Friday, 16 October 2026 Search Subscribe
Local shops on Westminster Bridge Road in Lambeth, London, including a supermarket, a souvenir shop and a chicken restaurant

Real Living Wage rises to £14.10 an hour, and £15.45 in London, for almost half a million workers

The voluntary rate set by the Living Wage Foundation rises 65p an hour from Thursday, covering workers aged 18 and over at close to 17,000 accredited employers. Employers have until 1 May 2027 to bring the new rates into pay packets.

Emily Hartley · 16 Oct

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  1. Real Living Wage rises to £14.10 an hour, and £15.45 in London, for almost half a million workers
  2. Nandy says she is minded to intervene in Sky's £1.6 billion takeover of ITV's broadcast business
  3. Economy grows 0.1 per cent in August as factories rebound and services stall before the Budget
  4. Ofcom says concerns persist over X's handling of illegal hate and terror content as its investigation moves on
  5. Palantir and the Mayor's policing office settle their legal battle over the blocked Met contract
  6. Ofwat proposes a £240 million cut to water bills, with Thames and Yorkshire facing the largest penalties
  7. Healey will not raise capital gains tax to income tax levels, the FT reports
  8. Big firms turn to cost cutting as finance chiefs expect inflation and rates to rise, Deloitte finds
  9. Zelenskiy in London as Burnham pledges £45 million of missiles for Ukraine
  10. Car crashes into M&S foodhall at Silverlink at about 2.25pm on Tuesday 13 October, seriously injuring two pedestrians
  11. Britain's AI safety testers are assessing the latest models again, minister confirms
  12. Heathrow boss urges Parliament to settle the third runway question as investors warn they cannot wait forever
  13. IMF lifts UK growth forecast for 2026 but warns energy prices and rates will bite in 2027
  14. Monday, Oct. 12: Burnham tells MPs the RAF Fairford plot was almost certainly directed by Iran's IRGC
  15. Healey takes his borrowing-control pitch to the IMF as experts warn of a £35bn Budget gap
  16. MPs to debate petition calling on Britain to apply to rejoin the EU
  17. Burnham says Russia interfered in the 2016 Brexit vote, a first for a British prime minister
  18. Sunday, Oct. 11: murder probe launched after man stabbed to death in Sutton Coldfield pub car park
  19. Northern lights reach England’s south coast as skies light up over Devon, Hampshire and Kent
  20. Reform promises tariffs on countries that refuse to take back migrants
  21. Flood and drought taskforce to meet for the first time as winter flood risk rises
  22. Man dies after tiger attack at Yorkshire Wildlife Park on Saturday 10 October
  23. Reform piles pressure on fuel duty as diesel hits £2 and Google Maps tool faces “rage bait” backlash
  24. Burnham pledges law to stop non-compete clauses “trapping” workers and blocking start-ups
  25. Sun probe: Labour MPs took almost £300,000 of UAE and Manchester City hospitality
  26. Burnham uses Berlin visit to prepare ground for November EU summit
  27. Two Latvians arrested under National Security Act after RAF Molesworth fence breach
  28. Labour holds Holborn and St Pancras as Abdi-Wali defeats Green leader Polanski
  29. Barn owls, bumblebees, puffins and hedgehogs: Bank of England names the wildlife for its next banknotes
  30. Royal Mail to cut up to 2,500 head office jobs by end of 2027
  31. Jobs market ‘flickers back to life’ as permanent hiring grows at fastest pace in four years
  32. Eleven arrested at London October 7 anniversary protests on Wednesday as Israel moves against UK consulate
  33. Burnham weighs delaying defence spending review to next October
  34. Badenoch to close Tory conference with ‘battle for the soul of this nation’ and tax-cut pitch
  35. Seventh arrest in RAF Fairford terror-plot inquiry as 22-year-old held in Westminster on 6 October
  36. FTSE steadies after worst week since April as services firms feel fuel-price squeeze
  37. Griffith pledges a tax cut at every Budget as Tories unveil economic plan
  38. Labour hits two-year poll high as Opinium puts Burnham’s party on 30 per cent
  39. Badenoch launches ‘The Right Way’ as Tories open Birmingham conference on an election footing
  40. Firms trim price-rise plans as wage growth holds steady, Bank survey shows
  41. Burnham scraps Starmer-era plan to curb jury trials after legal backlash
  42. September car sales hit nine-year high as electric demand surges
  43. IG Group loses almost £1bn in value as revenue warning rattles the City
  44. Man accused of murdering Ann Widdecombe charged over terror plot against Nigel Farage
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  46. Bank shares lose £18bn as Healey summons lenders to a pre-Budget summit
  47. Dame Esther Rantzen dies aged 86: the broadcaster who turned television into a lifeline
  48. UK growth revised up as Britain seals fastest G7 pace in first half of 2026
  49. France pulls the plug on the ‘one in, one out’ migration deal
  50. Burnham puts EU rejoining on the table, saying Brexit has done more harm than good
  51. Business confidence sinks to 17-month low as energy costs bite
  52. Diesel hits record 199.18p a litre as Healey opens talks with US over export ban threat
  53. HMS Portland fires new ship-busting missile in Atlantic Thunder climax
  54. Fairford five released on bail as counter-terrorism police pursue ‘multiple lines of inquiry’
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  63. Turner Prize exhibition opens in Middlesbrough as four artists go on show
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  65. Two former winners head a Booker shortlist spanning four countries
  66. Chancellor names two new faces to the Bank of England’s Court
  67. Bank of England holds rates at 3.75% as three policymakers vote for a rise
  68. Inflation climbs to 3.1% as fuel and transport costs bite
  69. Unemployment holds at 4.9% but vacancies slide as the labour market cools
  70. A Dolly Parton tribute and a piano star: the Last Night of the Proms in review
  71. NHS waiting list climbs to nine-month high after the busiest summer on record
  72. House prices tell two stories as Lloyds and Nationwide diverge

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