Earlier this month, the independent Office for Budget Responsibility has confirmed that the Government’s spending plans have seen the deficit slashed, led to record employment and will continue to deliver record spending on public services including schools and the NHS.

In 2010, the initial decision to set a public sector pay cap was to make sure we did not lose vital front-line public sector workers, including doctors and nurses. Across Europe countries such as France and Greece chose instead to make hundreds of thousands of front-line public sector workers redundant. We absolutely prioritised avoiding this and in doing so saved hundreds of thousands of jobs.

In September last year we ended the one per cent pay award policy for public sector workforces, recognising that some flexibility would be required in certain areas.

With our economy back into a surplus, we are now in a position to give NHS workers a well-deserved pay rise. This includes nurses and midwives, who can expect pay rises of between 6.6 per cent and 29per cent over the next three years. NHS staff work incredibly hard, day in, day out, right across the country, and this pay rise is the right thing to do.

The deal will see the Government investing in higher starting salaries for staff in every pay band by reforming the pay system to remove overlapping pay points.

The starting salary for a newly qualified nurse is set to rise by £2,779 to £24,907 by 2020/21 and basic pay will increase over the three years by 22 per cent (£4,842) for a new entrant Band 5 nurse. The pay of auxiliary NHS staff, such as porters, cleaners and hospital caterers, will increase substantially as a result of pay band reform. These staff will see their basic pay increase by 15 per cent over the next three years. The lowest starting salary in the NHS will also increase from £15,404 to £18,040 in 2020/21.

We are committed to the delivery of world class public services and ensuring that public sector workers are fairly remunerated for the vitally important work that they do.

It is vital that we retain talented NHS staff, in order to ensure that it is staffed by the by the skilled compassionate workforce that it needs.

The Government is also working with NHS employers and trade unions to boost productivity so that we can achieve better outcomes for patients. Proposals include a framework for buying and selling annual leave which will consider the pay value of annual leave that staff may wish to sell back to their employers. This could help increase capacity and reduce expensive spend on agencies.

This approach is only possible through the Government’s work to balance the economy - investing in public services like the NHS and helping families with the cost of living while at the same time paying off our national debt.

Another sign of the strength of the economy was the employment figures released by the Government this week. Currently the unemployment rate is 4.3 per cent - the lowest it has been since 1975 – and the number of people not working and not looking for work fell by 158,000 in the last year, the lowest since records began.

More people in work means more people taking home a pay packet for their families, and more tax revenue to go towards our public services. With our strong economy, it is only right that we now deliver our hardworking NHS staff a pay rise.