The Conservatives are blocking a pay rise for teachers, according to the Liberal Democrats, in the latest row between the two coalition partners over the future of education and the economy. Ministers are expected to publish pay review recommendations for millions of public sector workers as early as Thursday, which would allow schools to have the flexibility to offer individual teachers in the main pay bracket a raise of up to 2% next year, subject to performance.
There is said to be coalition agreement on other pay reviews including for the armed services, doctors and prison service. But Liberal Democrat sources say the Conservatives are refusing to accept the recommendations for the main rates of pay for teachers, which may mean that the matter will be delayed until after the election in May. A Tory spokesperson said there was no coalition disagreement on the issue.
The School Teachers Review Body (STRB) is said to be recommending that the maximum in the main pay range for teachers (currently £32,187 in England and Wales outside of London) should be allowed to be increased by 2% next year, and the minimum by 1% (from the current £22,023).
The Liberal Democrat schools minister David Laws and the Treasury chief secretary Danny Alexander want to accept the recommendations.Pay ranges for other teaching positions would be increased by 1% at the maximum and minimum levels, but the main pay rate is the key figure since it covers the majority of teachers.
As a result of changes introduced last year, the decision on the specific pay of individual teachers is intended to be left to the schools themselves. The full increase would only be possible if it was merited on performance. Teachers received a 1% rise last year after two years of freezes.
The STRB is said to have estimated that there would be no additional cost to the public purse of implementing their recommendations, as any pay increases awarded by individual schools would have to be met from within existing school budgets.
A senior Lib Dem source said: “The Liberal Democrats are fighting tooth and nail in the coalition government to get teachers the pay settlement they deserve for next year. It’s ridiculous and unfair of the Tories to accept the recommendations from the pay bodies in other public sector professions but not in teaching.
“It’s particularly nonsensical when the recommendation won’t cost the government a penny – the review body make clear this flexibility is affordable within existing pay restraint policies. This one could run and run. Danny will announce the other pay settlements this week but teachers will be conspicuous by their absence.
“The Lib Dems will not sign off a lower pay settlement for teachers than is being recommended by the independent review body. Unless the Tories change their position, this could be left to the next government to sort out, which would be very bad news for teachers if the Conservatives win a majority.”
A Conservative spokesman challenged the account saying: “All the pay review body reports are being dealt with in the usual way. There is no coalition disagreement and the chief secretary is the lead minister on this issue.”
The Lib Dems regard teachers and education as one of the key points of contrast with the Conservatives. They clashed on Monday with David Cameron over his long-term plans to set up 500 free schools across England in the next parliament.
The planned expansion would blow a huge £4bn hole in the school building budget, said Laws. “This would condemn thousands more children to inadequate and crumbling classrooms and jeopardise our efforts to ensure there are enough school places,” he claimed.
The prime minister said schools were “raising standards and restoring discipline”, although Labour insisted many of the schools were being set up unnecessarily in areas where there was already a surplus of school places. Labour said it would not open any more free schools. “If you vote Conservative, you will see the continuation of the free schools programme at the rate you’ve seen in the last three years,” Cameron said.
In a rare endorsement, he added that, if re-elected, he would reappoint Nicky Morgan as education secretary.
