British trade unions bosses said declining living standards will be the battleground for next year's general election after lashing out against the government's austerity measures at their annual conference this week.

The nation's unions chief Frances O'Grady warned that Europe-wide austerity measures, implemented in the wake of the global financial crisis, were counterproductive, hit living standards and damaged economic growth in the long run.

"Living standards will be centre stage for the election," said O'Grady, eight months before Britons head to the polls in May 2015.

" People are saying to the government: you keep talking about economic recovery but we are not feeling it?'

The Trades Union Congress (TUC), the umbrella group for unions representing 6.2 million workers, began its annual meeting on Sunday in Liverpool, northwest England, with attacks on the policies of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.

The organisation is using this year's meeting to urge an end to the squeeze on public sector spending and pay that has been imposed since the coalition won power from Labour in 2010.

The TUC also called on the government to lift the minimum wage to £10 ($16, 12.5 euros) per hour. It is due to rise to £6.50 next month.

Trade unions have threatened disruptive public sector strikes in Britain in the run-up to Britain's election.

The economy is staging a strong recovery so far this year, growing by

0.8 percent in both the first and second quarter of this year, in stark contrast with the stagnating eurozone.

At the same time however, recent data showed that average weekly wages excluding bonuses grew by just 0.6 percent in the three months to June.

That was significantly below inflation during the period, meaning that the purchasing power of wages actually fell in real terms.

"People feel that this government doesn't really understand what it is like to have year after year of real pay cuts, where prices are still rising," O'Grady told AFP in an

interview.

"Working people across Europe are seeing their living standards under attack," she said, adding: "Many people see the European political class as being out of touch with their concerns.'

"And increasingly, people understand it is bad economics too. If people don’t have money in their pockets, how are they going to spend in local shops and businesses and ensure that the recovery such as it is sustainable. ’

Dave Prentis, leader of Unison, Britain's biggest public sector trade union, revealed on Sunday that it has balloted its membership over

industrial action during the week of October 13.

He added that the union's 1.4 million members had had enough of harsh public sector pay cuts and pay freezes amid rebounding economic growth.

"We talk about growth in the economy, but it's based on poverty pay and zero hours contracts,” he told journalists, referring to contracts that keep employees available with no guarantee of work.

"We cannot sit back and allow people who supply our essential services -- mainly women - to be treated as they are now."