Spending Review 2025

Helen Hayes Excerpts

Wednesday 11th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

I welcome the focus my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has placed on children and young people in this spending review, with additional investment in children’s social care, schools and skills. These announcements show the Government’s commitment to improving the life chances of every child, and my Committee looks forward to scrutinising the detail in the coming weeks. The Chancellor will know that universities are the life force of many local economies, generating jobs, improving skills and boosting life chances, yet a number of our universities are at the brink of insolvency. The sector has been calling for a transformation fund to help universities reform and secure a sustainable future, so can the Chancellor confirm that she will work with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that no town or city has to face the calamity of a university going bust?

[Rachel Reeves]

I thank my hon. Friend, the Chair of the Education Committee, for her question. I appreciate her welcoming the investment in children’s social care, in skills and in schools—issues that she knows and cares passionately about. In the spending review, we were able to set out a total of £86 billion of investment in research and development, much of it spent through our universities and research institutes, but I am certain that the Education Secretary or the relevant Minister will meet my hon. Friend to talk about the wider allocation from this spending review.

Bank Closures and Banking Hubs

Helen Hayes Excerpts

Thursday 5th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. He mentioned that this problem is happening in every high street across the country, and that is certainly the case in my constituency, where we have seen the almost wholesale withdrawal of banks in West Norwood, Dulwich and Brixton—across the piece, they are closing. Where they close, the banks often say, “We’ll make our services available in a banking hub in the local library,” for example. The service is then poorly advertised and publicised and is not particularly convenient. The banks come along a few months later and say, “We’re closing it because of a lack of demand.” Does he agree that the banks are taking a cynical approach and are failing to provide an adequate service to our constituents?

[Ian Lavery]

Of course it is a cynical approach. The banks do not want to be on the high street. They do not want to be supporting local communities—the very same communities that have supported the banks through the darkest of times. That is the reality, and that is why this debate is so important. We need more regulation to support people in their communities.

Budget Resolutions

Helen Hayes Excerpts

Tuesday 12th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

It has been my privilege to represent Dulwich and West Norwood for almost nine years. Prior to my election to this place in 2015, I had served since 2010 as a local ward councillor in the constituency, having been elected on the same day that the coalition Government came to power.

For my entire time as an elected representative so far, I have seen Conservative-led Governments making my constituents poorer, and undermining and diminishing the services on which they rely. As a newly elected councillor in 2010, I remember how shocked we were to receive the local government budget settlement that stripped millions from the council’s budget. We worked through it creatively and prioritised the services that mattered most to our residents. We protected libraries, ensured the streets remained clean and continued delivering services for vulnerable children and adults.

We had no idea just how much more was to come. Both the local authorities that serve my constituents have lost more than 60% of their central Government funding. Those losses are in no way adequately replaced by the increases in council tax—a regressive tax that takes proportionately more from residents on lower incomes—that the Government forced our councils to make.

The single biggest practical issue affecting my constituents is housing. I have far too many constituents living in temporary or overcrowded accommodation, unable to access the genuinely affordable homes they need, or in accommodation that has damp and mould, with profound implications for their health.

This Government’s political decisions have deepened the housing crisis year on year for more than a decade. The coalition Government’s decision to slash two thirds from the budget for building new social homes stymied the development of exactly those homes that make the biggest impact on the housing crisis. Their decision to impose unfunded restrictions on social rents has taken £1 billion from the budget of Southwark Council alone over 30 years, funding that would have been spent on repairs, maintenance and delivering new council homes.

The decision to change the definition of an affordable home—making a mockery of the term “affordable”, because 80% of market rent in London is nowhere near affordable for residents on average incomes, still less so for those on the lowest incomes—meant that far too many of the homes that have been built in London on this Government’s watch have made no impact at all on those who are suffering the worst effects of the housing crisis. The Government’s failure to ban section 21 evictions, even though they had promised to do so, leaves thousands of my constituents at the mercy of their private landlords and without any security at all. The Conservatives’ political decisions on housing are unconscionable. They are also contributing to the pressures on other areas of our public services.

The Government want to talk about productivity, so let me set out the impact of the housing crisis on productivity. GPs working in my constituency tell me about the mental and physical health impacts of the housing crisis. Hospital doctors tell me about the impact of poor housing on discharges. Youth workers tell me about the impact on the ability of young people to do their homework or to relax at home, and how that drives them out of their home to places where they are less safe. Social workers speak about the intolerable pressures on families created by the housing situation, and how hard that makes it for some parents to care for their children safely. Across the country, people are looking at their own lives, at the state of their town centres and neighbourhoods, and at their ability to access the services they need. It is as plain as day that after 14 years of Conservative-led government, nothing is better than it was in 2010.

I turned to the Budget in search of any sign that the Government understand just how bad things are—the terrible state of things on their watch—but there was just one brief announcement on housing: £20 million for community-led housing. There is nothing wrong with community-led housing, but that public investment amounts to less than £140,000 for every housing authority in England, or less than £16 for every household on the housing waiting list. It is not a plan to solve the most pervasive and pernicious crisis in housing since the second world war. It does not touch the sides. It simply reveals how out of touch the Conservatives are with the day-to-day reality of life for millions of people across our country.

My constituents have had enough of their lives getting worse under the Conservatives. They have had enough of a Government who do not understand their lives and have no ambition for our communities. It is time for them to step aside and make way for a Labour Government who can begin the work of rebuilding the appalling damage that has been done.

Independent School Fees: VAT

Helen Hayes Excerpts

Wednesday 21st February 2024 Westminster Hall

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Mr Henderson. I congratulate the hon. Member for Northampton South (Andrew Lewer) for bringing forward this debate on independent schools and VAT. Many Members have made contributions about the role that independent schools play in their communities. In my own constituency, thousands of children receive a high-quality education at independent schools including Dulwich College, James Allen’s Girls’ School, Herne Hill School, Alleyn’s School and others besides.

I will address some of the comments made by hon. and right hon. Members this afternoon. On the analogy made by the hon. Member for Northampton South about private schools and the difference between private jets and jacuzzis, we would want every school to represent and fulfil the aspirations that parents have for their children. That is at the nub of this debate, which is about the quality of education received by the 93% of children who attend state schools in relation to the quality of education received by a privileged 7% of children. [Interruption.] I am going to make some progress, I am afraid—I will not take interventions right away.

We all want the best education for our children; every single parent wants the best education for their child. That is why the next Labour Government will do what previous Labour Governments have done: drive up standards in our schools and put education back at the centre of our national life so that we can break down the barriers to opportunity across our country. This debate is focused specifically—[Interruption.] I do not know who was chuntering from a sedentary position about what happened last time, but as a London MP I can tell them exactly what happened last time: it was called the London Challenge and it transformed education in the state sector in my constituency and across London. We went from a situation where our schools were failing under the Conservatives to a situation where they are now delivering brilliantly for all our children.

As many hon. Members have mentioned, the Labour party is committed to levying VAT on independent schools and ending their business rates exemptions. We have committed to doing that because we believe in driving high and rising standards in all our schools. Across this country, more than nine in 10 children attend state schools. The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies reported last year on policies in relation to VAT and tax exemptions for private schools. In brief, it found that our proposals would have little effect on the number of children being educated in private schools, but would lead to a net gain to the public purse of at least £1.3 billion per year. I appreciate some of the concerns raised in the debate today, but I urge right hon. and hon. Members to look in more detail at the IFS report’s findings.

[Neil O'Brien (Harborough) (Con)]

I just want to press the Opposition Front Bencher on a specific point. There are some brilliant special schools in my constituency. The Opposition are saying that they will exempt children with an EHCP from their tax, but they are not saying that they will exempt all children at special schools from the tax. Why not?

--- Later in debate ---

[Helen Hayes]

There is a very simple reason for that. It is the way we avoid a loophole whereby any school can claim that it is a special school. Without there being an independent test of the places that are provided, any school could claim that it was a special school, and that would provide a loophole that we do not—

[Neil O’Brien]

rose—

[Helen Hayes]

I will not give way again. It would provide a loophole that schools could use to evade the policy.

The share of pupils being educated in private schools has consistently remained around 6% to 7%, despite fees increasing above inflation year on year for many years. Indeed, independent school fees are 55% higher in real terms now than 20 years ago. Although we do not believe the scaremongering that there will be an exodus of pupils into the state sector, our state schools would be able to cope with an increase in their numbers. Across England, overall pupil numbers are due to decline by at least 100,000 per year until 2030; the total drop is higher than the number of children currently attending private schools.

[Mr Robin Walker]

Will the hon. Member give way on that point?

[Helen Hayes]

I give way to the Chair of the Select Committee.

[Mr Walker]

That is very kind; I am grateful to the hon. Member for giving way. I just want to make the point that, yes, the overall numbers are declining, but that is primarily in primary. The demographic bulge, as she well knows, is coming through into secondary schools, and secondary schools in many areas of the country are full. How does the Labour party plan to deal with that?

[Helen Hayes]

As the hon. Member rightly points out, what happens in primary flows into secondary, so secondary schools across the country, including secondary schools in my constituency, are absolutely aware of the drop in numbers that is coming down the track, and we are seeing secondary schools in London closing—two of them this year—because that flow is starting to affect them.

The Labour party believes in parental choice, but the conversation today has to take place with fairness in mind. In 2022-23, average independent school fees were £15,200, but average state school spending per pupil was £8,000. The gap in funding between independent and state school spending has more than doubled since 2010. With the £1.3 billion of funding that would be raised each year from our measure, we could significantly increase school spending, allowing the Government to drive high standards across our state schools too. The Government are consistently missing their targets for teacher recruitment and face teachers leaving the profession in droves. We would use that money to recruit and retain more than 6,500 additional teachers.

There is considerable evidence of the need to improve and the benefit from improving teacher training, so Labour will work with schools to deliver a teacher training entitlement, throughout every stage of a teacher’s career, to deliver evidence-based, high-quality professional development.

We need to look again at school inspection and improvement—

Mortgage and Rental Costs

Helen Hayes Excerpts

Tuesday 27th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

Ever since I was first elected in 2015 I have seen the pressures of the cost of living increase in my constituency. I meet regularly with the manager of our local food bank, and every time she tells me that the number of parcels it is delivering has reached a new record, that the challenges that result in people needing emergency help are becoming more complex and intractable, and that some Government policy decisions have directly contributed to a step-change in the level of need.

We have long seen spiralling private rents, unacceptably low pay and punitive changes in the benefits system creating terrible pressure on household finances, but the past nine months have seen a further increase in cost of living pressures, which are causing even previously comfortable household finances to buckle and break. People have seen their energy bills rocketing, the cost of essential food creeping up week by week, and unfeasibly high childcare costs. Now, thanks to a Prime Minister and Chancellor who have delivered more damage per day in their short tenure than any of their predecessors ever did, many of those same people are now staring down the barrel of imminent unaffordable mortgage increases.

In my constituency, 9,400 households will face a mortgage cliff edge this year, and they are expected to face an average payment increase of £6,300 a year as they negotiate new mortgage deals. This is a cause of profound distress and anxiety. Some of my constituents are worried that they stand to lose all that they have worked for—the material security that underpins their family life.

What is the Prime Minister’s response to this calamity and the profound distress it is causing? “Hold your nerve”, he says. That might be appropriate advice for one of his investor pals looking at some spreadsheets that are having a rocky ride, but it is a totally tone-deaf response to my constituents who are looking at their bank accounts and finding that the amount of money coming in simply will not cover all the bills they are required to pay. A voluntary agreement that covers some, but not all mortgage providers and offers only short-term measures is also of little comfort to my constituents and mortgage holders across the country, who will be left anxiously waiting to find out whether their provider is one of those offering support and worrying about what they will do when the mitigation measures come to an end and the cliff edge is still there.

The Government’s measures, cobbled together under pressure, simply do not touch the sides of the problem. They are voluntary for the banks and do not cover all mortgage providers. While the focus of the Government’s piecemeal plans is homeowners, there is nothing at all to protect private renters. I am seeing a huge increase in the number of my constituents who are facing section 21 eviction notices—a practice that the Government promised to outlaw years ago—linked to increasing rents. Some of that is due to the increased mortgage costs faced by buy-to-let landlords, who are excluded from the Government’s measures and are passing their own increased costs directly on to their tenants, but some of it is simply unscrupulous landlords taking advantage of the current economic climate to hike up rents once again.

I speak with private renters in my constituency every week. They are beside themselves with worry due to the insecurity of their tenure and the risk they live with that at any moment they could face a devastatingly unaffordable increase in their rent. The legislation that private renters urgently need has been yet another casualty of the chaos and uninterest of this Government and their contempt for the public they are elected to serve. It is not for the want of time—this House has regularly been concluding its proceedings early in the day in recent weeks—but due to the lack of political will to drive forward urgently needed legislation, and that is shameful.

Labour has set out a comprehensive plan to ease the Tory mortgage penalty that would provide meaningful help to homeowners, whatever their mortgage provider, and protections for private renters. Without such a robust package of support, communities across the country face a catastrophic increase in housing insecurity and homelessness, destabilising families, affecting mental health and wellbeing, making it harder to hold down employment and causing deep hardship. My constituents urgently need more leadership, more urgency and more meaningful action from their Government. If this Conservative Government are too weak, out of touch and preoccupied to act—and they certainly are—it is time they stepped aside for a Labour Government who will be committed to delivering the change our country so desperately needs.

Autumn Statement

Helen Hayes Excerpts

Thursday 17th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

For the first time in decades women are leaving the workforce, largely to take up caring responsibilities for their families. In that context, it is astonishing that the Chancellor did not mention childcare once during his statement. Childcare is vital social and economic infrastructure. The status quo is holding back women, and holding back our economy. What will the Chancellor do about it?

[Jeremy Hunt]

I am very aware of the pressures and issues of childcare. The £4.7 billion increase in the social care budget will make a difference to people with caring responsibilities, with potentially another 200,000 packages, but I want to return to this issue and I take what the hon. Lady says very seriously.

Economic Situation

Helen Hayes Excerpts

Wednesday 12th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Chris Philp]

We are very mindful of the impact that rising global interest rates have on businesses. That is one reason why we will keep corporation tax at 19% rather than increase it to 25%. What I do not know is whether the Labour party support that.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

I would like to relay to the Chief Secretary a message that I just received from one of my constituents who was watching Prime Minister’s questions. My constituent said:

“The Prime Minister says she is unashamedly pro-growth and pro-business, but our local dry cleaner was in tears this morning at the news that their energy bill has gone up more than four-fold. They say they get it but they really don’t.”

What does the Minister have to say to my constituent and thousands more of my constituents who are simply terrified about how they will sustain their businesses or keep a roof over their heads in the context of the self-inflicted chaos and harm to our economy that his Government are causing?

[Chris Philp]

On the energy bills for the dry cleaner in the hon. Member’s constituency, she must be aware that the whole world has been experiencing the energy price crisis as a result of Putin’s illegal invasion. That is driving energy prices higher. The dry cleaner should be the recipient of the business energy guarantee scheme in relation to their bill. It should not see bills rising as high as she suggested, so if she writes to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy or to me about that case, I will be very happy to look into it to make sure that the business—like businesses in all our constituencies—is being properly protected.

The Growth Plan

Helen Hayes Excerpts

Friday 23rd September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

The hon. Gentleman will know that over the past two or three months, oil and gas prices have come off quite a bit, so actually the long-term contracts that we are negotiating are just as likely to be much less costly as to be at an increased cost. As for our growth plan, I am not embarrassed about wanting to grow the British economy, I am not embarrassed about driving opportunity in this country, and I do not believe that higher taxes lead to prosperity.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

This year, for the first time ever, the number of women aged 25 to 34 leaving the workforce to care for children is going up. Four in 10 mothers have considered giving up work or cutting their hours because of the cost of childcare. More than a third of parents of primary-age children are in part-time work. Why does the Chancellor think that bearing down with punitive sanctions on the lowest-paid working parents in part-time work will help them to increase their hours, when what they really need is an accessible, affordable childcare system fit for the 21st century?

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right to identify childcare as a crucial issue, and I am looking forward to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education updating the House on that in the next few weeks.

Downing Street Garden Event

Helen Hayes Excerpts

Tuesday 11th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Michael Ellis]

It would be inappropriate to make a running commentary on an investigation that is in progress. We will continue to await the result of the investigations undertaken by Sue Gray.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

My constituent Ruby Fuller was a remarkable young woman who had been head girl at the Charter School in Dulwich. She lived by her motto, “Live kindly, live loudly”, in pursuit of her passion for social justice. She had many, many friends. Ruby died aged 18 from non-Hodgkin lymphoma on 15 May, the same day that the Prime Minister sat enjoying cheese and wine in the Downing Street garden and five days before 100 staff were invited to a bring-your-own-booze party. Ruby’s friends had to say goodbye on Zoom, and her family were allowed just 10 people at her funeral. What does the Prime Minister have to say—via his Minister—to Ruby’s family, and also to her friends? These are young people in my constituency who should have confidence in their Government, but they are looking at the evidence in front of them, in plain sight, and seeing that it is one rule for the Government and another for everyone else.

[Michael Ellis]

What the Prime Minister will have heard, and what I have heard, is that Ruby lived by the motto “Live kindly, live loudly”. To lose such a young life at such a tragic age in such appalling circumstances is a sorrow that those who loved her will never be able to get over. There is nothing that I can say that will ameliorate that. What I can say is that both the Prime Minister and I—and the entire Government—would offer our condolences for their loss and say that, in the short life that Ruby lived, she made people around her happy and she will be remembered throughout the lives of her family and friends.

Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Hayes Excerpts

Tuesday 7th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Clarke]

The Government have always considered this issue, which goes back over the past decade, very carefully. For the purposes of intergenerational fairness and the wider sustainability of our pension settlement into the future, it is vital that that settlement is reflective of longer life expectancy. I am afraid that is the underpinning principle of the Government’s work and we stand resolutely behind it.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

11. What recent assessment he has made of the effect of inflation on living standards.

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (John Glen)]

The Government recognise that inflation is rising, and are closely monitoring the situation. The Bank of England is responsible for keeping inflation at its 2% target. As my colleagues mentioned earlier, we are working with international partners to tackle global supply chain disruption, and are taking targeted action worth more than £10 billion over the next five years to help people with the cost of living.

[Helen Hayes]

As food and energy bills are skyrocketing this winter, far too many of my constituents face the appalling choice between heating their homes and putting food on the table. Will the Minister therefore confirm how much more my constituents on average earnings will be paying in income tax and national insurance from next April, as a result of the Government’s decision to freeze the income tax personal allowance and to increase national insurance contributions?

[John Glen]

The Government very much recognise the challenge that people are facing, which is why we have introduced a range of interventions, including: the warm home discount; the household support fund, giving £500 million to local authorities to distribute; changes to the taper rate; and an increase in the national living wage. That range of interventions will help with the cost of living challenges, and will help many of the hon. Lady’s constituents.