HS2 & Northern Investment

Parliament debates the next phase of HS2 which sees the route now move north from Birmingham to Crewe, getting closer to Manchester.

There is little doubt that the project is vulnerable, some critics will point to overspend and others to the impact on areas along the route, but too often MPs in the north are asked to support scrapping the project to fund other local transport schemes. I react against that; when does London have to choose?

We don’t want any more, but we certainly shouldn’t accept any less than London.

We want fair funding; HS2 but also better East-West connectivity and better transpennine links. We also want to bring back the many bus routes cut – losing over 30million bus miles a year in Greater Manchester alone.

I also want to see Metrolink extended to connect Ashton with Oldham Mumps, and Westwood through Chadderton to Middleton, before going on to Bury. I’d also make the case for a spur link to Royton.

If I could make a change to HS2 it wouldn’t be to scrap it, but to connect to St Pancreas rather than London Euston; that would then connect to Eurostar and on to France and beyond, that would help reduce air travel and be better for the environment too. But that isn’t an option as it stands today.

I’ll keep fighting for investment in the north.

Martins Fund; A UK Child Funeral Fund

Over the weekend we heard that the Government had finally approved the creation of a Child Funeral Fund. This has been a 2 year-long cross party and movement fight to see help given to parents all across the country.

My Labour Party colleague and friend, Carolyn Harris, has been a staunch campaigner and a cross party leader on this issue and has been campaigning for the fund following the tragic loss of her son Martin. My friend has been leading in the issue and asking the government to create a ‘Martins Fund’ for bereaved parents. She told her story and it is one that is echoed across the country for thousands of suffering parents.

I raised the need for the scheme in February at Prime Ministers Questions and I reminded the Government that 9 months on from the Prime Minister’s pledge to create Martins Fund, the government had not completed their commitment to establishing a Child Funeral Fund.

In that time, 3,000 families had to find the funding to bury their children, this was simply unacceptable and an indignity to those thousands of families having to suffer through the loss of a child. In addition, it is estimated that every year we lose around 3,800 children under the age of 18 with a further 2,700 still-births. This means that every second the government did not commit to the scheme; potentially more and more bereaved parents were left suffering alone. I asked the government if they will also back date the scheme, to help the already thousands of parents that have had to suffer alone, to continue in life while also dealing with a loss no one could begin to comprehend without having been through it. No parent should be left to deal with the loss of a child alone.

This new scheme will aim to stop this injustice by helping grieving parents through the loss of a child by providing the support they need. The scheme will provide up to £2,000 to help cover funeral costs which aims to reduce financial pressure on grieving parents. In addition, the scheme aims to reduce the burden for families by reimbursing burial authorities, cremation authorities and funeral directors directly. It is my hope that this scheme will also include mental and physical health support for all family members to support them holistically through their loss

The impact of this scheme having not been in place can be felt over the country, and in Oldham. Charlies Child Loss Charity was set up by two local parents following the tragic loss of their son Charlie. Hannah and Lee set up this charity to create a support network for grieving parents and they have been doing inspiring work helping people through their grief. This new scheme will aim to help support those families further and ensure that no parent is forced to go through this time alone. If you are currently suffering the loss of a child, please do take a look into this charity and the countless offers that can offer you support. You are not alone.

No amount of money or support will ever replace the child lost but parents will now no longer be left to fend for themselves during their grief.

The Children’s Funeral Fund will come into effect on the 23rd July 2019.

Oldhams New Health Check Service

Last week I had the pleasure of taking part in a panel put on by Oldham Council and Doctor and Councillor, Zahid Chauhan, regarding the new state of the art Health Check Service being launched in the Borough.

I was joined by my brilliant fellow Oldham colleagues, Debbie Abrahams and Angela Rayner alongside our fantastic Shadow Secretary of state for Health, Jon Ashworth.

The afternoon was an informative one and provided great insight into the state of Health Services in Oldham, what it will look like going forward and how the new Health Check Service will help people in the area keep up with their health and identify issues much sooner than expected, reducing long term impact on themselves and the services.

The new Health Check Service looks to identify problems at a much earlier stage, allowing for better pre-emptive treatment and checks rather than the traditional reactionary treatment. It will do this by expanding upon the free checks already administered by GP’s for all who use the NHS, this is done by inviting those of ages 40-74 for additional checks once every 5 years.

These checks will hopefully work to identify the early signs and risk factors of diseases such as stroke, heart disease, diabetes, dementia and kidney disease. The checks will allow doctors to give tailored advice to patients who may be at risk of developing one of these diseases.

In the first 5 years of Health Check, the service has prevented 2500 heart attacks and strokes nationally. Statistically, for every 27 people having an NHS Health Check, one person is diagnosed with high blood pressure. For every 110, one person is diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. And for every 265 people, one is diagnosed with Kidney Disease.

All of these diagnoses are usually caught much sooner and therefore are more treatable, while many of these would have gone unnoticed without the Health Check and many will have proved fatal.

I think this service will be a huge boost to people in Oldham and will help prevent many deaths across the years. This service will come into effect from April 2020 and is an excellent addition to our health services in Oldham.

Social Mobility in the UK

Yesterday I spoke in the opposition day debate on Social Mobility in the UK.

Under this Government, the UK is second only to the US in terms of inequality among major economies in North America and Europe, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In its report, published this month, the IFS found that average CEO pay among FTSE 100 companies in the UK in 2017 was 145 times higher than the salary of the average worker, up from 47 times higher back in 1998.

This is a clear step backwards from the work done in this country to promote social mobility and allow each and every person in the country the opportunity to work hard and push on in life, with opportunities in work and life to succeed and do better than their parents, and for their children to do better than them.

Genuine progress was made under the last Labour Government, now the government chooses to twist employment facts in order top justify its failed policies. We need change now.

To make matters worse for the Government, the entire board of the Government’s own Social Mobility Commission resigned in 2017, citing the Government’s lack of progress in creating a fairer society.

The Commission, which suffered a near year-long delay in appointing replacements, warned last month that “social mobility has been virtually stagnant for four years”. Yet another Tory failure.

How long can we go on like this? The Government has failed the public time and time again, and always leaves the most vulnerable and deprived to fend for themselves. This doesn’t have to be this way and the next Labour Government will create lasting change in our society.

Last weekend the Labour Party announced that the next Labour government will create a new Social Justice Commission to replace the Social Mobility Commission.

The core value behind this new commission will be the idea that no one will be left behind and to fend for themselves. We will stand together and fight for social mobility.

Free TV Licences cut; Austerity Continues

This is another ruthless welfare cut for the most vulnerable in our society.

It’s appalling that this Tory Government is trying to offload responsibility for funding free TV licences onto the BBC.

The Labour Party and I will fight to reverse these cuts. Older people in my constituency rely upon their TV’s to relay social and news information about the region that they would otherwise go without, it is an essential part of their lives and the BBC and the government must recognise this.

According to the Campaign to End Loneliness, 40% of older people say that the TV is their main source of company. Under the new system, 3,037,950 households will lose their free TV licence because of linking the concession to Pension Credit.

1.6 million pensioners living alone will lose their tv license under a means tested system. It is estimated that 1.3 million over-75s are eligible for Pension Credit but do not claim the benefit. This will result in most who are eligible paying the fee anyway.

Over 3,700 households in Oldham will be affected by these changes that will see many of these elderly people who are already struggling tipped over the edge.

The cost of these changes is rarely seen by those on the Tory front bench or at the top of the BBC, changes like these directly affect peoples lives and impact on their everyday freedoms.

Boris, Raab, Leadsom, Javid or McVey will not see the crippling impact this will have on elderly people’s finances.

Nor will they care, as they continue to admit to breaking the law, taking drugs and promising tax cuts for the richest 10% in society, leaving nothing for the rest of us.

The Tory party have proven themselves inept, in contempt and out of touch.

Their attacks on the most vulnerable in our society must not go on. A Labour government would commit to making TV a right for everyone over the age of 75.

Climate Emergency: Where is the action?

Our Parliament is the first in the entire world to have declared a climate and environment emergency, however there is no evidence that the government are indeed taking it seriously or at all acknowledging it. We have a duty to accept the emergency and then plan and act according to it and I’m pleased this was a focus at PMQs yesterday.

Figures released in April show that the UK is set to miss its own carbon budgets by an ever-widening margin, and last year saw the smallest drop in carbon emissions in the last six years – just 2%. We must wake up and intervene before this becomes irreversible.

Even worse, this Government has no authority on climate change. Three current cabinet ministers have denied the scientific consensus, and several current and former cabinet ministers standing in the Tory leadership contest have close links to climate change denial. They are towing the Trump line, be it Climate Change or Brexit, their intentions are not to protect the environment, our country or our planet

They act only in their own self-interest, they are in the pursuit of profit above all else. For example, the Tories continue to promote fracking which is only supported by 12% of the public, and effectively blocks green energy onshore wind project that are supported by 79% of the public according to polls.

Child Poverty has become the ‘norm’. This must change.

According to new figures released by End Child Poverty, around one in three children in Greater Manchester live below the poverty line.

In Manchester the figures have our region as one of the highest for Child Poverty, with around 40% of children living in poverty. This is further exemplified within my own constituency, as Werneth and Coldhurst have been identified as areas with the highest levels of Child Poverty.

I want every child in Oldham to have equal opportunity to succeed, and the fact that government policy is to decrease these opportunities to excel and limit our children to what they have always known deeply troubles me.

Child Poverty seems to be becoming the norm in our society. A total of 14 million people in the UK were in poverty in 2017/18. This includes 4.1 million children, a rise of 500,000 since 2010/11. This must change, our children deserve better than this.

The policies which have led to this are clear for all to see; Universal Credit, two child restrictions on benefits, the loss in the real value in children’s benefits as a result of the 4-year freeze and the link between benefits and inflation being ignored by the government and families being forced to use food banks.

 This coupled with the governments record on in-work poverty, with around 4 million workers in poverty, this shows that the answer is not cuts, not austerity, the answer is investment. Investment in our children, constituents, and country.

The New Economics Foundation has found that 100 billion has been lost from the economy as a result of this government’s austerity policies. That money could and should have gone toward our children and their futures.

We need a radical overhaul of the way this government deals with child poverty and poverty overall.

We need ambitious and credible alternatives for both reducing and then eradicating Child Poverty in Oldham, Manchester and the UK.

Labour will reverse the cuts and investing in children’s services such as mental health, education, childcare and social care. We will invest in our future and create a new Child Poverty Strategy to eradicate the problem.

Financial Exclusion and its impact on Oldham and Royton

Earlier this week, I participated in a debate surrounding financial responsibility and exclusion stemming from the closing of bank branches and charges being placed on ATMs in our regions.

Access to appropriate and fair financial services is a key requisite for participation in today’s society due to its centrality to everyday life. Access to a bank account, savings and affordable credit are essential, however a significant minority lack access to these products and even those who do are now being cut off from accessing them.

Its staggering to think that since the mid 1980’s we’ve lost over 10,500 banks and building societies and 9,700 post offices, with the real impact on the High Street we have seen across the constituency.

And although over that period the number of cash machines has increased year on year, for the first-time last year we saw the first reduction in cash machines 20 years.

Cash machines around the UK are now closing at a rate of 300 a month, and there are over 3,000 communities in Britain that no longer have a single bank branch, especially in smaller towns

Although habits are changing it is still the case that 1.3m do not have a bank account at all, and for a precinct like Royton the market is heavily dependent on access to cash for its customers.

This is why we must act on financial exclusion and the charges being put on ATM’s. Our local businesses are at serious risk if we cannot access the cash to put into our local economies. Losing branches, cash machines and having charges put onto ATM’s is reducing customer choice, forcing local people to shop at chains where they will always accept card.

This will kill local independent shops and markets not just across Oldham, but country wide. This cannot be allowed to continue.

There was an agreement in place between Yorkshire Bank in Royton and a local convenience store to move the ATM into the store, with access to cash to be free. However, just a year into this agreement we have seen a charge implemented and enforced for anyone using the machine.

These agreements are banks taking advantage of a local community that has no other choice. We need to change the law now, to protect our communities and put the emphasis back on the communities who rely on free to use ATM’s and bank branches and who keep the local economy going.

A formal review of ATM charges should take place, with a view to reforming them or abolishing charges altogether. Alongside establishing a minimum standard of banking in communities for financial accessibility and fairness, every community must have access to a branch with free ATM’s.

The move toward a cashless society is a danger to communities such as Oldham where so many of us do not rely on using cards. So, Local Councillors and I are working together, particularly in Royton, to tackle these unjust charges on our own money.