When the coalition Government arrived in Whitehall in May 2010 one of the most well known events that took place was the discovery of a letter written by Liam Byrne who was the Treasury Chief Secretary in the Labour Government that stated ‘Dear chief secretary, I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left’. Although Theresa May is not part of the Treasury, her decision a week or so ago to offer wage increases to a range of public sector workers was initially seen as very good news. After all many of these workers are not well paid and indeed many parts of the private sector have been increasing wages over the last few years, although that is certainly not the case everywhere. The crucial aspect for the new resident of No 10 Downing Street is to correct the failure that is attached to Theresa May’s offer. After she had announced the increase in wages, it was then disclosed that this pay increase would need to come out of existing budgets. So in effect her promise was a double sided statement. On the one side there will be a pay increase to the public sector, and on the other there will be a budget cut of £2bn. So one of the first things the new Prime Minister must do when they arrive in No 10 is to promise to increase funding to match the £2bn that Theresa has promised workers that they can have, and given how challenging the current austerity funding is, a much bigger funding promise would be ideal.