ONLY four of the capital’s 33 town halls have signed up to the London Living Wage’ pledge, shock figures from the London Assembly reveal. The four include Britain’s most deprived borough, Tower Hamlets in East London, but none of its neighbouring authorities

ONLY four of the capital’s 33 town halls have signed up to the London Living Wage’ pledge, shock figures from the London Assembly reveal.

The four include Britain’s most deprived borough, Tower Hamlets in East London, but none of its neighbouring authorities.

“It is a disgrace that so few safeguard their employees from poverty wages,” said London Assembly member Darren Johnson, who obtained the data by a Freedom of Information request.

“We need to get our local authorities to pay the Living Wage’ to their staff if all Londoners are to get a fair pay deal.”

The current minimum a Londoner should earn to stay above poverty line is officially �7.45 an hour, according to City Hall’s Living Wage unit set up four years ago to tackle poverty pay.

But even that may not be enough in an expensive place like London. Johnson adds: “Workers are still at risk unless local authorities guarantee the wage increases each year with the cost of living.”

Tower Hamlets is one of only three London councils signing up to the pledge for both staff and those working for its contractors, along with Southwark and Lewisham, while Ealing has signed up only for its own staff.

Tower Hamlets’ four neighbours, Hackney, Newham, Waltham Forest and Redbridge, all failed to respond to he Freedom of Information survey, while the City of London admitted it hasn’t signed up.