The shadow of Canary Wharf

Here, in the shadow of Canary Wharf, the borough of Poplar and Limehouse, where these photos were taken, the percentage not being paid at least the London living wage is apparently 5.6%, the lowest in Britain. And that's a figure from the TUC.

So is this hooray for the benefits of trickle down wealth? Or is there some other way of interpreting this figure?

Last month, the TUC published a report on the UK's pay blackspots.  The link is to a Guardian report that highlights two of the very worst places in the UK for pay - and they happen to be just outside the North Circular Road. In the suburban London districts of  Harrow West (home to Harrow school) and in Chingford & Woodford Green (represented in Parliament by none other than Ian Duncan Smith), the percentage of working people paid less than the London Living Wage is greater than 42%.

I made a separate trip to Chingford and Woodford Green to find out what is going on there, but how are we to explain the low figure of 5.6% of people paid below the Living Wage in Poplar and Limehouse?

Well, that's 5.6% of the people EMPLOYED in Poplar and Limehouse not 5.6% of the people who live there. You see, dumped in Poplar and Limehouse are the towers of Canary Wharf. While some 95,000 LIVE in Poplar and Limehouse, over 105,000 people WORK in Canary Wharf.

Looking at my photographs of the working class estates of Poplar just in front of those towers, how many people living there do you think may actually work in Canary Wharf? Well a sure sign of that number being low is that I could actually move from my Brighton home into one of the flats seen in these images. Your average Canary Wharf worker may like the idea of a 10 minute stroll to wotk, but they do not want to do it from Poplar. Only a tiny percentage of those occupying those towers will be living in Poplar and Limehouse.

10 minutes to a different world...

As a related diversion, look what was written on the Living Wage in this issue of the Evening Standard....

"Despite London's economic boom, the recovery is not being enjoyed by all Londoners: low pay remains a significant problem. What is more surprising is the fact that pay rises are higher, on average, outside the capital. New figures show that over the past three years, pay here has risen by only half as much as in some regions."

That was a leading article on "Low-pay London" in the same newspaper on that same day. The leader finished "The capital's economy is booming again: low paid Londoners deserve their share." The Evening Standard wants London businesses to adopt a minimum Living Wage of £8.80 per hour.

But out there where it matters there is no sign of London businesses accepting a wage above the very minimum they can get away with - £6.31 per hour. There is no uplift on the national UK minimum wage for jobs in London.

This year the London Assembly published "Fair Pay: Making the London Living Wage the norm" quoting Boris Johnson as saying "I want the London Living Wage to be the norm in London.". The document is full of good intentions but unless legislated for, by making the Living Wage the Minimum Wage, this will never happen.

When London Transport outsources its cleaning work to companies that pay Tube cleaning staff less than the Living Wage, making those staff pay for transport to get to work (and travel between locations!) you just know that these words are just more populist entertainment from the Mayor.