THE police are not the only ones under the pay cosh. The Government has widened its assault on the public pay sector settlements.

It wants to open talks on three-year pay deals in the public sector, initially focusing on teachers, nurses as well as the police, as part of a determined effort to contain inflation.

The plan was unveiled by the Prime Minister at a press conference in which he indicated he wanted to keep pay awards again within two per cent a year.

The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, has already written to the police negotiating board saying she favoured a multi-year deal but she has promised that any deal would be implemented in full.

The Royal College of Nursing has indicated it would be willing to talk about long-term deals later this week and teaching unions are already expecting an offer around 2.1 per cent a year over the next three years starting from September.

The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, said Britain's relatively low inflation rate of two per cent means Britain has the flexibility to protect itself from a worldwide downturn.

He implied he would like to see a further cut in interest rates and urged building societies to pass on past rate cuts by lowering mortgage interest rates.

Some public sector workers already have three-year deals, including staff at the Department for Work and Pensions.

Teachers in England have a two-year deal, while teachers in Scotland have a three-year agreement. But the Prime Minister said he would like this principle extended, especially since he has imposed three-year spending settlements on Whitehall departments.

The unions have already indicated they could only accept long-term deals if they were clearly linked to inflation, something the government does not want to do.

Public sector pay rises are recommended by independent bodies, which last year suggested 2.5 per cent increases.

But, as in the police case, the government decided to award it in two stages - reducing it to a 1.9 per cent rise. Brown argued that staging public sector pay awards last year had "helped break the back of inflation" in 2007.

Brown's aides signalled that government whips will be putting pressure on Labour MPs to reject an inflation-busting pay deal for MPs in a debate supposedly on a free vote next week.

Paul Kenny, head of the GMB union, which represents 300,000 public sector workers, claimed the move amounted to a crude cap on public sector pay.

The TUC said it was not opposed to long-term deals in principle, but said the government's two per cent target had put it on "a collision course with six million public servants".

An independent recommendation to award prison officers a 2.5 per cent pay rise in April was rejected by government for a below-inflation increase of 1.9 per cent. Prison officers average £23,324 and the justice secretary this week announced plans to ban prison officers from striking, reinstating the Tory ban repealed by Labour in 2005.

Plans to freeze GPs' pay until 2009 after figures showed they earned on average £110,000 in 2005-06. Staggering nurses' increase in England made their rise worth 1.9 per cent. Nurses currently average £23,044 a year.

Nearly half the 120,000 civil servants working in benefit offices, the Child Support Agency and Jobcentre Plus will receive no pay increase with the lowest paid remaining just above minimum wage. Local government clerical officers average £17,737, executive officers £21,830.