Today the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill has had it’s first reading and so begins the Parliamentary process.

The tight grip of Westminster on local councils has frustrated, fragmented and stifled growth across our country for far too long. Nobody knows this better than local leaders, trying to deliver change while being restrained by top-down micro-management.

Devolution fixes that, with this Bill delivering freedom to local leaders to make decisions for their local areas, unleashing more growth and more opportunities for people as part of our Plan for Change.

England has fallen behind from the rest of the world in modernising how decisions are made, but devolution prioritises people and partnership over paperwork and politics. This Bill will deliver changes including

• Community Ownership of pubs, shops and social hubs through a new Community Right to Buy meaning communities will have the first opportunity to purchase local assets when they are put up for sale.

• Community Voice in local decision making through effective neighbourhood governance giving residents more of a say.

• More Rights for Mayors as the champions of their region, with new licensing powers for rental e-bikes and new planning powers to kickstart growth.

• Efficient Public Services through ‘Strategic Authorities’ acting across larger economic geographies so that areas can work together and increase connectivity, such as integrated transport networks.

• Local Growth Plans to turbocharge economic growth in local economies and put more money in people’s pockets.

• Local Audit System to restore transparency in council’s spending and streamline the system.

• Ban Upward Only Rent Reviews (UORR) clauses in commercial leases, which pit landlords against businesses and can make rents unaffordable and cause shops to shut.

From bus tickets to health care appointments and from education to job opportunities, deepening devolution across the country means everyone in every region will have more of a say in the day-to-day issues on their doorstep.

Today is a huge day for devolution, and a huge day for communities like Oldham across the country, I’m proud to have been involved in delivering this Bill.

Thank you to the group of residents from Chadderton who came to my office last week to raise concerns on off-road biking. They have rightly had enough of this lawless behaviour where reckless bikers act with no regard for safety of themselves or of other people.

I share these concerns, which is why in April we raised issues with the Roads Policing Unit, got assurances off them about their commitment to police these issues robustly, and then raised awareness of Operation Snap and it’s online submission of incidents portal.

On the back of the group of residents meeting my team early last week, a community meeting was held with local residents, the Neighbourhood Policing Team, and the Council Community Safety Team in Chadderton with regards to off road biking & knife crime late last week.

Although I couldn’t attend myself due to parliamentary and ministerial commitments, a member of my team went on my behalf, along with Chadderton Central Labour Councillors Elaine Taylor and Naz Islam.

Unregistered & uninsured bikes plaguing the area were spoken about by residents, with some of these incidents linked to knife crime. This is unacceptable, local people deserve better.

It is encouraging that the Police and Council have reaffirmed their commitment to action, by initiating a Section 59 notice which gives powers to seize & crush bikes, and considering a Section 60 stop-and-search notice if there are issues with young people & knives, especially off the back of the tragic incident Fairway Inn.

At the election last July, one of my four priorities for local people was to create a safe place and tackling off road biking plays a big part in that so justice is maintained for criminals & victims, and so we can take back our streets.

Local people deserve to feel safe in the place they call home. We will continue to support GMP in getting these bikes off our roads, work with & meet residents personally to tackle specific cases & give local people confidence, and ensure all forms of dangerous driving & off-road biking are being clamped down on.

Royton & Chadderton are both proud towns, full of heritage, and with bright futures ahead. Both precincts play important roles in shaping & preserving the identity of our area. Therefore, we have a duty to provide a stable environment for them and protect their long-term future.

After meeting with meet with several restaurants, bars, and independent & chain stores that operate on Royton Precinct in May, we have continued to work with the Council and London & Cambridge Partnerships (LCP) to deliver a long-term solution.

We want each precinct to thrive and to get the TLC they deserve. By ending disputes over service charge increases and the condition of the deteriorating canopies in Royton, we are able to do just that.

With the Council as the freeholder and LCP as the leaseholder, productive meetings & discussions with both are taking place to come to a fair solution for them, tenants, and local people.

We have been having ongoing discussions with LCP about suspending the use of bailiffs while the service charge dispute is ongoing, and we know our Labour-led council is committed to driving footfall for our high streets & supporting small businesses to thrive. This is building on the work the government has done to deliver a 40% permanent business rate relief for retail, leisure & hospitality properties, and to introduce a standalone offence for violence against shopworkers.

Those who operate on both precincts care about Royton and Chadderton. These business owners are often local people who have sacrificed a lot & put much of their life savings into these businesses because they love where they live & have pride in their town. We understand this passion, which is why we are working hard to deliver a fair outcome for all.

There are far too many assets being lost on the high street – whether it’s the community centre, library, pub, post office – where consumers have no stake in the asset that is coming or going.

There is too much of this ‘well the market will decide, if there isn’t a market for it, it will just stay empty and that’s just the reality’. That is no where near good enough, it massively impacts on people’s confidence and security, and it massively impacts on their feelings towards politics.

We cannot afford in the first parliament to repair a decade and a half of the previous government, but we can start rebuilding the foundations and do it by working with the communities.

Co-operation; pulling together, each making a contribution and sharing the dividend is the foundation of the Co-op Party’s Community Britain campaign.

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Happy Chadderton Day to constituents across Chadderton. It has been a privilege to represent you as your local MP for the past 9 and a half years.

Yesterday marked a year since the first general election in the town’s Parliamentary history in which it was rightfully recognised in the name of our constituency. As the constituency’s second largest town, it was always wrong not to have it represented.

Thank you again to Chadderton Historical Society who played a significant role to support the cause, never failing to speak up to the boundary commission when the time came.

It was great to meet with members of the Historical Society early this year as they hosted an event to commemorate a century of Broadway, arguably the most ambitious & memorable achievement of the former Chadderton Urban District Council which sparked the progress of Chadderton’s development during the 20th Century.

Hope you all have a nice day and get a chance to attend the family fun day hosted by Chadderton Together at Foxdenton Park, starting at 11am.

Throughout the week, there have been numerous engagement calls as we 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥 ahead of summer recess. We are committed to working in collaboration through this process, and that is why we have dedicated time to speaking with MPs, councils and group leaders to provide updates as soon as possible.

I attended the 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧’𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 in Liverpool on Wednesday and Thursday. A very full and varied two days of meeting with all the different political LGA leads and seeing how we can work cross-party to create strong local government structures that deliver for residents.

It was a pleasure to 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐲 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐥 on the main stage for a plenary where we reinforced the importance of a strong relationship between local & central government, and talked about a new partnership between the LGA & Homes England which will provide bespoke support to councils to increase the supply of council housing.

It was great to meet with Sefton Council leader Cllr Marion Atkinson in a very sunny Southport. They have big ambitions for the town. Very exciting to see! 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭’𝐬 𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐏𝐢𝐞𝐫 was allocated funding in the Spending Review and we are supporting the council in their efforts to create a performance space and garden for the child victims of the Southport attack and the wider community.

More widely, its great to see progress continuing this week on what marks one year since the general election, from improvement in the NHS, to good news for childcare.

As we launched our 10 year plan for the NHS, waiting lists are down again, now at their lowest level in two years, with nearly 𝟐𝟓𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐟𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 since the general election thanks to 4.2 million additional appointments in that time, which is double our target & 100,000 more appointments a week than the Tories were doing.

We’re making childcare more accessible & affordable with school-based nurseries now being on track to have more places in September than expected, helping us to deliver 30 hours of government funded childcare and 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 £𝟕,𝟓𝟎𝟎.

These are just two examples from the past week which show we’re getting on with the job. We have made progress: 𝐰𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐰 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝟏𝟎 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝟏𝟎 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬. But there’s much more we still need to do.