More than a quarter of jobs in Croydon do not pay enough for workers to afford basic living costs, according to new government figures.

About 11,000 people in the borough were earning less than the London Living Wage in 2014, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) said - equal to 26.9 per cent of Croydon's workforce.

The wage, calculated by the Living Wage Foundation charity, stood at £8.80 per hour in April 2014. It has since risen to £9.15.

The charity describes the wage as the minimum rate at which workers can afford to pay for basic livings costs like housing, food and utilities.

Croydon Council pledged to pay all its employees at least the London Living Wage in July 2014, although the authority was criticized by unions this summer for hiring contractors who did not pay the wage.

Expressing his disappointment at the latest figures, council leader Tony Newman said: "I do think it’s only by the publicity surrounding this, and increasing pressure on those companies, that will make them step up and change this.

"In a sense it will be community and social pressure that will make it simply unacceptable for those companies to pay [below the living wage]. I think we have got more chance of that than with legislation."

Councillor Newman also said that companies bidding for council contracts would now have to offer the living wage.

In London as a whole, 19 per cent of workers earned less than the living wage last year - a rise from 13 per cent in 2010.

Croydon's neighbours Sutton and Bromley came off worse in the latest figures, with 34.8 and 28.2 per cent of workers in those boroughs respectively not receiving the rate.