“Council employees have been offered a pay increase of 3.30 per cent from 1 April 2026. For the lowest paid (currently earning £24,796 per annum), the offer means their pay will have increased since April 2021 by £7,282 (39.72 per cent).
Following the announcement of a full and final one-year pay offer for council employees, Chair of the National Employers for local government services, Cllr James Lewis, said:
“Council employees have been offered a pay increase of 3.30 per cent from 1 April 2026.
"For the lowest paid (currently earning £24,796 per annum), the offer means their pay will have increased since April 2021 by £7,282 (39.72 per cent).
"The National Employers are acutely aware of the additional pressure this offer will place on already hard-pressed council finances as it would need to be paid for from existing budgets. However, they believe their offer is fair to employees given the wider economic backdrop.”
Notes to editors
The National Employers negotiate pay on behalf of 350 local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that employ around 1.5 million employees.
The increase to the national paybill resulting from this offer would be £869.57m (3.32 per cent, which includes the 0.02 per cent cost of the deletion of pay point 2 on 1 April 2026, as agreed as part of the 2025/26 pay deal).
The National Joint Council for local government services negotiates the pay, terms and conditions of staff in local authorities. It agrees an annual uplift to the national pay spine, on which each individual council decides where to place its employees. Each council takes into account a number of factors such as job size and local labour market conditions when deciding an employee’s salary. There are no nationally determined jobs or pay grades in local government, unlike in other parts of the public sector.
Separate national pay arrangements apply to teachers, firefighters, chief officers, chief executives and craftworkers.