Land Securities and the Goodall Foundation gain living wage accreditation

Commercial real estate organisation Land Securities and education charity The Robin and Sylvia Goodall Charitable Foundation have been accredited as living wage employers by the Living Wage Foundation.

The accreditation will see both businesses commit to paying permanent employees and third-party contractors at least the voluntary living wage rate of £8.45 an hour, and £9.75 an hour in London.

Land Securities will ensure all staff within the business are paid the living wage by 2020.

In addition, the Goodall Foundation is looking to encourage its partners to pay the living wage to their workforces, as well as actively sourcing services they require from local living wage employers.

The living wage is an independently set, hourly rate of pay that is updated annually and calculated to reflect the basic cost of living, both in the capital and across the UK. Employers choose to pay the living wage on a voluntary basis.

Diana Breeze, group human resources director at Land Securities, said: “We are proud to become an accredited living wage employer. Implementing the living wage across our business by 2020 is the right thing to do as a responsible employer. Not only does it benefit our employees but also the communities they live, shop, and work in.”

Eugenie Teasley, chief executive officer at the Goodall Foundation, added: “We want to find ways to support the projects that we fund to pay the living wage to their own employees. However, we appreciate that for other larger or older organisations this can be a complex transition for a variety of understandable factors. One of our four charitable objects is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our own charities and charitable projects, and we believe firmly that encouraging the living wage across our partners is one valuable way to achieve this.”