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Regional Pay – How important is it that the government commissions and publishes an independent study on the likely impact?

In March, Survation polled 1178 members of the public on their reaction to proposals to introduce regional pay bargaining, on behalf of Progressive Polling. Click here for the full cross tabs from the poll, whilst our own report on the results can be found here.

Today we’re publishing the results of a follow-up poll, on behalf of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) asking 1003 responders to our political omnibus some follow-up questions.

  • If regional pay was introduced, given public sector workers such as teachers in areas with low private sector wages will be paid less compared with teachers in areas with high private sector wages, would the public feel that this would make it more difficult for those schools to attract quality teaching staff?
  • In addition, we asked that given the Government has not published an independent study on the likely impact of regional public sector pay on regional economies outside of London and the South East, how important did the public think that the government commissions and publishes an independent study on the likely impact of this policy before deciding if it should proceed?

The results are interesting and provide some food-for-thought for the Coalition.

Two thirds (65%) of all respondents think regional pay will make it harder for schools in low pay areas to attract and retain good teachers. Half of Conservative voters also held this view. This level of concern was consistent across the entire UK, with people in the South not significantly less concerned than those in the North (where the policy is likely to have more of an impact). People in the Midlands and Wales were the most concerned, with 71% believing regional pay would have adverse effects on schools compared with only 17% who did not think it would.

Over three quarters (76%) of all respondents thought it was important that the government commissions and publishes an independent study on the likely effects of the policy before proceeding, with 49% saying they thought it was “Very important”. Only 6% of people thought it unimportant. 74% of prospective Conservative voters wanted an independent study, whilst the corresponding figure for Labour voters was 83%.

The full data tables from this survey are available here;

Survation interviewed 1,003 people online between 31st May – June 1st. Data were weighted to be representative of the UK public.

Sign-up to the Survation Consumer Panel and share your views with the nation here;

Survation are a member of The British Polling Council and abide by its rules

http://www.britishpollingcouncil.org

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