Today we have announced the first integrated settlement for Greater Manchester and West Midlands, which is a landmark moment in our ambitious devolution agenda to empower local leaders across the country.

Greater Manchester will get nearly £630 million in the integrated settlement. That’s new flexible funding to transform the Bee Network, keep tickets affordable, and develop targeted adult skill and employment support, delivering more high-quality and secure jobs for local people – a priority of mine for Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton at the election.

We have been clear from the start, we want to work hand in hand with our partners in local government, and see our fantastic mayors take more control of decision making for their regions, so they can deliver on the matters closest to their voters’ hearts.

I look forward to working with Mayor Burnham in Greater Manchester, and all local leaders across the country, who are absolutely central to delivering our national missions as part of our Plan for Change.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/…/andy-burnham…

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Yesterday I was delighted to vote in the Third Reading of the Water (Special Measures) Bill to support Labour’s plan to clean up our rivers, lakes, and seas after years of Tory negligence.

By placing water companies under special measures with new powers to ban bonuses & bring criminal charges against polluting bosses, we will address the record levels of sewage currently polluting our water and hold those responsible to account.

I have long championed campaigns to improve water quality, clean up our waterways, and ending the disgraceful behaviour of water companies and their bosses, both locally and nationally. Last nights vote is a step in the right direction to protecting the environment and ensuring corporate responsibility.

My constituents in Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton deserve good quality drinking water, clean rivers and streams where they live, and not to fit the bill of corporate greed. That is why I was proud to I vote for these amendments.

Greater Manchester is already the fastest-growing city-region in the UK. While we are encouraged by this, we know more must be done for growth to continue and be spread further and wider. This £10 billion growth plan is just another way in which our local economy is being turbo-charged by Labour in power at every level.

At a local level, the Labour-led Council is prioritising driving the improvement of our borough’s heritage in very difficult circumstances, and also regenerating Oldham town centre to drive footfall, attract & create thriving SMEs, and breathe life into the area.

From the new market and events space at Spindles, to the opening of The Hive, the renovation of Royton Town Hall, the saving of Oldham Coliseum, the restoration of the Old Library on Union Street, and the Oldham Town Living Development Framework: Labour is getting on with the job in Oldham.

Our Labour Mayor has set out this £10 billion growth plan with the North East Growth Corridor as one of the 10 growth locations. This location has the potential for 1.2 million square metres of employment space at Atom Valley for the surrounding boroughs of Oldham, Bury and Rochdale – the single largest employment opportunity for our city-region.

Here there will be thousands of quality jobs, including in advanced manufacturing, and, following our brownfield first approach, there will be thousands of new quality, low carbon homes linked to sustainable transport. Specifically for Oldham, a proposed creation of a Mayoral Development Zone around our Town Centre will ensure we benefit from the value and growth created.

More widely, our Labour government is delivering for our high streets with a permanent tax cut for retail, hospitality and leisure properties; further and deeper devolution so that those with skin in the game are in control; local government reform to put our councils on a sustainable financial footing; and reforms to planning and the pension fund market to attract investment, boost productivity and drive economic growth.

Having promised to end the years of chaos and decline, we are now beginning to deliver our Plan for Change to drive up living standards far and wide with more good quality and secure jobs for local people – a priority of mine for Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton at the election.

The liberation of Auschwitz took place 80 years ago today.

On this day, we remember the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust as well as those with disabilities, Roma-Sinti, gay people and all those who were murdered and who were victims of the Nazis.

It takes us all to win the peace and recognise the steps of division that ultimately lead us to horror. Those dark days must drive us to build a brighter future.

For those lost; rest in peace. For those who remain; never forget where the poison of antisemitism, extremism and hate can lead.

#HMD2025

I have had another busy but productive week as Minister of State as we have continued to work to rebuild our economy and drive up living standards for constituents like mine in Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton.

At the Institute for Government’s annual conference, I spoke about how we are fixing local government with devolution, reorganisation, and £5 billion of new investment which is going into local government this year, getting money to the frontline where it’s needed to support more councils.

I attended the Mayoral Council in Rotherham with the Deputy Prime Minister to discuss our plans for the English Devolution White Paper which will give Mayors more powers to drive growth and improve services because those with skin in the game should have the power to make decisions on the things that matter to them.

With key local audit stakeholders, I hosted a roundtable to discuss the recently published local audit strategy, a strategy to overhaul the broken local audit system in England so we can build an effective early warning system and ensure the sector is fit, legal and decent in order to best support local growth.

I had a great session with the Local Government Association Labour Group’s next generation programme where I spoke about the government’s plans for devolution and local government reform.

In the Commons, I spoke from the despatch box at Oral Parliamentary Questions session on behalf of the government about how we are making reforms in a bottom-up way to enable communities across Britain to take power into their own hands, establishing more directly elected mayors who will have new powers to convene public services.