LONDON LIVING WAGE

That this House disapproves of the Department for Children, Schools and Families' (DCSF) attitude in rejecting the London Living Wage of £7.45 an hour for its own contracted staff; considers its arguments that it is artificial, distorts labour markets, could prove poor value for money and could be inflationary to be deeply unconvincing; notes the high cost of living in London and the Government's long-standing declared policy to make work pay which by implication means lifting those in-work out of poverty; further notes that significant price rises in food and energy have disproportionately and adversely affected low paid workers; notes most significantly the high level of child poverty in London and the failure to make the same progress in reducing it in London as in the rest of the country; further notes that the DCSF rejection of the London Living Wage is contrary to the London Child Poverty Pledge bearing the logos of DCSF, Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions; and calls on the Government to re-think its policy to make undertaking work to eliminate child poverty its principal policy and to further agree to pay the London Living Wage.