The trouble is that now the Gov has decided that progression pay is a bad thing
So that means they will either have to pick a representative salary at some mid point in the rank range, thus incurring outrage for overpaying people starting at the bottom of the scale whilst simultaneously incurring outrage for underpaying people at top of the scale who have the experience and qualifications.
Plus, by doing away with the incremements you potentially move to bigger bigger pay rises on promotion as the gap your representative pay band between ranks will be bigger than the current gaps between the current top level / bottom levels as you climb the ranks. A nice juicy pay rise might seem good from a morale perspective, but it does potentially run the risk of incurring a pension related tax bill as a bigger jump in salary will potentially put your new, increased pension closer to the annual contribution limits.
Plus, I have to say I don't have a great deal of sympathy for people in the private sector moaning about how bad it is - part of me thinks that chickens are simply coming home to roost. For too long in the 90s and 00s, there were elements coining it in with their bonuses and jollies, all on the back of an unsustainable economic model of producing frankly over priced, poor value goods and services. Now that model is unravelling and we are seeing the past decade's economic boom for what it actually was - a case of the Emperor's new clothes. Whilst all that was going on, the Armed Forces were getting no bonuses, sub-inflationary pay progression and a generally deteriorating set of Ts&Cs. And now we are expected to fall on our swords just to satisfy the politics of envy? Really?!