A compulsory National Living Wage was announced by the Chancellor, George Osborne, this week, in the first purely Conservative budget for 19 years. ‘Britain deserves a pay rise, and Britain is getting a pay rise,’ he said on Wednesday, before unveiling a compulsory National Living Wage set to reach £9 an hour by 2020, for all workers aged 25 and over. The Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, could be seen punching the air and shouting ‘fantastic’ as the policy was announced. The Living Wage campaign began 15 years ago with churches in East London. The Director of the Centre for Theology and Community, who has campaigned since that time, said, ‘Any move towards a genuine Living Wage is welcome. But the rate of the Living Wage is set independently for a reason. It’s assessed on what it actually costs to live. We, as churches in alliance with Citizens UK, will keep campaigning for that level of Living Wage to be paid as widely as possible.’