Redbridge Council is now officially accredited as a London Living Wage employer.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan today announced he is increasing the London Living Wage (LLW) rate to £10.55 per hour.

Redbridge was one of three local authorities congratulated on their newly confirmed accreditation at an event at the Barbican Centre this morning.

The authority can now say it pays all of its staff £10.55 per hour, including its contracted staff such as cleaners, catering staff and security guards.

Since 2017 1,000 employers have become LLW accredited, but one in five London companies are still not paying the higher wage rate.

The higher pay grade is credited with lifting hundreds of families out of poverty and away from the breadline.

In his speech to the conference, Mr Khan thanked campaign group Citizens UK for its hard work “to put the living wage on the agenda” and expressed his pride in London for leading by example and standing by workers’ rights.

But he did add that London had much further to go.

He said: “There are many with the means who choose to deny their staff a living wage.

“Our city can and must do better. I make no apologies for being a passionate advocate of this, it is the right and rational thing to do.

“I want council leaders to use their influence to show that paying living wage is absolutely crucial in creating a city that works for working Londoners.”

At this morning’s event, children from St Anthony’s primary school in Newham rapped about the importance of higher wages, helping the lowest paid members of London society to have a decent quality of life and provide for their families.

Redbridge Council leader Cllr Jas Athwal described how the accreditation process took Redbridge three years and involved persuading council contracted employers to up their pay rates to match the London Living Wage.

Now all staff that work for the council, either directly or subcontracted, will be paid £10.55 per hour.

Cllr Athwal said: “We’ve had to get our own budget in order to enable this, so there was dealing with the budget and then there were the contract negotiations.

“We said to contractors, pay the higher rate or lose the job. It was that simple.”