According to The Times:

Conservative town hall employers told The Times that "a zero rise" for [local government] workers next year would be the "maximum" that Tory councils would support.

The report goes on to suggest that if they win the next general election, the Conservatives will take a hard line on public sector pay across the board:

In April this year [Conservative Shadow Chancellor George] Osborne said: "The age of excess is over and we need an age of restraint and responsibility." Three-year public sector pay deals needed to be reviewed, because "they may be very inflexible at a time when the economic conditions are changing very quickly", he added.

At the moment, it is too soon to tell whether local government employees - and possibly all public sector workers - can expect a pay freeze next year if the Conservatives are elected, or if it will not come through until 2011.

It is expected that the next general election will be held in 2010. The last possible date for the general election is Thursday 3 June 2010 (external website). Many public sector pay deals are settled in April each year, although negotiations surrounding local government pay awards are often protracted.

However, it is also possible that Chancellor Alistair Darling could beat the Conservatives to the punch by coming down hard on public sector pay during his current tenure.

We recently reported that public sector workers are likely to see their 2010 pay awards radically constrained by the recession and by the Government's need to make radical public spending cuts. Darling has stated that he is in the middle of making tough decisions on the future course of public sector pay awards (external website).

As ever, XpertHR will keep you posted on the latest developments as they unfold.

UPDATE:

In an interview in today's Guardian (Saturday 15 August 2009), Conservative Shadow Chancellor George] Osborne promises to take a hard-line stance on public sector pay bargaining if his party is elected to office in 2010. According to Osborne:

[I]f necessary, we are prepared to stand up to people who are in our path. But I begin with the hope that we can work with the public sector unions, and others, in trying to deal with this problem. Now, if they don't want to have a discussion about pay restraint, and they don't want to have a discussion about how we make public-sector pensions more affordable for future generations, then so be it.