TOWN Hall bosses have called on businesses across the Tendring district to introduce the living wage.

Tendring Council is set to give some of its lowest-paid workers a pay rise by introducing the scheme.

The living wage is currently set at £7.85 an hour, compared to the Government-set national minimum wage of £6.50.

The figure is based on the amount a person needs to earn to cover the actual cost of living, including rent, council tax, childcare and transport.

Rhys Moore, of the Living Wage Foundation, praised Tendring Council chief executive Ian Davidson for offering not to take his annual pay award in order to contribute towards the introduction of the scheme at the authority.

Mr Davidson offered to give up his £2,706 nationally-agreed increase to help boost the wages of the council’s 41 lowest-paid workers, such as cleaners, theatre staff and leisure attendants, as a gesture of thanks for their hard work. Mr Moore called on the council to extend its newpolicy to its subcontractors.

But Mr Davidson said: “We can’t dictate to contractors what they have to pay their staff.

“What we, as a council, can do is look after and deal with our own staff to ensure they get the living wage.”

He added: “As an area of high deprivation, where possible we want to encourage companies across Tendring to pay the living wage.”

Mr Davidson said introducing the living wage was the “right thing” for a council in a deprived area to do.

The cost of introducing the scheme at Tendring Council is just under £26,000.

A final decision on bringing in the scheme will be made at a meeting of the council on Tuesday.