Ealing Council Wins National Living Wage Award
Named as leading public sector champion of fair pay
Councillor Nagpal and Ealing Council officers accepting the award. Picture: Ealing Council
May 28, 2026
Ealing Council has been named the UK’s leading public-sector champion of the Living Wage, after its borough-wide campaign to boost fair pay earned national recognition at this year’s Living Wage Champion Awards.
At the ceremony on Tuesday 7 July, the council won the Living Wage Leader (Public Sector) award, recognising the scale and impact of its work to encourage employers to adopt the London Living Wage. The accolade marks a milestone in a multi-year effort that has seen Ealing position fair pay as a defining part of its identity, using marketing, business engagement and employee support to embed the Living Wage across the borough.
Across two phases of the council’s campaign, the number of accredited Living Wage employers in Ealing doubled. The borough now hosts more Living Wage employers than any other local authority in west London, and more than any outer London borough. Almost 1,000 employees have received a pay rise because their employer became accredited — a direct, measurable outcome of the council’s strategy.
Councillor Kamaljit Nagpal, cabinet member for decent living incomes, said the award reflected years of determined work. “This award reflects the hard work going on behind the scenes at the council to make sure everyone living and working here can share in the borough’s success,” she said. “We have more Living Wage-accredited employers than any other outer London borough, we were the first west London borough to become a Living Wage Place, and almost 1,000 local workers have had a pay rise. Thank you to the Living Wage Foundation for all its support, and to the businesses in the borough, our action group, and our dedicated officers, who together made this happen.”
Graham Griffiths, director of the Living Wage Foundation, praised Ealing’s contribution to the movement, which began 25 years ago in east London and has grown into one of the most influential civil society campaigns of the 21st century. “These awards are such a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the hard work, dedication, and passion that has gone into growing the Living Wage movement,” he said. “I warmly congratulate Ealing Council on their well-deserved award and thank them for their support for the Living Wage movement.”
The awards ceremony, held in London to mark the movement’s 25th anniversary, celebrated organisations and individuals who have helped transform pay standards across the UK.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |