A heavy-hitting cohort of 60 institutional investors from mainstream Church denominations and charities has written to some of the UK’s largest financial services firms calling on them to guarantee working hours and other rights for their lowest-paid workers.

The Church Investors Group, which oversees more than £21bn in assets, has written to companies in the finance and insurance sectors urging them to become Living Hours employers — a commitment that goes beyond the Living Wage initiative which sets an hourly rate of pay to meet the basic cost of living.