COLUMN by Stroud MP Simon Opher
I’m writing this before the new Prime Minister takes office.
We all have hopes about what Andy Burnham will do, and how he will do it.
My biggest hope is that he focuses on tackling the cost of living.
Too many people feel as if they have been struggling for too long.
For some, that means fewer meals out or visits to the pub, but for those who really are struggling, it can be much more fundamental than that.
Poverty means poorer health, worse housing, less education and a shorter life.
This morning the High Pay Centre issued a report on chief executive pay.
On average, a person running a company earns 130 times what an average employee earns.
The median (i.e. middle) salary for someone running a FTSE Top 100 company is now more than £5m a year.
The man who runs Astra Zeneca earns £17m a year.
Executive earnings rose by an average of 8.6 per cent, while workers’ wages increased by 3.6 per cent.
The wealth gap is widening and it is even more acute when you look at the value of accumulated assets (property, stocks, and so on) – the gap in the UK is now only second to the US.
The 50 wealthiest people in the UK own more wealth than the bottom 50 per cent put together.
We need to find a way to even this out.
There is more than enough wealth in this country to ensure that everyone has a decent standard of living.
Those levels of inequality are not only unfair; they are unhealthy and bad for the country.
This isn’t something that can be turned around in a couple of years – but we do need to do something about it.
