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
22 minutes ago
- The Independent
Reeves says protections remain for ‘working people' amid wealth tax speculation
Rachel Reeves has not ruled out the possibility of a new wealth tax but insisted commitments not to hike tax for 'working people' remained. The Chancellor said she was not going to comment on speculation around her next budget when a date for the statement had not even been set. But she said promises not to increase income tax, national insurance and value added tax (VAT) remained in place, along with her 'non-negotiable' fiscal rules. The Government's U-turns over welfare reform and winter fuel payments have left the Chancellor with a multi-billion black hole to fill, fuelling speculation she might target the assets of the wealthy. Asked to rule that out, Ms Reeves told reporters: 'We haven't even set the date for the budget yet, so please forgive me if I'm not going to speculate about what might happen at an event that we haven't even decided a date on yet. 'But we've been really clear in our manifesto about the taxes that we won't increase, and we're not going to increase the taxes that working people pay, their income tax, their national insurance and their VAT, because I do recognise the struggle that ordinary working people have faced these last few years with the cost of living.' She added that her fiscal rules were 'non-negotiable' as 'they are what give working people security, around interest rates for example'. The narrow margin by which the Chancellor is on course to meet her goal of funding day-to-day spending through revenues rather than borrowing means she is vulnerable to any increase in debt interest costs or reductions in planned savings, such as on welfare. Ms Reeves said: 'Interest rates have come down four times in the last year under this Labour Government because of the stability that we've managed to return to the economy, which is underpinned by those fiscal rules, which have enabled the Bank of England to cut interest rates.' The Bank's governor Andrew Bailey has suggested there could be larger cuts if the jobs market shows signs of weakness, pointing to the impact of Ms Reeves' decision to hike employers' national insurance contributions (NICs). Businesses are 'adjusting employment' as a result of the NICs increase and workers are 'also having pay rises that are possibly less than they would have been if the NICs change hadn't happened', he said. In an interview with The Times, the governor said the British economy was growing behind its potential. This could open up 'slack' to bring down inflation, he said, meaning prices on goods would rise less swiftly compared with earnings in future. Mr Bailey said he believes the base rate set by the Bank of England would be lowered in future, after it was held in June. The current Bank rate of 4.25%, which has a bearing on all lending in the UK – including mortgages – will be reviewed again on August 7 by the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee. 'I really do believe the path is downward,' Mr Bailey told The Times. He added: 'But we continue to use the words 'gradual and careful' because… some people say to me 'why are you cutting when inflation's above target?'' Treasury Chief Secretary Darren Jones said it was entirely normal for firms to adjust their business plans because of a tax hike. He told Times Radio: 'We've also seen the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs across the country, and it's normal for business to make adjustments to their plans, depending on the cost of business, in the normal way. 'But we're really focused as a Government in supporting business to create more jobs.'
South Wales Guardian
30 minutes ago
- South Wales Guardian
Everything to know ahead of Donald Trump's UK state visit
This will be Trump's unprecedented second state visit to the UK and he will be joined by his wife First Lady Melania Trump. Here's everything we know about Donald Trump's visit to the UK. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 The President of the United States of America, President Donald J. Trump, accompanied by the First Lady Mrs. Melania Trump, will be hosted by His Majesty The King for a State Visit to the United Kingdom from 17th September to 19th September 2025. Donald Trump is expected to arrive in the UK on Wednesday, September 17 and will be in the country until Friday, September 19, according to Buckingham Palace. This will be Mr Trump's second state visit to the UK – an unprecedented gesture towards an American leader, having previously been feted by a state visit in 2019. Donald Trump will be hosted by the King and Queen at Windsor Castle during his UK visit. In a letter to the US President, delivered by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and written by King Charles, the King suggested that he and the President might meet at Balmoral or Dumfries House in Scotland first before the much grander state visit. ☀️ Celebrating local charities who support the Wiltshire community. 🙌 Today, The Queen has been in Wiltshire to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Wiltshire and Swindon Community Foundation. 🌷 Her Majesty, as Patron, also officially opened @JamiesFarm latest site at Lower… However, it is understood that, although all options were explored, there were logistical challenges surrounding an informal visit, with complexities in both the King and Mr Trump's diaries meaning a private meeting was not possible over the course of the summer months. After reading the letter, Mr Trump said it was a 'great, great honour', adding 'and that says at Windsor – that's really something'. The House of Commons will not be sitting at the time of Mr Trump's visit as it will be in recess for party conference season, meaning the President will not be able to address Parliament as French President Emmanuel Macron did during his state visit this week. However, the House of Lords will be sitting. A senior minister insisted the timing of the trip was a matter for Buckingham Palace, rather than an attempt by the Government to avoid potential embarrassment over a parliamentary address. Treasury chief secretary Darren Jones said: 'I don't know why the particular dates were chosen by the Palace. 'Of course, state visits are organised by the Palace, not by the Government or Parliament.' UK-US trade deal will save jobs in car and steel industries, says Keir Starmer Keir Starmer shares he is 'appalled' at attempted assassination of Donald Trump Rod Stewart branded 'grotesque' and 'stupid' amid support for Reform UK This week, a senior Police Scotland officer said the cost of policing a visit by Mr Trump will be 'considerable' and that the force will look to secure extra funding. It emerged on Wednesday that the force was in the early stages of planning for a visit at the end of July, which is likely to see the president visit one or both of his golf clubs in Aberdeenshire and Ayrshire and require substantial policing resources and probably units to be called in from elsewhere in the UK. Trump has travelled to Ukraine and Russia in a special convoy and has today (July 14) arrived in Kyiv, a senior Ukrainian official said.
The Independent
32 minutes ago
- The Independent
Employee-owned Post Office model ‘unlikely to be considered until 2030'
Turning the Post Office into an employee-owned organisation could not be considered until 2030, the Government has revealed, as it could also scrap the 11,500-branch requirement as part of a major review into its future. The current level of taxpayer funding for the Government-owned postal service is unsustainable, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said in a new Green Paper on the organisation's future. This sets out its views on how the Post Office should be run in the future, including possible changes to its ownership structure. The DBT said turning the organisation into a 'mutual', whereby it is collectively owned by its members, was a possible long-term option. One version of this structure could see membership limited to postmasters and franchisees, or it could also include customers, employees and communities. But the Government said the Post Office 'should be financially and operationally stable before mutualisation can be considered', meaning it would need to be profitable and cash-generative. It is also in the process of working to replace its Horizon IT system following the scandal, in which about 1,000 people are thought to have been wrongly prosecuted and convicted over shortfalls in their branches caused by faulty software. This means the earliest date to consider mutualisation is thought to be around 2030, the DBT said. It could then take a further three years to implement, with it being a 'complex, time consuming and potentially expensive process', the Green Paper read. The Government said another long-term option for the ownership structure is a charter model, similar to the BBC and universities, which sets out an organisation's public purpose and rules for how it operates. Meanwhile, the paper found that the Post Office's requirement to run at least 11,500 branches across the UK had become 'more challenging and costly' due to rising labour costs against declining visitors across the network. This has resulted in it requiring more subsidies from the Government in recent years, it said. The DBT said one option for the future of the Post Office network was to scrap the minimum branch requirement, meaning it could address loss-making branches and focus on bigger, full-service sites. But it would still have to ensure that at least 99% of the population stay within three miles of a full-service branch under this option. The Government stressed that its current level of funding to the Post Office is 'unsustainable' in the long-term and that the organisation should be able to self-fund investment in its network and postmasters. Alongside the Green Paper, the DBT said it had launched a three-month consultation period, giving customers and postmasters the opportunity to have a say in how the service is run. Post Office minister Gareth Thomas said: 'Post Offices continue to be a central part of our high streets and communities across the country. 'However, after 15 years without a proper review, and in the aftermath of the Horizon scandal, it's clear we need a fresh vision for its future. 'This Green Paper marks the start of an honest conversation about what people want and need from their Post Office in the years ahead.' Neil Brocklehurst, Post Office's chief executive, said: 'We now have a once-in-a-decade opportunity to have a national conversation about the future of our post offices and their role in supporting communities across the UK. 'This Government consultation is a vital part of shaping what the future of Post Office could, and should, look like.' Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), criticised the Green Paper for 'prioritising further cost-cutting and offering no vision for its future'. 'Successive governments have failed the Post Office, its workers and customers – choosing to use government subsidies for planned redundancies, closures and so-called transformation plans that are nothing more than managed decline,' he said. Mr Ward said the CWU was advocating a 'joint venture ownership model' that would bring the Post Office and Royal Mail back together and give postmasters greater say over the governance and direction of the company.
