Last week’s emergency budget spells doom and gloom for agencies wedded to the public sector. At least that’s the headline from a PRCA survey of 52 PR industry leaders published this morning.

Almost two-thirds of PRCA PR Leaders’ Panel welcomed the budget, despite only just over one in ten thinking it would have a positive impact on their business in the short-term.

All respondents predict the public sector will lose communicators over the next year, with over 90 per cent predicting that the public sector will also use agencies less. In contrast, PR Leaders expect private sector use of agencies to increase over the next twelve months.

The majority of respondents (86 per cent) foresee no cuts in staff numbers as a result of the budget. But longer term, more than half of respondents, said that they expected to see a reduction in the number of PR and communication professionals over the next three years.

The results are supported by news yesterday from communications group Creston. It reported a revenue fall of 4 per cent up until March 2010.