Budget Resolutions

Jonathan Gullis Excerpts

Monday 1st November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Steve Reed]

I am looking forward to telling the hon. Gentleman that later on in my speech if he could just restrain his enthusiasm for one moment.

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

The hon. Gentleman refers to the towns fund. He will obviously celebrate the fact that Kidsgrove got £17.6 million. That means that £2.75 million can go towards refurbishing the sports centre for when it reopens in spring 2022. That sports centre had been closed by the then Labour-run borough council because it did not want to spend a single pound on it.

[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.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

I am delighted to be standing here today to celebrate the fact that the “great city of Stoke-on-Trent”, as the Chancellor named it and I certainly call it, received not one, not two, but three fantastic levelling-up fund regeneration bids, bringing £56 million to our city. The city centre regeneration zone will get £20 million. The Goods Yard site will get £16 million to unlock £55 million of private capital investment. There will be £20 million for the heritage high streets, covering Longton, Spode and the great town of Tunstall, which I am proud to serve in Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke; that funding will enable us to refurbish, repurpose and reuse Tunstall library and baths for a better future, while ensuring preserving its beautiful heritage.

We also got support from the restoring your railway fund to look at ideas for reopening the Stoke to Leek line, a campaign backed by my hon. Friends the Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Jack Brereton) and for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Jo Gideon), and my right hon. Friend the Member for Staffordshire Moorlands (Karen Bradley). With that £50,000 of funding, we can conduct a feasibility study on restoring passenger services, which have not been along the line since the 1950s. With a connected station at the great village of Milton, young people could get into the city centre to shop or learn, and people could go to the fantastic tourist destination of Leek. This is especially important because 30% of the residents of Stoke-on-Trent do not have access to a car, so public transport is vital.

What else? The national living wage increase to £9.50 means that constituents will be £1,000 a year better off. The universal credit taper rate means making work pay and a tax cut for 2 million of the lowest earners in our country. In a place like Stoke-on-Trent, where people get £85 less per week on average than in other parts of the United Kingdom, that will be extremely important.

There is also the change to the draught beer duty rate—a campaign run by my hon. Friend the Member for North West Durham (Mr Holden) and pushed by Keith and Dave Bott, the owners of Titanic brewery. I look forward to having a pint of plum porter in the Bulls Head in Burslem to celebrate that fantastic achievement, which is ultimately a good step in the right direction.

The 50% business rates reduction for hospitality, retail and leisure, along with the 12 months of rates relief for those investing in properties, will allow our high streets to regenerate. I will hold to account those private property owners in Tunstall to ensure that they invest in their shops, tidy them up, look after our high street and ensure that people feel better.

I have already written to the Minister for Children and Families, the Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Will Quince), saying that Stoke-on-Trent wants its family hub. I will be demanding that, because in Stoke-on-Trent once we have had a little bit of the pie, we want the whole thing; we will not be stopping there.

Let us look at Labour’s record of levelling up in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and in Kidsgrove and Talke. Stoke-on-Trent, Madam Deputy Speaker? Labour Members are still trying to find it on their Ordnance Survey map! Captain Hindsight sent out a search party, but they got stuck in north Islington having chai latte and avocado on toast, while we—the people in Stoke-on-Trent, a Conservative-led council, Conservative MPs and a Conservative Government—are delivering for the people of Stoke-on-Trent. We are ensuring that we do not waste money on vanity projects such as £40 million for new council offices and that we do not spend only £15,000 over six years on Kidsgrove, which is the second town in Newcastle borough. We are not the ones who, for a single pound, let the sports centre close because we could not be bothered to save it.

We have: a £17.6 million Kidsgrove town deal; 550 brand-new Home Office jobs; £29 million through the transforming cities fund; £56 million through the levelling-up fund; £7.5 million to refurbish Middlehurst School to be a new special educational needs and disability provider; and £5 million for the children’s A&E at the Royal Stoke—a hospital built by the Labour party, with a private finance initiative, stealing £20 million a year from the frontline and built with 200 fewer beds in it than the facility that was there previously. We have also gone and got more money to improve our buses and are bidding through the bus back better strategy. This is a Government delivering for the people of Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke.