Hospitals

Debate between Lola McEvoy and Chris Curtis

Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Chris Curtis (Milton Keynes North) (Lab)]

A few months ago I stood in this Chamber and told a story that I wished I did not have to tell. It was about my 91-year-old grandmother, and the night that we had to rush her to hospital with a suspected heart attack, only to be told on arrival that the average waiting time was nine and a half hours. Our brilliant NHS staff worked tirelessly, but after 14 years of Tory neglect the truth is painfully clear: our health service has been pushed to breaking point, and my family did not receive the urgent care that we needed and deserved.

I know that my story is not unique. I hear it time and again, on the doorstep, in community centres and in my constituency surgeries. There is a painful fear, shared by so many, that the NHS on which we all depend will not be there when we need it most. Let us be honest about why that is: it is not because our NHS staff are not working hard enough—far from it. They are heroes in every sense of the word.

[Lola McEvoy (Darlington) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way on his point about how brilliant our NHS staff are. First, will he commend my dad for his 40 years’ service badge as an NHS staff member? That has to be put on the record. Secondly, does my hon. Friend agree that the Government are laser-focused on supporting NHS staff to stay in the NHS, work their way up the ranks and lead a fulfilling career in serving our constituents?

[Chris Curtis]

I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention, and for the work that her family have done for our national health service.

It is not the staff’s fault that our NHS has been let down; it is because of Tory Government after Tory Government, and decision after decision. Fourteen years of Conservative mismanagement have hollowed out our health service, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss this important issue today. Although I might not see eye to eye on everything with the Liberal Democrats, there is one truth that we cannot ignore: the NHS is facing serious challenges, and real change and investment are needed. However, people back home are not crying out for more motions; they are crying out for action, for delivery, and for change that they can see and feel. With this Labour Government, they are finally getting it.

When we came into office, we did not come in to manage decline; we came in to turn things around, to rebuild, and to restore a sense of hope and pride in our public services, starting with our NHS. We have seen that work across the country, with waiting lists falling for six months in a row. In my city, this Government have finally secured funding for the new women and children’s hospital that residents in Milton Keynes—a growing city—so desperately need, and construction is set to start in 2027-28. For too long, families have walked through the doors of my local hospital, which is simply not fit for purpose and has some of the longest waiting lists in the country. Let me be clear: it is completely unacceptable that it has taken this long to get funding in place. Milton Keynes has been one of the fastest growing cities in the country for years, and we have been left with far fewer hospital beds than we deserve and far fewer than the national average.

Despite some of the comments from Conservative Members, and despite the Conservative Government plastering the new hospital on all their leaflets, how much funding was actually secured by my hospital under the last Conservative Government? Given that it was “fully funded”, one would assume the figure was 100%. Was it 50% or 10%? No, just 4% of the “fully funded” hospital promised was actually secured by the previous Government. It is this Government who have found the other 96% to ensure that we can finally build the hospital that my city so desperately deserves. We are now trying to deliver a hospital that has been delayed not by local failure, but by national dither. Thanks to this Government, I get to be the MP who delivers what Tory MP after Tory MP promised my city but failed to deliver.

I want to ensure that we do not face further delays—not just because of the health risks to my city, but because of the cost increases. I have been told that every single month this project is held up costs an extra £700,000. That £700,000 could be invested in other important projects that have been mentioned by Members across the House. One potential hold-up is the Hospital 2.0 programme, which I am told is still not complete. Will the Minister look at whether that important work will hold up projects that we know are ready to go, such as in Milton Keynes? We need to fast-track these projects through the Treasury to ensure that there are no further bureaucratic blockages once the go-ahead has been given, especially bearing in mind that we have a track record in Milton Keynes of building to budget and on time. Give us the tools and we will build the hospital.

We must also be honest about what happens after the ribbon is cut. Even if we build the hospital, our health system in Milton Keynes will still be operating under immense strain. Thanks to the legacy of the last Government, our integrated care board is one of the most, if not the most, underfunded per person in the entire country. That has real consequences. It means that places including my local hospice, Willen hospice, which has provided vital end of life care to many members of my family, are being left to scrape by. This Sunday I will be running the London marathon for our local hospice, because I care deeply about the work it does. Marathons should not be the funding model for our healthcare system. We need sustainable investment, which starts with fairer funding for our ICB and fairer treatment for a city that has been overlooked for too long.

I will support anything in this House that helps us fix our NHS, and I will work with anybody who wants to rebuild it, but I will also say this: I am proud to be a member of a Government who are finally not just talking about the problem, but getting on with the solution. Let us build that hospital, let us fund our services properly, let us fix what is broken, and let us give people back the healthcare system they so desperately deserve.

Renters’ Rights Bill

Debate between Lola McEvoy and Chris Curtis

Wednesday 9th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Chris Curtis (Milton Keynes North) (Lab)]

I echo comments from others about the fantastic maiden speeches that we have heard across the Chamber today. I am proud to rise in support of this landmark legislation—the most significant reform to the private rental sector in more than 40 years. Like many new Members on the Government side of the House, I have seen at first hand the consequences of our broken rental sector. Just days before Christmas, I received an email from my landlord having lived in my home for five years. I was told that he would be “willing” to let me stay if I accepted a 29% rent increase. Meanwhile, we went for days without hot water because of a faulty boiler that repeatedly broke down. My gym membership was not to keep fit but to ensure that I could have a shower each morning before heading into work.

However, the stories I heard from my constituents during the election campaign were so much worse than anything that I have experienced. I have heard of landlords converting homes into houses in multiple occupation, cramming strangers into what used to be families’ living rooms. I have spoken to mothers in tears because they have been forced to uproot their kids once again because landlord decided that it was time to sell. I will not spend too much time dwelling on some of those problems, because other Members have spoken about them, but obviously the effect on families is pretty severe. But there is a much wider effect on our society as well. It affects our economy. A stable and productive workforce depends on individuals having security in their personal lives, which section 21 evictions undermined. We have also heard about the effect that the issue has on the funding of our local councils.

To be clear, the Bill does not seek to stop good landlords removing bad tenants. Tenants must, of course, always pay their rent, look after their properties and respect their neighbours. Under the Bill, all landlords will still be able to end tenancies if there are legitimate reasons, such as wanting to sell the property. However, I urge the Government to consider extending the protected period to two years and providing clear guidance on how landlords will need to prove their intentions on those grounds.

Obviously, I agree with the Bill’s approach in not introducing rent caps, which we know can create unintended consequences, but we must ensure that landlords are not able to exploit that by excessively raising rents mid-tenancy as a back-door way of evicting tenants. It is right that the Bill stops landlords from raising rents above market rates, but I would also like to hear more about how market rates will be determined; I speak from personal experience.

[Lola McEvoy (Darlington) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the landlord database is a great opportunity for us to avoid clogging up our tribunals? If the landlord database had a tenants’ portal, it could help to aggregate the data so that, at local authority or postcode level, people could see what the average rent really was in their area, thus avoiding more tribunals.

[Chris Curtis]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention, and I agree. In my experience, the 29% rent hike was deemed justified because right down the road there was a property being advertised on Zoopla at that new price—but of course that property was newly furnished and had not been agreed by a landlord yet, so it was likely to be inflated above market value. We should consider using the rental database to track actual agreed rents and give us a more accurate picture of market rents, not just speculative rents.

I have a minute and a half left, so I would like to make one final point—this is my first experience of trying to scribble bits of a speech halfway through. We have heard lots of heartbreaking stories, but I want to bring the House’s attention to Zeke’s story. Zeke was an adorable cat who, just one day shy of his first birthday, ended up in Battersea after his family faced an impossible choice. They loved him dearly but, when it came to finding a rental home that welcomed pets, they hit wall after wall. In the end they had no choice but to give him up. Can you imagine, Madam Deputy Speaker, having to choose between a roof over your head and a loyal companion you had raised as part of your family?

Zeke is not alone. Housing is now the second most common reason animals like Zeke end up in shelters—not because their owners did not care, but because the system failed them. We are a nation of animal lovers and nearly two thirds of tenants would love to own a pet—I know that feeling; I was one of them—but for many families it is simply not possible. Properties that allow pets are few and far between, and when they move, pet owners are often forced to choose between a place to live and keeping their pets. That cruel choice leads to heartbreaking stories such as Zeke’s. I warmly welcome the provisions on pets in this Bill, and the many other provisions that I know will make life better for private renters across my constituency and across the country.