CST Clarke: “early signs” are “encouraging” “sensible progress being made” on pay. “a lot of workforces will see they are getting good pay offers…that's to be welcomed. Though “isn't an automatic link between what those offers are and inflation & there are good reasons for that”