Scottish teachers won a three-year pay deal worth almost 8% in another public sector agreement struck north of the border which will put pressure on Gordon Brown.

Yesterday's agreement, which followed two days of talks between the Scottish Government, union leaders and local authorities, will see teachers' salaries go up by 2.25% in 2008/9, 2.5% the following year and 2.4% in 2010/11.

A further 0.5%, backdated to December 1 this year, will also be added to wages as part of the previous deal struck in 2004.

The Prime Minister has called for public sector pay awards to be restricted to 2% per year and his government is already under pressure to follow the example of Holyrood by backdating a wage increase for police officers.

Ministers in Edinburgh have pledged to backdate the 2.5% award to September, but Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has said the deal will only be implemented south of the border from December 1. Furious police officers in England and Wales have attacked the move, which effectively means their pay will increase by only 1.9%.

Yesterday, the Kent chief constable Michael Fuller said his officers felt cheated by Ms Smith's decision, while his opposite number in Devon and Cornwall, Stephen Otter, said his officers were right to feel "let down".

Teachers in England and Wales have yet to strike their own three-year pay deal, and news of the Scottish agreement will strengthen their determination to secure a similar award.

A spokeswoman for the National Union of Teachers, the largest teaching union in England, said: "We're still waiting to hear from the review body on teachers' pay but we want a pay increase in line with inflation."

A spokesman for the UK Government's Department of Children, Schools and Families said they hoped to reach agreement early in the New Year, while a spokesman for 10 Downing Street said they would not comment on the Scottish pay award.

Fiona Hyslop, the Scottish Education Secretary, said it was "a fair deal with real benefits for pupils, teachers and schools throughout Scotland".

"It demonstrates the benefits of close partnership working and our commitment to improving the lives of Scotland's children."

Ronnie Smith, the general secretary of the EIS, Scotland's largest teaching union, said the deal was the best they could have hoped for in the current financial climate. He said: "These were always going to be difficult negotiations, given the current economic conditions and the tight financial settlement under which local authorities are operating.

"Nevertheless, we are confident that this settlement offers a fair deal for teachers which compares well to other recent public sector pay awards.

"The key was to ensure that salary levels remain attractive to both prospective and established teachers and, with this settlement, we believe that has been achieved."

Local authorities insist they will have enough money within their own three-year financial settlement to pay for the teachers' pay rise.

Isabel Hutton, education spokeswoman for Cosla, the local authority umbrella organisation, said: "We are clear that the deal protects the value of teachers' salaries in the context of the financial settlement for local government.

"It will allow the profession to work towards delivering even better educational outcomes for our children."

However, one teachers' union official branded the deal "disappointing" and said it salaries were falling behind those of other professions.

Maureen Laing, senior officer with the Professional Association of Teachers in Scotland, said: "We are very disappointed that this pay offer does not address the slippage, in comparison to other employees, that has taken place since the previous negotiations.

"We fear further erosion, relative to salaries available to graduates in other professions, will discourage recruitment of talented students into teaching or retention of new entrants for a long-term career."