More than one million NHS staff are being offered pay increases of at least 6.5% over three years after the government announced a deal with unions.

The pay increase will also see hundreds of thousands of NHS staff receiving pay rises of between 9% and 29% over the next three years.

The Guardian reported that half of NHS staff who are already at the top of their pay scale will get the 6.5% rise. But the other half will receive pay rises of 9% to 29%, with those at the bottom of their pay scales receiving the most, by 2020-21.

According to the BBC, the deal has been formally agreed by union leaders and ministers on Wednesday and will cost £4.2 billion. Staff will now be asked to vote on the deal, with rises backdated to April if they agree by the summer.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the cost of the rise would be covered by the Treasury rather than coming out of the NHS budget.

Twelve health unions welcomed the deal as an end to the 1% pay cap, with the exception of the GMB Union which stated that it did not do enough to make up for the squeeze on NHS pay since 2010.

“The agreement means an end at last to the government’s self-defeating and unfair 1% pay cap,” Sara Gorton, Unison’s head of health, who has been the unions’ chief negotiator in talks with ministers and NHS Employers over the last five months, said. “It won’t solve every problem in the NHS, but would go a long way towards making dedicated health staff feel more valued, lift flagging morale and help turn the tide on employers’ staffing problems.”

During a commons debate on NHS Staff Pay held yesterday, MPs Bambos Charalambous and Stella Creasy addressed the role of staffing agencies and the costs to the NHS.  Jeremy Hunt stated that “we are bringing down the agency bill” and he expects the bill to be lower this year.