LIVING WAGE CAMPAIGN

That this House notes that the very successful living wage campaign was originally launched by The East London Community Organisation (Telco), developed by London Citizens and is now being championed by Citizens UK; congratulates effusively all three organisations for the campaign they have conducted; believes that it is quite wrong that there should be such a disparity between the legally enforceable minimum wage and a wage that people can actually live on; acknowledges there is no evidence that paying a living wage would reduce employment; calls on central government and all local authorities to sign up to the living wage campaign as Tower Hamlets Council and the former and current mayors of London have done; and urges the Government to bring forward legislative proposals to raise and peg the minimum wage to the level of the living wage.