Oral Answers to Questions

Adam Jogee Excerpts

Monday 14th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rushanara Ali]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The evidence shows that when young people participate in politics, it positively affects them through their lifetime and increases participation. Young people can pay tax and join the Army at 16, so it is right that they should have a say in how our country is governed.

[Adam Jogee (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)]

10. What steps her Department is taking to ensure that areas with higher levels of deprivation receive adequate funding.

[Dr Marie Tidball (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Lab)]

18. What steps her Department is taking to ensure that areas with higher levels of deprivation receive adequate funding.

[The Minister for Local Government and English Devolution (Jim McMahon)]

We are committed to improving how we assess need to ensure that central Government funding is distributed fairly to the places that need it most. We began at the last settlement with the £600 million recovery grant, and subject to the fair funding review 2.0 consultation, our proposed reforms mean that the most relatively deprived places will see larger increases in income than the least deprived places.

[Adam Jogee]

Newcastle-under-Lyme is at the heart of our industrial heartlands. In communities such as Silverdale, Knutton and Cross Heath, we see higher levels of health inequality and lower levels of life expectancy than in many wealthier areas. These communities were let down by those who went before us and were left behind. Will the Minister meet me to discuss how best to support industrial communities like mine in Newcastle-under-Lyme, so that we can finally tackle this entrenched inequality?

[Jim McMahon]

My hon. Friend makes a very fair point. There are two aspects to this. First, we must make sure that places get the investment they need to realise their full potential. We are working on that with our plan for communities, which the Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham North and Kimberley (Alex Norris) is engaged in. But that has to be built on fair funding at the base of what the local authority does. There was nothing fair at all about the previous Government impoverishing councils in the most deprived communities, sending many to the wire. We are putting that right.