Low paid Londoners have borne the brunt of the coronavirus crisis, according to new research which warns that the capital will be both poorer and less equal.

As we move towards the next stage of the crisis, the government should rightly focus on tackling unemployment. However, the issue of good work – that was not long ago at the top of policy makers agenda – must not lose prominence.

Low pay and the quality of work are problems for many people living in the capital but a new network plans to find the best ways of tackling this.

Data from the 2017 London Poverty Profile paints a mixed picture for Londoners. Whilst employment participation has steadily improved across the capital – 73% of the working-age population now in employment – other indicators tell a different tale.

Families with children are the most likely to be locked in poverty despite being in work, and the risk of in-work poverty has increased for them since 2010 – especially lone parents.

While successive governments have touted ‘work as the best route out of poverty’, the rising tide of working poor across the UK tells another story. The growth in high risk, low remuneration jobs – typified by the gig economy, zero-hour contracts and other forms of casualised labour – has meant that work doesn’t always pay.

How do we repair this breakdown between work and prosperity – or at least work and a decent standard of living? From a skills point of view, we must start by building an effective post-16 education system so that a low-skill, low-pay job ceases to be anybody’s only option.

As seems to be post-2015 norm, it’s been an eventful week in the world of politics and, as usual, the rumblings-on of Brexit seems to have drowned out other important happenings…

While there is much to celebrate about the record high rates of employment, an increasing amount of attention is being paid to the types of employment that people are in.