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Local authority leaders have welcomed Gordon Brown’s plans, outlined in his recent budget, for more regional and local pay flexibility.

However, such measures should be implemented within the framework of national pay bargaining.

Commenting on the chancellor’s statement, Brian Baldwin, chairperson of the National Joint Council for Local Government Services, said: "We introduced flexible, local pay determination within a national framework in 1997, so that local authorities can respond to their local labour market conditions”

He also said that local government employers will submit evidence to the new local government Pay Commission that a national framework should continue, but that more local flexibility is required.

But local government union Unison has warned against any attempt to weaken or break up national pay bargaining.

Heather Wakefield, Unison’s national secretary for local government, said: "Councils are facing complex labour market factors, which cannot be solved by adopting regional bargaining.

“In Sheffield and Rotherham, the councils can't recruit care staff, social workers, or cleaners because they are in direct competition with a number of call centers that pay.”

She added that Unison's evidence to the local government Pay Commission will call for more effective national bargaining, which rewards all staff and doesn't subject them to a regional tug of war for staff.