This Labour Government’s Budget, the first under Andy Burham’s premiership, supposedly promising a ‘new direction, makes one thing absolutely clear: Civil Service jobs, workloads and conditions remain firmly in the firing line. PCS members must respond with a resounding YES/YES vote in our national ballot.
The 2026 budget sets out plans for further sweeping reductions across the Civil Service. Despite years of real term pay cuts, staffing cuts, office closures and attacks on our terms and conditions, the government is preparing to go even further.
The Budget explicitly commits to delivering “significant reductions in its size and cost”, declaring that the Civil Service will become “smaller, more strategic”.
Clearly, this a euphemism for thousands more jobs losses, increased workloads for those who remain and further pressure on the public services that millions rely upon.
90,000 Jobs at Risk!
The government has increased its planned reduction in departmental administrative budgets from 16% to 20% by 2029–30. Rather than backing down on the cuts planned by the Tory government, this budget increases them. Around four-fifths of Civil Service administration spending goes on staffing, meaning 90,000 jobs are at risk. Cuts on this scale threaten staffing levels, workloads and the ability of departments to function effectively.
PCS members already know the consequences of understaffing: mounting workloads, unmanageable pressures, deteriorating services and colleagues expected to do more with less.
The government cannot continue to slash staffing budgets while pretending that services can be maintained without consequences.
AI must not become an excuse for job cuts
The Budget also announces £35 million for a new GovAI programme and £50 million for a Civil Service AI Transformation Fund.
New technology should be used to improve public services, reduce workloads and make working lives easier. But the government explicitly links AI adoption and digital transformation to its programme of spending reductions.
PCS must resist any attempt to use technological change as a vehicle for job losses, deskilling or the deterioration of working conditions.
Productivity improvements should benefit workers and the public, not simply provide the Treasury with another opportunity to cut staffing costs.
In our dispute with the government, we are demanding a job security agreement, no compulsory redundancies and that efficiency improvements are put towards a shortening of the working week with no loss of pay.
Nothing for pay, pensions or conditions
While the Budget sets out detailed plans for cutting the Civil Service, it offers no specific commitments to improve Civil Service pay, pensions or terms and conditions.
There is no announcement of a meaningful pay rise to restore the value of our wages after years of real-terms cuts. No commitment to address the pension overpayments that have seen members paying more than they should. No guarantees against compulsory redundancies or further attacks on working conditions.
The contrast could not be clearer. The government can put figures and deadlines on its plans to reduce staffing costs, but offers no comparable commitments to improving the livelihoods of the workers who deliver its services.
Civil servants have already paid the price of austerity for far too long. We should not be expected to pay again.
Voting YES is more important than ever
These announcements underline why PCS’s national campaign on pay, jobs, pensions and conditions is so important.
Our demands are both reasonable and necessary:
- A 10% pay rise as a step towards pay restoration, with a minimum wage of £18 an hour and proper pay progression.
- Job security, an end to staffing cuts and opposition to compulsory redundancies.
- Justice on pensions, including addressing the pension contributions members have overpaid.
- Protection and improvement of our terms and conditions, with manageable workloads and properly resourced public services.
Pay restraint, staffing reductions and attacks on conditions are all part of the same drive to reduce the cost of the Civil Service at workers’ expense.
Experience has shown that without sustained pressure, governments will continue to impose cuts while offering little in return.
We can force the government into negotiations and concessions through a massive mandate for industrial action, backed by members organised and ready to fight.
Vote YES/YES — and organise to win!
Our national statutory ballot, running from 20 October to 1 December, gives PCS members the opportunity to send an unmistakable message to the government.
The Broad Left Network believes that we must seize this opportunity.
A strong YES/YES vote is essential not only to secure the legal mandate for industrial action, but to demonstrate that members are united in opposition to the government’s plans.
The budget is another warning that the attacks on our jobs and livelihoods will continue unless we organise to stop them.
Vote YES to strike action. Vote YES to action short of a strike.
Vote YES YES in the PCS national ballot — and build the fighting union we need to win!
