Blunkett to back down on police pay

David Blunkett is poised to make further concessions to police on pay, conditions and reform in a watered-down package that follows a mass lobby of Parliament by disgruntled police officers.

The Home Secretary begins negotiations with police tomorrow and, though the Home Office insists he is determined to drive through changes, aides say he will go into conciliation talks "prepared to have give and take".

Mr Blunkett's plans to cut overtime pay from time-and-a-third to time-and-a-fifth have caused deep resentment among police officers and led in part to 91 per cent of them rejecting the Government's deal. He is also encountering opposition in the House of Lords to his flagship Police Reform Bill.

The Home Secretary is reluctant to back down, but an aide said: "We are prepared to be flexible if we can sort out ways of getting the same outcome. We aren't going in with a take it or leave it approach."

The Government is likely to offer more money for police pay. Mr Blunkett will seek an extra £200m from the Treasury to fund an increased pay package. Ministers also accept that there needs to be "further clarification" about the proposed pay reforms, particularly targeted "special priority payments". The Government wanted to direct more money at new recruits and at long-serving officers.

"We are not really talking about more money, we are talking about how we slice the cake. This is a bigger cake. We are not trying to cut anyone's wages," the aide said.

But protesting officers last week reiterated their opposition to the reduction in overtime payments, complained that there was too little detail in the Government's proposals and said special priority payments would be "divisive".

Beat officers, represented by the Police Federation, which with the Superintendents' Association, the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Association of Police Authorities will be involved in tomorrow's negotiations, are also angry at plans by the Home Secretary to give extra powers to community support officers – effectively uniformed wardens.

And there is hostility to Mr Blunkett's plans to take powers in the Police Reform Bill allowing him to step in where police forces are failing.

But there may be room to introduce "safeguards" against the Home Secretary's new powers to intervene in failing forces. "He is very happy if we can find a way to agree on safeguards to the powers. But the Home Secretary is accountable to Parliament and the public on policing, yet he has no power. This is about stepping in as a last resort to make sure things get sorted," the aide said.