Living wage on its own won’t be enough to revitalise post COVID-19 economy

Linda Lamont’s letter in last week’s paper click here to read raised some vital issues in regard to the living wage being used to revitalise a post-Covid economy.

But she failed to factor in that unemployment will be used by the government to depress wage levels.

So the living wage on its own will not be enough.

As demand will be low, the economy will be slow to recover.

A stimulus such as a universal basic income paid to every adult will help.

It doesn’t have to be permanent.

Also a massive programme of public works will similarly help.

We need council houses and flood defences for the whole country.

These measures would get people back to work and stimulate employment in other sectors.

It would also generate an increasing level of taxation revenue.

We don’t need a crystal ball to see that the government will not attempt anything remotely like this.

Linda wrote that we will all need to make sacrifices.

I suspect that the burden of sacrifice will fall on the shoulders of health care workers and supermarket staff rather more than it will impact on hedge fund managers and business tycoons.

Whether Sir Keir Starmer’s brand of progressive social democracy is equal to the challenge remains to be seen.