Offering incentives for businesses to pay the living wage has shown to be an effective way for councils to work with private sector to enact transformational social change, writes Dan Crawford
When I had the privilege of being elected onto Ealing council for the Acton Central ward where I grew up, the rest of the country was pondering which way Nick Clegg would jump with the prospect of a hung parliament looming. As the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition took their ideological axe to the educational maintenance axe, the future jobs fund and a whole of host of the last Labour government’s programmes targeting in-work poverty, my new colleagues and I strove to protect Ealing’s residents from the worst aspect of Westminster-imposed austerity.
Our Conservative predecessors had supported a Labour motion backing the idea of living wage back in 2007, but it took a Labour council to implement a London living wage. Council leader Julian Bell made improving life chances a priority for the borough’s Olympic legacy as more than a quarter of the borough’s residents work in low-pay fields. The implementation of the London wage helped to mitigate against that, but the Ealing Labour party was determined to go further. Last February, the council offered business rate discounts to the first 100 firms who signed up to pay the London living wage – and were swamped with applications.
Yesterday, the council’s commitment to eradicating low pay received a significant boost with the news that Heathrow airport had become Britain’s first living wage-accredited airport, delivering the London living wage to more than 3,000 employees by 2020. It will deliver a wage increase for at least 250 Ealing residents and their families – and proves that businesses can be persuaded to make transformational social change.
Study after study shows that, in return for a fair wage, workers are more productive, take fewer sick days and likely stay with their employer for longer. The London living wage also delivers a timely boost to families struggling with the Tory cost-of-living crisis in the face of the government’s assault on their workers’ rights, tax credits and benefits as well as the shameful of affordable housing bequeathed to Londoners by the former mayor. It is not a panacea, but these policies show that Labour in local government can make a real difference to people’s lives.
Given the Tory crusade against local government over the past seven years, I am not holding my breath for any relief from the chancellor in the budget. Councils across the land have been empowered by the ‘localism’ agenda but had their budgets slashed by the man enjoying his semi-retirement from the political fray at the Evening Standard in one of the most audacious sleights of hand ever attempted at the heart of power. I am proud of the first steps we have taken to address unfair pay in Ealing – but there is a lot more to do.
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Dan Crawford is a Labour councillor in the London Borough of Ealing. He tweets at @dancrawford85