When you heard the statistic quoted at the Downtown Liverpool Business Week event on Tuesday morning – public sector productivity has dropped 30% during the past decade, compared to productivity growth in the private sector of 10%, it is easy to understand why the government are targeting public expenditure as they prioritise the reduction of the UK budget deficit.
Nevertheless, whilst nobody has been as vocal as me in suggesting that the huge increase in public expenditure had not been matched by the necessary reform, I firmly believe that we need to be careful about some of the cavalier language that is being used about the public sector and those who work in it. Of course, there is waste; and efficiency savings can and will be made without impacting on essential services.
However, we should take no pleasure in telling hard working nurses, fire fighters and police that they face a pay freeze for two years. And, we should also remind ourselves that the economic crash that we have just suffered came about not because of public sector waste, but private sector greed, in the form of gung-ho bankers.
Chancellor Osborne has made some positive changes from a private sector perspective. Exemptions in National Insurance for new start ups in the regions is the most eye catching; whilst his approach on Capital Gains Tax and Corporation Tax are to be welcomed.
The big picture of the pain to be faced by the public sector will only become truly apparent once the Comprehensive Spending Review is completed in the Autumn. Let us hope that the recovery we have started to witness in recent months is sustained, and a more buoyant private  sector will exist to assist in helping some of those who lose their public sector jobs back into employment.