In early March, the Oldham Living Income team met with Debbie Abrahams, MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth and Chair of the DWP Select Committee. She was supportive of the pilot and signed our commitment pledge.

We're delighted that Debbie signed our commitment pledge, and we'll be taking the pledge on a tour of other GM decision makers seeking their commitment to the campaign.

Thanks to the 16 organisations in Oldham who have signed up to the campaign, representing 6700 across the borough, the team were able to show Debbie the support for the campaign.

One of those organisations was Inclusive Bytes CIC. Andy Powell from Inclusive Bytes is part of the Oldham team, and shared this reflection after the meeting:

A Living Income isn't a radical idea. It's a practical response to a structural shift that's already happening and the GM campaign is one of the few things I've seen that's actually trying something different rather than waiting for permission. We need more decision makers to sign. We need more voices in the room. And we need to move fast.

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