Why is there poverty in Newham?

This message appeared on the social media site, Nextdoor. It is interesting in a number of respects.

As commentators noted, paying someone £50 for a nine hour shift works out at £5.50 per hour. This is somewhat below the statutory minimum wage for adults, which is currently £12.21per hour (less for under 20s).

One of the Newham Labour Councillors, Alan Griffiths has helpfully suggested that the person who noted the advert should contact the police. This might not be as useful as it sounds given that enforcement of the minimum wage is not conducted by the police, but by HMRC. Still, Cllr Griffiths was trying to be helpful, albeit in a manner that ensured it had nothing to do with the council.

In 2024 some 371,000 workers were believed to have been underpaid. The AI result to a question revealed that in the same year there had been exactly one prosecution for breaches of the minimum wage regulations.

In the bad old days, when the council worked to improve the lives of Newham citizens, the Wales administration petitioned the (Labour) government to run a pilot. They had discovered that something like 20% of people in Newham were being paid less than the minimum wage. The idea was to pilot an enforcement approach which saw local government prosecute employers who were deliberately underpaying their staff.

The government wasn’t interested.

There is a general point to be made about this. Politicians, not just Labour ones, like headlines. They equate a bold statement or spending money with achievement. It isn’t.

What they don’t like to do is continue when the cameras are looking elsewhere. But it is (Weber’s) “slow boring of hard boards” that makes the difference, not the banner headlines.

Perhaps there is a lesson in this for whoever takes over from Mayor Fiaz in 2026.