11 leaders from seven member institutions took action to get  the management of Thecentre:mk talking about the Living Wage.

Thecentre:mk is one of MK’s most famous institutions, defining in part at least our very culture as a community.  MK’s largest building, it was opened by PM Margaret Thatcher in 1979 and today attracts 27m shoppers to MK each year from around the region.  Earlier this year,  it was announced that thecentre:mk will undergo a £50m revamp.

Citizens:mk’s Living Wage campaign team has been working for more than five years to drive up the number of MK employers who are accredited  Real Living Wage employers, i.e. those who are committed to paying all staff and contract workers at least £8.45 per hour (the wage independently calculated to be what is needed for a decent standard of living).

And with some success…48 employers have been accredited so far (see list of MK fair employers).  But the campaign’s target was 50 by the end of 2017, to celebrate MK’s 50th birthday.

The Living Wage campaign team wanted to show thecentre:mk the various benefits of being a Living Wage Employer.

Led by Debbie Wilson and Sheila Bacon of MK Quaker Meeting, with the help of Kurshida Mirza and Ayser Al Jawad of Truby’s Garden Tearoom and the Middle Eastern Cultural Group, the team finally got a face-to-face meeting with thecentre:mk’s administrator, Debbie Stevens, which led to a meeting with CEO Kevin Duffy.

Mr Duffy is concerned that accrediting thecentre:mk as a real Living Wage employer will give the public the wrong impression that all retailers in thecentre:mk are all accredited.

This is a work in progress.

MK leads UK on Real Living Wage – press release

MK businsess leaders met to celebrate reaching 48 of a campaign target of ’50 MK employers accredited by the Living Wage Foundation in 2017, MK’s 50th birthday’.

See list of MK’s Real Living Wage employers.  More than 1,500 MK employees have received a pay rise as a result of our Living Wage campaign so far.

The breakfast event was  hosted by Dentons UKMEA LLP  and attended by 46 adults plus the Summerfield Primary School choir.  The choir performed its new Living Wage song led by teaching assistant and composer, Nikki Elgar,  See video of recording on 12.10.17 (pictured below).

There were speeches from business leaders:

• Santander – Karen Robson
• 123 Internet Group – Scott Jones
• KPMG Living Wage stats – presented by Suresh Nesaratnam
• The Open University – Lucian Hudson

and community leaders:

• MK Council – Cllr Peter Marland, Leader
• MK Community Foundation – Ian Revell, CEO
• Winter Night Shelter – Richard Wightman, Chair

Lola McEvoy from Living Wage Foundation spoke about the Future of Living Wage, and the event ended with Summerfield Primary School Choir singing  ‘We Built This City Called Milton Keynes’.

Guests were then invited to join the campaign team in an action to present a letter to thecentre:mk management asking for a discussion about Living Wage accreditation.

It is hoped that two more MK employers will be recruited to become accredited Living Wage employers before the end of 2017,.

Leading a city-wide celebration of the real Living Wage during national Living Wage Week, business leaders met at Dentons’ office on Midsummer Boulevard to launch a new employers network.

The aim of the network is to promote the real Living Wage, which is different from the government’s new national minimum wage premium for over-25s (dubbed ‘living wage’ in the Chancellor in his budget statement) because it is voluntary for employers and linked annually to the real cost of living. The new hourly rate of the real Living Wage outside London was announced nationally on Monday 2^nd November as £8.25 per hour.

At breakfast event John Cove, CEO of MK Dons SET, which has just become MK’s 14^th Living Wage employer, said: “As soon as we knew that it was a viable option for the MK Dons SET, we worked towards becoming an accredited Living Wage employer. We hope this goes a small way to showing our appreciation to everyone within our organisation.  As Richard Branson once said, if look after your staff, they will look after your customers.”

Karen Robson, Head of Cost Management & Procurement at Santander UK, an accredited Living Wage employer since February, said: “The wellbeing of our employees, both direct and indirect, is paramount to the success of our organisation, as well as our goal to being a bank that is simple, personal and fair. This is why we decided last year to become an accredited Living Wage employee. We see real benefits in treating our sub-contracted staff as part of the bank now.”

Ben Stapleton of KPMG, one of MK’s first accredited Living Wage employers, said: “For us it’s been a win-win situation.  We find our staff are less stressed, more confident and see their families more often.  The Living Wage also benefits us from a business and economic perspective in that the turnover of our contracted staff has halved and we are paying less in recruitment fees.  Staff morale is higher and productivity has increased.”

Tracy Schembre, Pastry Chef at The Open University, which achieved Living Wage accreditation in 2013, said: “Me and my husband both work full time to make ends meet, so family trips to the cinema and bowling have been few and far between. Now I have the Living Wage we can put that extra money aside so once a month we can now have a family day out without worry, which in turn has brought our family unit closer and happier together.”

Julia Upton, Chief Executive of MK Community Foundation, which achieved Living Wage accreditation in 2014, said: “Our Vital Signs 2015 report shows that, despite MK’s business success, many MK workers remain poor. We are delighted that MK’s voluntary sector organisations have led the way with Living Wage accreditation and hope more private sector companies will now sign up so more workers are paid fairly.”

Peter Marland, Leader of MK Council, also committed to becoming a Living Wage employer, said: “We need to avoid MK becoming a twin track city. It’s only right that every worker gets a decent day’s pay for a decent day’s work.  MK should become the first Living Wage city, an exemplar in the UK and internationally.”

Debbie Wilson, Citizens:mk’s campaign leader, said: “Our campaign is going from strength to strength and we are already half way towards creating MK’s first Living Wage Zone at the Pinnacle Building on Midsummer Boulevard. For us it is important that MK’s fantastic business success remains linked to fair pay for all its workers.  We need more businesses to go beyond the legal minimums.”

Lucian Hudson, Director of Communications at The Open University and Chair of Citizens:mk, said: “It is exciting for Citizens:mk to be working with some of MK’s most successful businesses.  I hope we can develop these partnerships to address other social issues so that MK’s impressive prosperity is increasingly shared by all its people.”

In a separate event, on Tuesday 3^rd November, the Bishop of Buckingham hosted a Living Wage Faith Breakfast, also organised by Citizens:mk, for MK clergy and other faith leaders at Christ the Cornerstone Church in Central Milton Keynes.

Pictured:  Liam Farquhar and Cormac Slevin of KPMG introduce the concept of MK Living Wage Employers Network