Cornwall's double award success for commitment to fair pay
The LWP campaign began in 2023, when Truro Foodbank noticed an increase in employed people not being able to pay essential bills and needing to turn to foodbanks for help, the council said.It added, 30% of households visiting the foodbank, at that time, had at least one person in work but were either paid the lowest legal minimum or were in a job with insecure hours.Cornwall Council's £186 million good growth programme, which manages the UK shared prosperity fund in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, was praised for its innovative approach to local growth funding since launching in 2022, the council said.It said the programme was helping to shift Cornwall away from a low-wage economy, adding more than 150 employers and hundreds of employees had already benefited.
'Genuine recognition'
Simon Fann, chair of the Cornwall LWP group and manager at Truro Foodbank, said: "This award is a genuine recognition of the commitment put in by a whole team of people to assist employees struggling on the lowest, most insecure pay. "Getting to this point marks good progress but we must not be complacent. "Last year, for the first time ever in the UK, more employed people than those on benefits felt compelled to turn to loan sharks with resultant massive interest and debt. "If this campaign means workers can determine their own financial security without the need to use foodbanks or loan sharks, then that is the true achievement."Katherine Chapman, director of the Living Wage Foundation said: "Together the living wage movement has put £3.85 billion back into the pockets of low paid workers since the campaign began. "I warmly congratulate Cornwall Council, Truro Foodbank and the Cornwall living wage place campaign on their well-deserved award and thank them for their support for the living wage movement."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
28 minutes ago
- The Independent
Retailer Dunelm to appoint Clodagh Moriarty as chief executive
Dunelm has said it will appoint Clodagh Moriarty as the new boss of the homewares retailer. The company said Ms Moriarty will take over from chief executive Nick Wilkinson – who revealed his retirement plans earlier this year – from October 1. Ms Moriarty will join the company from Sainsbury's, where she is chief retail and technology officer, having spent 15 years at the grocery specialist. Alison Brittain, chairwoman of Dunelm, said: 'We are thrilled to be appointing Clo as our new CEO. 'She is a proven industry leader and brings an impressive range of skills and experience from one of the UK's largest retailers, where she has played a prominent role in developing the Sainsbury's offer to drive market share gains over a number of years. 'Clo was the standout candidate from a strong field, and we are delighted that we have been able to attract such a talented and high-calibre executive.' In February, Dunelm announced that Mr Wilkinson would step down from the role to retire after seven years. The appointment comes after a 'thorough recruitment process' which considered internal and external candidates. In its previous update in April, Dunelm reported accelerating over the first quarter of 2025 despite pressure on consumer spending. Ms Moriarty said: 'Dunelm is a fantastic business which I have followed and admired for many years, so to be joining as CEO is a real privilege. 'Our homes play a central part in our lives and Dunelm has a very special role in helping customers to create a space which is truly their own. 'We have an amazing platform to build from, and I can't wait to get started.'
The Guardian
42 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Public ownership of water in England and Wales is best way to improve industry, people's commission finds
Public ownership of the water industry in England and Wales is the best way to cut bills, improve pollution and invest in repairing infrastructure, according to a wide-ranging people's commission into the industry. Set up by four academics with expertise in economics, water governance and the law to 'fill the gaps' of the government-appointed Cunliffe commission, the inquiry will on Monday present its findings to MPs. Ewen McGaughey, a professor of law at King's College London who is one of the academics involved, said: 'We all want clean water, and in the latest YouGov poll 82% of the British public said that we should bring our water into public ownership. 'Our recommendations are that the British public is right, the evidence supports them, and we should move to a new modern, public water system because this is the best way to cut bills, stop pollution, invest in repairs and give everyone a voice. We can have clean water, or privatised water, but we can't have both.' The Cunliffe inquiry into the water sector is due to report this month, but it was prevented from considering public ownership by the remit imposed by ministers. Its interim report was criticised last month for failing to recommend clear actions to end the crisis in the water industry. McGaughey believes ministers could bring water companies into public ownership for minimal cost through the special administration process, which is built into the 1991 Water Industry Act. It can be triggered if a company cannot pay its debts or is not performing its statutory requirements, which include treating wastewater rather than dumping it into the environment. Shareholders and creditors such as bondholders would be given 'appropriate value' for their stakes, which McGaughey argues would, in effect, be nothing. In its findings, the people's commission report said a shift to public ownership would provide transparency, reduce costs, improve democratic participation, remove the focus on shareholder profit to wholly focus on the public interest and improve cooperation and collaboration between water companies. Evidence suggests that the top performing utilities internationally – in Sweden, Denmark and Japan – are in public ownership, the report said. It provides evidence that the costs of water company plans for the next five years have been inflated by the privatised companies and that the privatisation model makes capital investment hugely expensive. McGaughey criticises the figure of £99bn commonly cited as the cost of taking over the industry in England, because it is based on an estimate from a thinktank that was funded by water companies. When debt levels of water companies are taken into account, the appropriate value of a water company in law can be close to zero. ; Thames Water, for example, is about £20bn in debt. Once a water is under special administration, rather than transfer it to another private company it could be kept under public ownership. The commission said public ownership was not the same as nationalisation. Public ownership meant a company that was run to service the public and the environment and had public ownership of water infrastructure but could include some private sector involvement via not-for-profit companies. The reports authors – McGaughey, Dr Kate Bayliss, an academic who has investigated the opaque structure of the privatised water industry, Prof Becky Malby of Ilkley Clean River Group and Frances Cleaver, a professor of political ecology at Lancaster University, said there was a once in a lifetime chance for major reform of the water industry which must not be missed. 'There is a better future for the water sector in England and Wales, and it is vital that we have the ambition and the courage to reach for it,' the report said. 'Getting there requires political will to unravel the complicated web of interests. Drawing on the evidence we present here and the UK's vast experience in reforming vital services, we show that it is possible to conserve and protect water now and for the future.'
Telegraph
43 minutes ago
- Telegraph
‘You can't give away Knightsbridge': Mansion prices sink as rich flee Britain
Properties in one of London's most exclusive neighbourhoods are the cheapest they have been in 15 years as wealthy overseas buyers flee from Labour's raid on the rich. Average prices in Knightsbridge have fallen to £1,903 per sq ft, according to Savills. It marks the lowest level since December 2010, when mansions changed hands at an average of £1,836 per sq ft. Becky Fatemi, of Sotheby's, said: 'At the moment, you can't give away Knightsbridge. We've also got a house on Craven Street just off Covent Garden at £1,000 per foot, for a freehold, by the Corinthia. That's nuts.' Lucian Cook, of Savills, said the slump had been driven by cooling demand from wealthy international buyers. The rich have been rocked by Labour's recent changes to inheritance tax on non-doms, increased stamp duty on second homes and VAT on private schools. The threat of a wealth tax is only likely to add to concerns among this group. Labour's union backers have been pushing the party to adopt the policy to help pay for welfare spending. 'Hardly any buyers' Home to luxury stores such as Harrods, five-star hotels and grand Victorian residences, Knightsbridge has a long-held reputation as one of London's richest and most sought-after areas. It has been a magnet for wealthy international investors looking for a property in the capital. However, many residents in Knightsbridge and nearby Kensington are now selling up. Non-dom millionaire Magda Wierzycka recently wrote in The Telegraph that she was struggling to sell her flat in Kensington 'because so many like me are leaving there are hardly any buyers'. A record 16,500 millionaires are expected to leave the UK this year because of those tax rises, a recent study by Henley & Partners has estimated. They are flocking to low tax enclaves such as Dubai and Monaco. Mr Cook said: 'You don't have anything like the same depth of overseas global wealth focused on the central London markets. 'That's meant it's opened up to more domestic buyers, but they just don't have the same buying power as those international buyers, [causing] a rebalancing of the market.' As a result, prices in some plush parts of central London are now comparable to well-heeled suburban outskirts. Ms Fatemi said: 'The price on a generously sized garden square apartment in Hyde Park Square has just been reduced to £1,428 a foot. You've got Wimbledon more expensive than that now.' Anthony Payne, of LonRes, said: 'Knightsbridge has fallen out of favour [and] is reaching a point … where it starts to look cheap.' He highlighted two properties where you could 'probably throw a cricket ball at Harrods' that recently sold for a price per sq ft 'you'd almost be paying in Kilburn'. 'It's a line in the sand – that's got to represent good value,' he said. Separate findings by property company JLL show prices in Knightsbridge have dropped by 10pc over the past five years. Marcus Dixon, of JLL, said: 'People who think they can't afford anything in central London might find the differential is not as wide as they thought.'
