In April 2016 Hampstead Parish Church will become an accredited London Living Wage Employer. The PCC has committed to pay all employees who work regularly for the church the London Living Wage. This is calculated each year by the London Assembly according to the basic cost of living in London. In 2016, it is £9.40 an hour for every employee over 18. (For the rest of the country the Living Wage is £8.25 an hour)
Becoming an accredited London Living Wage employer demonstrates our church’s commitment to tackling working poverty and strengthening families. London Citizen members have heard moving testimonies about the difference it makes to families if parents don’t have to take 2 jobs to make ends meet.
Over 10,000 London families have been lifted out of working poverty as a direct result of the Living Wage – Professor Jane Wills, Queen Mary University
We will join over 2000 organisations -including a quarter of the FTSE 100- who belong to the voluntary scheme. In Hampstead, we will join TFL, the banks and Oliver Bonas, the women’s retailer, as employers who can display the Living Wage Employer Mark.
n January 2016, the Living Wage Commission was set up to oversee the calculation of the Living Wage rates in the UK. Our Bishop, Bishop Rob, is one of the 8 commissioners.
Citizens UK
Becoming accredited has followed from St John’s membership of Citizens UK- the movement behind the Living Wage campaign. Citizens UK is a national alliance of over 300 organisations -including churches, synagogues, mosques, schools, colleges -which work together to improve communities so they become better places in which to live and work. It is non party political-for instance the Living Wage campaign is supported by David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and other political leaders.
London Citizens Mayoral Assemby- 28th April 6.30-8.30pm
In the run up to the 2016 mayoral elections in May, the 220 institutions which make up London Citizens, including St John’s, have decided that the major focus should be on housing. They have drawn up a Housing Manifesto which asks the mayoral candidates to make specific promises about improving housing in London. The main promises are about affordable rents, tackling rogue landlords, building affordable homes and involving local communities in decisions about housing. Copies of the manifesto are at the back of the church.
On Thursday 28th April at the Copper Box at the Olympic Park these commitments will be presented to the candidates – including Zak Goldsmith and Sadiq Khan. We hope 6000 London Citizens will be there, because that will encourage the candidates to listen more carefully and take the proposals seriously. St John’s has pledged to send 15 members. Jan Rushton and John Barker are organising our delegation and would be delighted to enrol more members.
Footnote
The voluntary Living Wage is completely different from the compulsory national living wage of £7.20 an hour for staff aged 25 and over. The latter is a welcome inscrease to the minimum wage annonced in the 2015 budget.
Living Wage Church
John Barker