Living Wages Places - Year 4 (360G-PeoplesHealthTrust-2023_137)

This one-year project will continue supporting the delivery of the Living Wage Places (LWP) scheme into 2023, which takes a collaborative place-based approach to expanding the real Living Wage and uplifting more workers. Given the current economic climate and the recent large rise in the LW rate the focus this year is likely to be on supporting existing Places to consolidate relationships and retain employers. The project also aims to develop the local Action Group in Newcastle to work to engage local employers with an aim of expanding Living Wage accreditation within the city and improving pay for low paid workers. The year will see the launch of Cambridge as a Living Wage City and the team will also work on developing and piloting a new model for ‘neighbouring boroughs’ Living Wage Places in South London, with Lambeth, Lewisham and Greenwich who are all interested to become Living Wage Boroughs, alongside Southwark (which is already recognised). The new model aims to reduce duplication and achieve larger impact in targeting institutions which work across more than one borough. Research functions will continue to be embedded into the scheme, expanding data collection and evaluation in order to measure impact and ensure that learning from the first three years informs the programme. Quarterly events bringing together the Peer-to-Peer network, including to share and collect testimony, will also form part of this learning strand.