Doctors, nurses, teachers and civil servants would have to work longer and make bigger contributions to their pensions to tackle a “pensions timebomb” in the public sector, the CBI employers’ organisation said on Sunday.

As a first step, the government should set up an independent commission to spell out precisely the “ballooning cost” of public sector pensions and make proposals for change, said John Cridland, the CBI’s deputy director-general.