Budget Resolutions

Janet Daby Excerpts

Monday 1st November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Steve Reed]

I am delighted that areas are getting back some of the money that the Conservative Government took away from them in the first place, but perhaps if Conservative MPs had held the Government to account a little bit harder over the past 11 years, that money would not have been stripped away from these communities in the first place.

Let us look at other pots of money that the Government are so happy to keep announcing and re-announcing. Local groups have still not been told whether they will get funding through the community renewal fund. Mid-project reviews are supposed to start this month, but many of those projects have not even started yet. Government delays mean that the jobs and investment linked to those projects are now at risk of collapse. The Secretary of State had told us in his usual courteous manner that there would be an announcement last week, but, sadly, we are still waiting. If possible, we would like to know what on earth is going on.

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

I heard nothing whatever in the Budget about the increase in the use of food banks across this nation. In my own constituency, food bank use has trebled in recent years.

[Steve Reed]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. One of the things that the Government have done over the last 11 years is dramatically increase levels of poverty across the country. They have not been levelling the country up at all, and now they are trying to cover up their track record since they came into Government back in 2010.

To make the situation worse, the Government’s plans to change the local government funding formula—what they call, in an Orwellian way, “the fair funding formula”—will divide communities even further. Analysis by the Local Government Association found that millions of pounds would be redirected away from poorer towns in the north of England to wealthier southern shires, and that 37 of the Conservative MPs newly elected in 2019 would see millions of pounds cut from their towns, including Workington, Sedgefield, Stoke-on-Trent, Redcar, West Bromwich, Bishop Auckland, Grimsby and Leigh. That is not levelling up Britain; it is pulling Britain apart.

Whether it is work, families or communities, this Conservative Government have made our country more unequal. They have ushered in an age of insecurity, where public services have been decimated, wages have fallen in real terms, jobs are more precarious than ever before, our high streets are struggling to survive, and British people are forced to pay the highest housing costs in Europe for some of the worst quality housing. These levels of inequality are not just morally wrong; they make our country weaker. We all pay the price of inequality, with higher levels of crime, family breakdown and mental ill health, and we pay the price a second time by denying people the opportunity to reach their full potential for themselves, their families and their communities. Levelling up must mean opening up opportunity, not closing it down in the way that this Government have done for the last 11 years.

The Secretary of State will find that he cannot fix regional inequalities because the biggest obstacle in his way is his own party’s marriage to an economic model that is based on crony contracts and waste, and that starves whole regions of capital investment. We need new institutions in our regions—such as regional banks to direct investment where it is needed most—if we want the economy to work in the interests of working people in every part of the country.

--- Later in debate ---

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

No one doubts that the Chancellor has delivered this Budget in difficult circumstances, but this is not the best Budget for Britain. His proudest policies in it are cutting tax on alcohol and domestic flights. Do I really need to tell the House that these are not the priorities of everyday people living in Lewisham East, although I do not think that anyone will say no to paying less for a drink or two?

On a serious note, the Government have not made promises to bring people out of poverty, tackle the climate crisis, fix our healthcare system and deliver safe, affordable homes for all. That is what my constituents wanted out of this Budget, and that is what I wanted. We heard in detail about the various drinks that the Chancellor plans to lift taxes on but there was not a single mention of the climate. It is astonishing, considering we are hosting the historic COP26 summit. Are our Government more interested in supporting offshore tax havens than offshore wind farms?

Coming out of the pandemic, we need commitments on supporting green industries, which will provide sustainable energy and great new jobs. We need to lower our vehicle emissions and clean up our air. The Government started making excuses about not being able to achieve a 1.5°C global warming pledge before the summit had even started. What sort of message does that send to the world leaders approaching negotiations? It is a mindset of defeatism and not so Churchillian from our Prime Minister.

Moving on, I recently met the Lewisham refugee and migrant network and representatives of the “Patients Not Passports” campaign. They told me of vulnerable pregnant women who do not yet have settled status in our country. One woman is avoiding going to hospital because she is terrified of the charges that she will face. Traumatised families such as hers can face bills of up to £9,000 for having a baby. What country are we living in? I thought that this was the United Kingdom, not the United States. That unethical practice must be brought to an end. The Government should tax major corporations, not migrants and people seeking asylum in our country.

In addition, there is a pitiful offering in the Budget for owners of small businesses. Owners in high streets and town centres are desperate for financial support and have not been given enough. They do not just need relief from business rates; they need them scrapped and replaced. The Chancellor needs to listen to small businesses—that is what they need.

Finally, an issue that is very important to my constituents is the local housing allowance, which continues to be so uselessly low that people are sometimes forced into unfit houses in multiple occupation. Those properties can cause antisocial and chaotic behaviour in their neighbourhoods, as well as misery for some of the people living in those HMOs who do not add to that antisocial behaviour. The Chancellor must think again about the local housing allowance. It must be raised to meet the growing need. We need a Budget devoted to improving the lives of a greater number of people. It is that simple.