POLICE officers would be \u201cdevastated\u201d if their pay was \u2013 once again \u2013 frozen, this time in order to help pay for the coronavirus debt, Essex Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
Some newspapers have reported that the Government is considering a two-year public sector pay freeze, among other measures, to fund the UK\u2019s deficit. The deficit could reach \u00a3337 billion this year because of coronavirus, up from the \u00a355 billion forecast in March\u2019s Budget.<\/p>\n
Other newspapers have reported that Boris Johnson has said there is \u201cno question\u201d of freezing public sector pay and that there will not be a return to austerity measures.<\/p>\n
Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor said: \u201cHaving suffered through the indignity of the first round of austerity, I\u2019d like to think anyone with any sense can appreciate that the funding for policing in particular was cut too fast, too deep, and we have paid a price for that and continue to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore Covid-19 hit we were starting to see the green shoots of recovery in terms of investment, which was welcomed and well-earned by our members. So I would sincerely hope that there isn\u2019t a politician in the land that would want to rush back to another round of austerity, particularly with the police in the target, because it\u2019s as lean and as skeletal as a public sector possibly could be in the view of our members.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith buildings being sold off left, right and centre, and mergers and collaborations, there\u2019s very little left. The only thing left \u2013 that will suffer as a result of more austerity \u2013 is the service that we can provide. So if the Government is prepared to change the way that we police in this country, to lower what police are expected to do because you\u2019re not going to pay for all the things you need them to do, that\u2019s a difficult message for any political party to get home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve said that officers would feel \u201cdevastated\u201d and \u201cbetrayed\u201d if their pay was frozen and that some would consider alternative careers. He said: \u201cWe pride ourselves on policing being a family and that would be a horrific event for any family to put up with. First austerity one and then austerity two \u2013 I shudder to think how that would be received.\u201d<\/p>\n
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POLICE officers would be \u201cdevastated\u201d if their pay was \u2013 once again \u2013 frozen, this time in order to help pay for the coronavirus debt, Essex Police Federation has said.\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2570,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130259"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130401,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130259\/revisions\/130401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}