Budget Resolutions

Steve Yemm Excerpts

Wednesday 30th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Steve Yemm (Mansfield) (Lab)]

Although it is disappointing that the Conservative Benches are almost empty, it gives me great pleasure to welcome the first Labour Budget in more than 14 years.

I am delighted that the Chancellor herself visited Mansfield. She clearly listened to the concerns of my constituents, because many of the things local people have been saying they wanted to see were announced in the Budget this afternoon. During my election campaign, I set out a mandate of five missions to deliver as part of my commitment to help the people of Mansfield and Warsop. It is refreshing that today’s Budget will enable me to deliver on those missions, alongside the national missions we have as a Government.

Nottinghamshire has previously held the accolade of being the worst place for potholes in the UK. My constituents regularly contact me in exasperation about the state of the roads in Mansfield, after eight years of failure from the Tories in county hall. The people of Mansfield will therefore welcome the news that we are investing almost £1.6 billion more to maintain and renew the nation’s roads, enabling us to go even further than the previous Government’s commitment to fix an additional 1 million potholes across England each year. I look forward to working with Ministers to ensure Nottinghamshire gets its fair share of that funding.

My residents in Mansfield report to me their experiences of the 8 am scramble for a GP appointment. They want more investment to rebuild our NHS and to cut waiting times. I am glad we made progress today towards dealing with the mess left by the previous Government. I know those Mansfield residents will welcome the Chancellor’s announcement of a more than £20 billion increase in the day-to-day health budget, helping to deliver our manifesto commitment to fund 40,000 extra hospital appointments a week, increasing capacity for tens of thousands more procedures next year, and delivering new capacity for over a million additional diagnostic tests.

Local people want to see us fix our broken housing market, for both buyers and renters. The £500 million boost to the affordable homes programme will help local authorities and housing associations.

Visitors to our town centre want us to crack down on crime and antisocial behaviour. I know the people of Mansfield will welcome today’s announcement to increase the core Government grant for police forces.

My final focus is to see us create the conditions for a stable and growing economy that benefits the prosperity of people in Mansfield and Warsop. The Chancellor clearly understands that, with the announcement of an additional £300 million for further education by transforming the apprenticeship levy into a growth and skills levy. I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues in Government to deliver the benefits of that package for Mansfield.

Stability ensures energy security, protects household budgets and gives my local businesses the confidence to invest in people. Stability means that instead of worrying about political infighting and jumping from one crisis to the next, we can invest in our public services. That is what the people of Mansfield sent me here to deliver on, so I am very pleased that our first Budget is protecting working people. We are choosing to ask the wealthiest and businesses to pay their fair share, while ensuring that working people will not face higher taxes in their payslips.

The Conservative party wrecked the economy. Today we are fixing the foundations and beginning the work of rebuilding it. That is why I am so proud to be part of this new Government, to support them and to support this Budget.