THE Fylde Coast employs a significant number of civil servants and other public sector employees.
The inflation factor used in their pay negotiations has been the Retail Price Index (RPI), currently 2.5 per cent.
The Chancellor has announced that this will be replaced by the EU's Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, nicknamed HICCUP - currently 2 per cent.
HICCUP excludes Council Tax increases which are several times the inflation rate and housing inflation.
Public Sector employees are being sacrificed on the altar of EU harmonisation and the Euro.
How does the Chancellor expect public sector employees to pay for Council Tax rises and increased housing prices if their pay rises do not include these elements?
RPI has been retained for pensions but for how long will the Chancellor run two different Indices?
The only solution to escape EU harmonisation is to leave the EU and revert to RPI which is at least relevant to the real world in which most of us live.
Roy Hopwood
Prospective UKIP Candidate
EU Parliamentary Elections 2004,
North Promenade
Cleveleys
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