FEATURE Rural poverty
n By Amanda Campbell
For what it’s worth
The pound in your pocket is being stretched beyond breaking point. See our cost of living crisis comparators* for what your money will now buy you
Times are hard – there’s no getting away from that – as our figures and stats show. But when you’re a low- waged worker living in a rural area, unable to afford to buy a home, having to drive everywhere and pay through the nose for petrol; not to mention going without and heating – the difficult becomes the impossible.
Landworker spoke to Unite national officer, Bev Clarkson. She told us, “Everyone is finding it tough right now but all our rural, agricultural and food production workers are going to find this practically impossible.
“Thanks to the Tory government abolishing the agricultural wages board in England most of our members earn the minimum wage – or just above it. Housing – with the ending of the tied housing scheme – can be extremely challenging. When you factor in already existing daily difficulties – like poor access to broadband, public transport, schools, health care and the like our members are really feeling it.
“The government’s lack of support and investment for rural communities is a disgrace. They should hang their heads in shame.”
How different the situation is for the so- called ‘fat cats’. With the FTSE 100
CEO pay now back at pre-pandemic levels, at a median of £3.6m, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham called out the governor of the Bank of England for failing to speak up on the need for business leaders to exercise restraint in the fight against spiralling inflation.
The call comes as real terms inflation, the Retail Prices Index, now stands at 11 per cent (with CPI at 9.1 per cent) as essential items like food and fuel, rocket.
“CEOs are pocketing around £3.6m in pay, while others face the appalling choice of whether they can heat or eat, and the Bank of England says nothing. Yet when workers earning a fraction of that want to protect the value of their wages, the governor slaps them down. Where is the call for restraint on multi-million pound pay packets and profiteering on the back of inflation?
“Workers did not cause this crisis – we will not accept any further lectures on pay restraint from rich men on massive salaries,” she added. “Unite is on a mission to make work pay in this country. We are very clear that where employers can afford to raise pay, then we will demand and win a rise for our members.”
26 uniteLANDWORKER Summer 2022 Sources: Statista; Michael Jones; BBC news; Bootstrap Cook; ONS 2.6 1.5 2019 2020 2021 RPI rate of inflation 2022 9.8 4.1 11x House price 4x House price Annual wage 1990 Average Annual wage 2022 Average Affordable Housing??
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