You may have read in the Bury Times that the council has just officially become a Real Living Wage employer. This means that all those employed by the council will be paid at least £9.50 an hour, compared to the Government’s standard of £8.72. This is one of the many council decisions that I am most proud to have led on, and it’s one that will directly benefit our borough’s lowest paid key workers.

One of the most important aspects of this new policy is that it will benefit those who are working in social care, traditionally a low-paid occupation and predominately made up of female workers. We all heard people saying they were heroes during the coronavirus pandemic. Well now’s the time to put our money where our mouth is and thank them properly. This will also help improve our social care services for the most vulnerable in the borough.

We hope that through our leadership on this, other employers will follow our lead. We’ve already had great support from local businesses who either already pay the Real Living Wage or will now do so. The more people in Bury who are paid the real living wage, the stronger our recovery will be and the less deprivation will exist.

In short, it gives working people more money in their pocket, which is good for them and their families, and also good for the local economy as they have more money to spend. It really is a win-win situation.

Lifting society’s lowest earners out of poverty is not something the council can do alone. One way that local people could be helped would be for the Government to scrap its plans to cut Universal Credit by £20. There are more than 15,000 households on Universal Credit in Bury, many of them in work, and they need just as much financial help post-Covid as they did during the pandemic. I would urge our two MPs to stand up for their residents on this one and not their party’s whipping arrangements. Can they really vote to make their poorest residents even poorer? I would hope not.

We are also expecting an announcement from the Government on how the nation can pay for decent social care. The first thing they should do is rule out pushing higher and higher tax rises on local people through council tax or social care precept bombshells, which they have done for many years now. The second, is not to hit our economy with a jobs tax by breaking their manifesto promise and increasing National Insurance.

It’s all about priorities, and lifting the weight off those who are least able to bear it is top of ours.