Liz Truss’s humiliating U-turn on her proposal to cut regional public sector pay proved the ultimate example of how big policy offers can fall apart quickly on contact.
As part of a package to clamp down on civil service expenditure dubbed a “war on waste”, Truss claimed up to £8.8bn could be saved by creating regional pay boards. These would in effect have watered down the pay packets offered to officials seeking new contracts outside London and the south-east, given the relatively lower cost of living away from the capital.
