Mayor Election 2016 / News
Labour mayor candidate in living wage promise
Mayor hopeful Marvin Rees has reignited a previous pledge to make Bristol a “living wage city”.
The Labour candidate in the May elections is promising to extend living wage payments of £8.25 an hour to people indirectly employed by the council.
In only his second policy announcement so far, he pledged to force the increase through for people like carers working for private firms contracted to the council.
He also promised to ensure all care workers are paid for travel times between jobs.
“Bristol is a thriving, exciting city to live in but we all know we must do more to make this city an equal, fair place to work,” he said at a South West TUC’s Heart Unions event in Bristol.
The policy follows a pledge to “make it a priority to build more affordable homes, free up land for development, protect private renters and encourage self-build”.
The candidate, who was defeated by incumbent George Ferguson at the last elections, has also floated the idea of bringing the bus network in Bristol back into public hands. It is understood that this policy is now likely to be included in his final manifesto.
His previous manifesto contained the promises to build 4,000 affordable homes and to make Bristol a “living wage city”.
Since Ferguson has been in power he has introduced the living wage for all council employees, but has struggled to build affordable housing – admitting he would miss his target of 1,000 each year by 2016.
Since the last mayoral election the Government has also promised to raise the minimum wage to £7.20 in April, rising to £9 by 2020.
Both Ferguson and Rees launch their campaigns officially this week, within four days of each other.
Rees is expected to be the biggest challenger to Ferguson who is seeking a second and final term in office.
Read more: Bristol mayor candidates 2016
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