London has worst five areas for low pay - report

Haringey was the worst-performing place for pay in the UK, according to the study

The worst five areas for low-paid jobs are all in London, a report has found.

The study by the Living Wage Foundation (LWF) found that five boroughs in the capital were the country's worst areas in terms of the proportion of jobs not paying a "real living wage".

The LWF says its real living wage rates "are the only UK wage rate to be independently calculated on the cost of living".

Every year it publishes a new rate for workers outside London and a higher rate inside London, to reflect the capital's higher cost of living.

The foundation currently calculates its living hourly wage as £13.15 in London and £12 in the rest of the UK.

The report revealed that the area with the highest proportion of workers not paid a real living wage was Haringey, where almost a third of people (32.7%) were earning below it.

It was followed by Brent (29.5%), Waltham Forest (28.8%), Bexley (28.5%) and Redbridge (28.2%).

Making up the rest of the top 10 were, in order: Hyndburn in Lancashire, Harrow, also in London, Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, East Lindsey in Lincolnshire, and Thanet in Kent.

The LWF, which encourages businesses and other organisations to voluntarily pay the hourly rate it calculates, has received backing from City Hall.

The best-performing places, where just over 10% of workers do not receive the real living wage, were in the South East of England and Scotland.

The report was produced as part of the Making London a Living Wage City project, led by the LWF in collaboration with Citizens UK.

The Reverend Dr Simon Woodman, of Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church and a Citizens UK leader, said: "All of us who live in London will know first-hand how the cost of living has risen in recent times, but those who also live with low pay are bearing the personal cost far more than others."

A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade said millions of workers would benefit from the "largest pay rise to the National Minimum Wage" in April.

This statutory rate for anyone aged 21 and over is set to rise to £11.44 an hour.