Local Government Finance

Debate between Alison McGovern and Ellie Chowns

Wednesday 17th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Alison McGovern]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question on behalf of the people of Birmingham. We know that they deserve better. Birmingham is a great city; I was there only recently and always feel welcome and at home. It is right for us to invest in our cities. I am sick to the back teeth of people having a go at places like Birmingham and where I am from in Merseyside. It is time we backed our cities, including Birmingham.

[Dr Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)]

I always like to start on a positive note, so let me add to the cross-party Christmas cheer by welcoming the shift to multi-year funding settlements. I agree with the Minister: local authority funding was decimated under the Conservatives for 14 years and local leaders were asked to do more with less. But I am worried that that might continue for some authorities like mine.

North Herefordshire and Herefordshire council have been facing millions of pounds of funding reductions under the proposals put forward by the Government. We must recognise that a fair funding settlement has to mean fair recognition that providing services in rural areas incurs extra costs, and not just for social care—there needs to be a remoteness adjustment for all the services that we provide. Will the Minister go away, consider that and come back with proposals that fairly recognise the needs of rural authorities like Herefordshire?

[Alison McGovern]

I thank the hon. Lady for speaking up on behalf of rural areas. In addition to what I have said to a number of hon. Members, I would add that it is not just in adult social care that we recognise the difference that rurality makes. Overturning 14 years of Tory misrule of councils will take time. We will engage with all councils, including her council, and it is my objective to get local authorities back on a sustainable footing.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alison McGovern and Ellie Chowns

Monday 24th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Alison McGovern]

The hon. Gentleman mentions fire. The Minister responsible and I are keeping this issue under review, and we are happy to hear further from him if he has concerns about it.

[Dr Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)]

Rural counties like Herefordshire face additional costs in delivering services because of rurality. Extra cost pressures mean that we need another £35 million next year to provide the same services, but it looks like the fair funding review will reduce central Government funding for Herefordshire by £12 million. Does the Minister recognise the extra costs of rurality, and will she ensure that the fair funding review properly allocates the funding that rural communities need to deliver public services in a fair way?

[Alison McGovern]

When it comes to rural areas, there are particular challenges for public services. This Government have increased funding for council spending on areas of demand, such as adult social care. We need to make sure that all councils can be financially stable, and can develop the way that they deliver public services, particularly given the challenges that the hon. Lady mentions.

Disabled People in Poverty

Debate between Alison McGovern and Ellie Chowns

Tuesday 17th June 2025 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Employment (Alison McGovern)]

It is a pleasure, as ever, to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Poole (Neil Duncan-Jordan) for securing this important debate. It has been a good debate. I would normally run through all the people who have spoken, but there have been so many—I will try to cover some of the points that have been raised. However, I begin by saying that the level of poverty among disabled people demands our attention and action, and it is right that we discuss it today.

Disabled people, like everybody else, have the right to dignity, the right to work and the right to have power, choice and control over their lives. When someone is in poverty, regardless of whether they are disabled, they are robbed of the opportunity to choose how to live their own life, which is why the situation we face today is so very shameful. When the Tories left office, 14 million people were in poverty, including 6.3 million people living in households in which someone is disabled—enough to fill Wembley stadium 70 times over, and more than the population of Scotland. That is a moral, social and economic failure on a colossal scale, and this Government have already taken urgent action to tackle it by delivering our plan for change, putting more money in people’s pockets and raising living standards.

Some of the specific anti-poverty measures in last week’s spending review are really important. For the first time, we have taken a long-term approach to the household support fund so that local authorities can properly plan, and we are turning the fund into a crisis and resilience fund so that we can properly deal with the issues that come up from time to time when a crisis tips somebody into long-term poverty.

Last autumn, we introduced a fair repayment rate for universal credit by reducing the maximum amount that can be taken from people’s benefits to pay for what they owe from 25% to 15%, meaning that 1.2 million of the poorest households will keep an average of £420 more in universal credit. As my dad used to say, “Out of debt, out of danger.”

[Ellie Chowns]

Today the Minister has heard many MPs, representing their constituents, express their huge concern about the effects of the PIP cuts on disabled members of our communities. She says that she cares about disabled people in poverty and about dignity. Why are her Government refusing to raise funds through a wealth tax so that our disabled constituents can have the support they need to live full and supported lives?

[Alison McGovern]

I thank the hon. Lady for her comment. I do not just say that I care about poverty; I have spent nearly a year working on a child poverty strategy to repair the damage the Tory Government did to this country. We will bring forward proposals as soon as we can to deal with the poverty crisis—I have mentioned several of them already.

The hon. Lady asks about a wealth tax. We have put VAT on private schools and private jets. We have removed exemptions from inheritance tax, which is a wealth tax. We have doubled stamp duty, which is a wealth tax. We are increasing capital gains tax and abolishing non-dom status, which meant that wealthy people could escape the taxes they owe. I do not accept that we have not taken steps to raise money through taxes so that we can pay for the public services this country needs so that working-class people can escape poverty. That is what this Government have done. [Interruption.] I will continue before I lose my temper.

We are expanding free school meals in England to all children with a parent receiving universal credit, lifting 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of the Parliament, and that is on top of our roll-out of free breakfast clubs. As I just mentioned, our child poverty strategy, on which Ministers right across Government have been working extremely hard, will reduce costs, support families with better local services and increase incomes, because we know that is the best way to tackle poverty.

As I mentioned, the extra money we are collecting through taxation will help to rebuild our NHS, with an extra £29 billion a year for the day-to-day running of our health service, so that disabled people can get the healthcare they need. We are also extending the £3 national bus fare cap, helping people to maintain their independence.

I want to respond to some of the points that Members have raised, particularly on the PIP review, which is already under way. I know that Members will be involved in that work but, just to be clear, it is already happening.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alison McGovern and Ellie Chowns

Monday 16th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Alison McGovern]

The statistics my hon. Friend has read out are, I am sorry to say, consistent with those of the Trussell Trust, which distributed 61,000 emergency food parcels in 2010. Last year, the figure was 3.1 million. That is not acceptable, which is why we have committed to tripling investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million and—as I have said—introduce our fair repayment rate for deductions from universal credit, because if a person is out of debt, they are out of danger. We are increasing the national living wage to £12.21 an hour from next April, which will boost the pay of 3 million workers. That is also why the child poverty taskforce is working very hard.

[Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)]

Benefits such as pension credit and disability living allowance are important in assisting people to stay out of poverty, but delays in processing applications push people into poverty. One constituent of mine is an 82-year-old gentleman who has spent more than 16 weeks waiting for his application to be processed, and another is the mother of a disabled child who has waited more than 18 weeks and is now being told that it will take an extra 25 weeks for a mandatory reconsideration. What steps is the Minister taking to reduce delays in processing applications for pension credit and other state support, in order to help lift households out of poverty?

[Alison McGovern]

I thank the hon. Lady for the question that she rightly puts to this House. We have increased the number of staff working on pension credit by over 500, and are working very quickly to deal with those backlogs and delays. As she says, we need to get through those backlogs.