The new leader of Newcastle City Council plans to introduce a ‘living wage' for town hall staff, designed to boost the local economy by increasing income and spending in poorer areas.

Cllr Nick Forbes, whose Labour group seized Newcastle from the Liberal Democrats after the council elections on 5 May, said a key tenet of his plan to tackle local social inequalities was to introduce to public bodies a ‘living wage' – higher than the national minimum wage – to inject cash into deprived areas.