Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Helen Goodman and Marcus Jones

Monday 16th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

8. What steps he is taking to ensure that adult social care is adequately funded.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Marcus Jones)]

We recognise the pressures faced by the social care system. On top of the funding that we announced in 2015, which will deliver nearly £3.5 billion a year by 2019-20, we are providing an additional £900 million over the next two years for social care.

[Helen Goodman]

Unfortunately, Durham has already had to make £55 million-worth of cuts. The precept will bring in £4 million, but another £40 million of cuts are in the pipeline. Some villages will face private contractors being unable to afford to provide any social care whatsoever. May I suggest that the Minister go back to the Treasury and ask for another announcement on 8 March?

[Mr Jones]

The hon. Lady will know that Durham will benefit from the additional £900 million to which the Government are giving local authorities access over the next two years. It will also significantly benefit from the improved better care fund, which is £105 million this year, £825 million the following year and £1.5 billion in the last year of this Parliament.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Helen Goodman and Marcus Jones

Monday 24th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

11. If he will issue guidance to local authorities on taking steps to control light pollution and protect dark skies.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Marcus Jones)]

The national planning policy framework is clear. Local planning policies and decisions should limit the impact of light pollution from artificial light, including the impact on intrinsically dark landscapes. Our March 2014 planning guidance sets out how light pollution should be considered in the planning system.

[Helen Goodman]

Light pollution is not just a problem for people who want to look at the stars; it is also a problem for birds, which become confused about when they should begin the dawn chorus. They sing for so long that they have no energy left to mate. I am sure that the Minister understands why this is a problem. But Brexit—

--- Later in debate ---

[Helen Goodman]

Brexit does give us the opportunity to control public procurement, so when the Minister is talking to local authorities about what kind of LED lighting to purchase, will he encourage them to buy lights from Thorn in Spennymoor in my constituency?

[Mr Jones]

It is always important to reserve enough energy, and LED lights are certainly one way of not using as much energy as our current street lights generally do. I hear what the hon. Lady says, and I think that, when practicable, local authorities should always seek to procure goods and services from UK firms.

Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill

Debate between Helen Goodman and Marcus Jones

Monday 21st January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Helen Goodman]

No, I will not. The hon. Gentleman will have a chance to make his own speech. Many hon. Members have given way to him in the course of the debate.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has broken another promise he made in 2011. He said:

“I also want to protect… those who, through no fault of their own, have lost jobs and are trying to find work”.—[Official Report, 29 November 2011; Vol. 536, c. 802.]

He is patently failing to protect those people. By definition, people on statutory sick pay, statutory maternity pay, statutory paternity pay or statutory adoption pay are not going out to work, but they, too, are seeing their incomes fall, and that is at a time when they have new children coming into the family and need more support.

[Mr Marcus Jones]

The hon. Lady talks about the difficult decisions the Government are having to make, but she does not acknowledge the fact that from the time the Government came into office to 2016, the child element of working tax credit will actually go up by £470 in cash terms.

[Helen Goodman]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right, but the point I am trying to make is that we have to look at the cumulative impact of all the changes. If he looks at the tax and benefits micro-simulation model produced by Her Majesty’s Treasury, he will see that everybody in the bottom half of the distribution is a loser, but those people between 50% and 80% in the distribution are gainers. Therefore, he can understand that although the change to child tax credit—we will discuss it under the next group of amendments—might be very welcome, it is not doing the business because of the severity of the Government’s other reductions.

The hon. Gentleman has raised the issue of child poverty, and there is one specific question I wish to ask the Minister and that I hope—