Budget Resolutions

Chi Onwurah Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dame Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to speak in this debate, and let me add my congratulations to my hon. Friend the Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Sagal Abdi-Wali) on her excellent maiden speech.

This is a Budget to create growth in every postcode, and nowhere is better placed than Newcastle to manufacture, innovate and grow if given the tools and opportunities to do so. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer has clearly recognised this, allocating funding for investment and giving welcome attention to our region’s economic potential with the announcement of the international investment summit in Gateshead next spring.

We have always been a city that builds, that innovates, that delivers, whether it is in advanced manufacturing, engineering, digital technology, energy or professional services. It was growing up in Newcastle surrounded by the legacy of great Geordie engineers and inventors, in a culture that championed making and building things, that inspired me to become an engineer.

The north-east hosts world-leading companies and research institutions, but after 14 years of Conservative austerity, my constituents still find significant barriers to social mobility and opportunity. Newcastle Central and West ranked bottom of 543 constituencies for attainment and outcomes in the “Crossing Paths” 2026 report. Having grown up on a council estate myself, I am heartbroken that the life chances of disadvantaged young people are so curtailed. One fifth of those aged 16 to 24 are characterised as NEET in the north-east, and I echo the Chancellor in saying that I refuse to write them off, unlike the last Conservative Government. I look forward to the upcoming publication of Alan Milburn’s report. He was recently in Newcastle, and I know that he seeks to make a real difference for the intelligent and ambitious young people I meet regularly across Newcastle Central and West.

It is a difficult time for so many families across my constituency, squeezed by increasing bills in energy, housing and so on, so it is great to see the Budget directly address that. Some 60,000 properties in the constituency will receive £100 towards their energy bills this winter, and I welcome the £1.5 billion in additional funding to deliver social and affordable housing and, of course, the £20 million in Pride in Place funding for Elswick in my constituency. After years of fighting for the investment we deserve, our region will no longer have to pick up the crumbs from the Whitehall table, with the new north-east good growth fund helping our fantastic mayor, Kim McGuinness, to improve our public transport and deliver major regional projects directly. I hope that giving £20 billion to the National Wealth Fund and the British Business Bank will support start-ups, spin-outs and research facilities in the north-east, not simply in the golden triangle.

I wish the Chancellor had provided more support in two further areas. The attainment gap in education between the north-east and London is the highest since records began. To challenge that, I would like to see further investment in the incredible young people of Newcastle Central and West, on the scale of the London Challenge from 2003. Secondly, there was significant support for businesses, particularly small businesses, in the Budget, but I would like to have seen even more. Growing businesses will provide jobs for our young people, and small businesses have been heavily hit by higher taxes and less disposable income from many constituents.

Finally, I hope that the Chancellor’s £15 billion defence investment plan will be used to support regional growth and investment, as he has promised, and in particular to address the unacceptable truth that the north-east sends the highest proportion of young people into the armed forces, yet receives the lowest proportion of defence investment spending. That is something I will be thinking about this Remembrance week.

Young people and, indeed, everyone in the north-east deserves growth in every postcode, and I am grateful to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for providing the first steps to achieving that.