Cameron rules out public sector pay freeze

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David Cameron has ruled out an absolute freeze on public sector pay if he becomes the next prime minister.

While ruling out a blanket policy, the Conservative leader accepted that pay settlements for public sector workers would have to be "tighter" as the government moves to reduce borrowing.

Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme whether he would consider a freeze on public sector pay, Cameron replied: "I don't think that is the way we do pay in this country.

"The way we do pay in this country in the public sector, rightly, is we have independent pay review bodies."

The announcement came after chancellor Alistair Darling said that he could not rule out a public sector pay freeze.

Cameron also pledged a reduction in the number of unelected quangos in a shake-up of Whitehall.

Ahead of his speech to the Reform think tank, the Tory leader told the BBC that a Conservative government would reduce the 790 quangos, which currently cost £35bn a year.

And he accused existing quangos of "empire building", with organisation heads earning too much money.

"Instead of standing up with a long list of quangos I am going to abolish, the announcement of a great bonfire, instead what we are doing is making a real argument about 'right, what are these bodies supposed to do?'" Cameron said.

"What we think is that there are some cases for a technical function for a quango to carry out, inspecting nuclear instillations for instance.

"On other occasions, it is right that a decision isn't made by ministers because it has got to be impartial."

Cameron objected to quangos "endlessly making policy" as well as the "huge communications and press departments" attached to the bodies.

In some cases, he suggested that quangos were becoming "lobbying organisations in their own right".

"The point of this is not just to save money but, more importantly, to make our government more accountable," he said.

"What happened with so many of these quangos is that they have been empire-building.

"If you look, for instance, at the pay levels, there are now 68 quango heads paid more than the prime minister.

"These are vast sums of money. You need a proper argument. We have identified those limited things that should be done by quangos. All the rest should be taken away."

Turning to Ofcom, Cameron said that the broadcasting quango should stay but that it should be "slimmed down radically".

"It has a technical function to hand out broadcasting licence in an impartial way, so they should go on doing that," he explained.

"What Ofcom also does is a vast amount of policy making which it shouldn't do."