AN East Lancashire business leader has urged council bosses to use pay freezes to avoid mass public sector job cuts.

Mike Damms, chief executive of East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, said freezing salaries, possibly for the next couple of years, would help to eat into Britain’s mammoth deficit.

It comes after Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday warned that the state of the country’s finances were ‘even worse’ than first thought, and action to tackle them will change everyone’s way of life.

Mr Damms said: “We recognise there are some very poorly paid people in East Lancashire’s public sector and those who are very well paid indeed.

“We have to remember that to cope with the recession, a lot of busin-esses froze pay to keep staff on, rather than give some workers pay rises and lay others off.

“That is something we would like to see in the public sector.”

Mr Damms said that while the public sector had grown, its productivity had declined.

He urged the Govern-ment to create a ‘business-friendly’ environment through low taxes and reduced bureaucracy to grow East Lancashire’s private sector.

Burnley Council leader Charlie Briggs admitted he was ‘worried’ about the next 18 months, saying it would be ‘hard work’.

He said: “Hopefully we will be okay for the next 12 months because of the savings we have made from the budget.

“However, I am almost certain there will be some cuts in 2011/12 and that does worry me, but I will fight tooth and nail to main-tain services in Burnley.”

Michael Ranson, Ribble Valley Council leader, said it was ‘obvious’ Government cuts would affect everyone in East Lancashire.

He said: “It is far too early to talk about where the cuts are going to fall within our council.”

Carol Lukey, Lancashire County Council’s Unison representative, said: “We are very fearful that these planned cuts will come to fruition.”

Yesterday, Mr Cameron warned that Britain could be paying £70billion on debt interest within five years without urgent action.