A public debate has called for a fresh campaign to advocate for the real living wage in Hexham and the Tyne Valley.

Entitled 'Work, Rest & Pay', the discussion, set up by Hexham Debates and campaign group Tynedale Transformed, delved into the effects of low pay on people's health and general quality of life.

The meeting was told that the North East has the highest proportion of individuals living under the real living wage in the country.

The real living wage, which is independently stipulated by the Living Wage Foundation to be £12 per hour, is a higher rate than the government's national minimum wage of £11.44.

Faith Lydiard from the Real Living Wage Foundation noted during the meeting that only 34 companies are accredited employers in Northumberland, while Newcastle, a declared 'living wage city,' has 87.

She said: "We used to have a living wage group in Hexham, which had five accredited living wage organisations, but it ran out of steam.

"We need to get another one going.

“Low pay affects everything in people’s lives – their overall health, their mental health, housing, diet, social lives, their children’s lives, everything.

"Some people are doing three or four jobs to make ends meet. They never see their families.

"They don’t have a life.”

Val Barron from Tyne & Wear Citizens said: "35 per cent of children in the North East are growing up in poverty.

“What is the North East going to be like in the future - in the next thirty, forty, fifty years - if we do not tackle this problem."

Other solutions were discussed, such as the Universal Basic Income, which is currently undergoing trials in Jarrow.

Maureen Madden, a former trade unionist, said: "The experiment has been running a year.

"They are already finding that it has improved family life, mental health, every aspect of life."

The next in-person Hexham Debate, organised by Tynedale Transformed, will be on The Future of Food and Farming in Northumberland.

It will be held at St Mary’s Church Hall, Hencotes, Hexham at 11am on Saturday, June 1.