PERHAPS it's a continuation of the blame game, maybe it's an indication of the increasing desperation of a government fuelled by a total failure to progress any kind of economic success.

Or it could even be part of the Tory-led coalition’s attempt to see the current crises as an opportunity to push through further changes that are detrimental to working people.

In his autumn statement last week, the Chancellor was forced to downgrade the economic growth forecast, to admit that unemployment is set to increase for the next two years and to confess that the number one target for all of these austerity measures, bringing down the structural deficit, was going to be missed by at least a couple of years.

Previous scapegoats for economic failure have been the weather, both too hot and too cold at different times, the Royal Wedding, those dastardly Europeans, and now, Osborne has floated the idea that the economy is not balanced because public sector pay is set through national negotiations, the implication being that the wages of teachers, refuse collectors and social workers are so high that they are squeezing out a private sector.

This analysis doesn’t stand up to even the most basic analysis. The employment rate in the North East is the lowest in the country, about 64%, one in eight people are claiming Job Seekers Allowance, we already endure the lowest pay rates in the UK and about two thousand people a month are losing their jobs in the public sector. If the private sector is not recruiting in the current environment it has absolutely nothing to do with public sector pay.

There are concerns for low wage earners in areas like London and elsewhere, faced with relatively high living costs. That is the rationale behind the London Living Wage, an initiative replicated in Manchester, Glasgow, Oxford, Preston and elsewhere, including Newcastle. There is an obvious mismatch between low and average earnings and living costs in a lot of areas and all workers should be entitled to earn wages that allow them to enjoy a reasonable, decent standard of living. The basic conclusion is that wage levels are too low across the board.

The solution to this situation is not, however, to regionalise public sector pay in some kind of race to the bottom. The conclusion of many studies is that regionalising pay would exacerbate regional economic disparities. A far better, solution is to tackle the root causes of regional economic disparity and invest more in supporting growth in regions.

:: Kevin Rowan, regional secretary, Northern TUC