The House considered the Budget Responsibility Bill in a Committee of the Whole House on Wednesday 4 September 2024. The Bill seeks to ensure that fiscal announcements in respect of fiscally significant measures made by the Government are subject to an independent assessment by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). It would achieve this by requiring the OBR to produce an assessment of the fiscal impacts of fiscally significant measures, without a request from HM Treasury if necessary. These measures intend to preserve market stability and public trust in announcements on fiscally significant measures, by ensuring there is independent and transparent scrutiny of the Government’s fiscal plans.

Under the last Government and in particular the mini budget, the OBR was not asked for an independent assessment. This is now enshrined in law.

There were 2 Amendments to the Bill and I voted against both: Amendment 9 -: Ayes: 109 Noes: 36  Amendment 2 : Ayes: 73 Noes: 375

The Bill received Royal Assent on 10 September 2024.

On Tuesday 3 September 2024, the House of Commons considered the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill in a Committee of the Whole House. The Bill would remove the presumption in favour of franchised passenger railway services being provided by the private sector, and instead allows train operations to be provided by a public sector company when existing franchise contracts end.

there were 3 amendments and I voted against the amendments:

Amendment 14: Ayes: 111 Noes: 362 ; Amendment 17: Ayes: 113 Noes: 372 ; Amendment 21: Ayes: 82 Noes: 360 

The Bill passed its third reading without a vote and consideration of the Bill will now continue in the House of Lords. 

I have today written to the Area Director of the Environment Agency raising my concerns about the Sodium Cyanide spill that has occurred into the canal in Pleck. See below for the text of my letter.



If residents have any concerns they should call the Environment Agency helpline: 0800 80 70 60 which is a 24 hour Freephone service. I ask all residents to stay safe.

SUPPORTING PENSIONERS TO CLAIM PENSION CREDIT
I have been contacted by constituents about the reallocation of the Winter Fuel Allowance to those pensioners who need it most and I wanted to set out the reasons for this decision.

With the new Government, we have set out clear priorities: restoring economic stability, boosting economic growth and rebuilding our public services. We have also said we will be open and honest with the public to rebuild trust that politics can be a force for good.

As the Chancellor set out in her statement to Parliament, we face the worst inheritance since the Second World War. Given the dire state of the public finances, this Government must take difficult decisions to fix the foundations of our economy and set Britain on a better course.

So the Chancellor announced that pensioners who are not on Pension Credit will no longer receive Winter Fuel Payments from this year onwards.

We will continue to provide Winter Fuel Payments worth £200 to households receiving Pension Credit, or £300 for households in receipt of Pension Credit with someone aged over 80.

Despite this very difficult decision, we are determined to protect the poorest pensioners and target support to those in greatest need. Therefore we will begin a new drive to increase take-up of Pension Credit. This Government wants everyone eligible for Pension Credit to apply for it and get the additional help it provides. In order to achieve this we will be taking three key steps.

First, we will work urgently with all relevant partners including charities and local councils to increase Pension Credit take-up including charity partners who support older people, to encourage them to claim where eligible.

Second, the DWP’s own campaign on increasing Pension Credit uptake will now proceed at pace and I support this campaign to ensure the lowest income pensioners know their rights and entitlements.

Third, we will finally deliver the commitment to merge Housing Benefit and Pension Credit, as we know too many people in receipt of Housing Benefit are also likely to be eligible for Pension Credit but not claiming. This merger was first promised in 2011, for delivery in 2017, but then delayed many times, the last time at the Autumn Statement in 2022, for delivery in 2028. Working with the Treasury, we will speed up the process to merge and will return with full details in the Budget later this year.

Resources are being mobilised to meet the additional demand and ensure as many eligible pensioners as possible receive their entitlement. 

These steps come alongside the wider support this Government is providing to Britain’s pensioners: protecting the pensions triple lock over the next five years, as we promised in our manifesto; helping pensioners through our Warm Homes Plan, which will support investment in insulation and low carbon heating, upgrading millions of homes over this Parliament; cutting waiting times in the NHS which will help many pensioners currently waiting in pain and discomfort for treatment; and delivering the economic stability which is so crucial for pensioners.

The spending decisions this Government has made are difficult and not ones we wanted or expected to make. But they are vital to begin fixing the foundations of our economy, restoring economic stability and rebuilding our public services on which everyone – including Britain’s pensioners – depend.

After decades of failed privatisation, Britain’s railways are broken. This  Government has a comprehensive plan to fix them, and this Bill is the first step.  The previous Government's failed experiment with franchising has caused passengers misery while costing the taxpayer millions and they admitted that franchising does not work – and took four operators back into public ownership.  But for ideological reasons, the last Government  could not admit that their system had  failed. So their half-baked plans for reform of the railways stalled for years. Review after review was undertaken, but things only got worse.   The  Transport Secretary  Louise Haigh has pledged to “move fast and fix things”. So the very first Bill introduced under this Government will take our railways back into  public ownership, so that they deliver for passengers, not shareholders.

This is about the practical need to deliver better services where they have failed, and deliver better value for taxpayer money.  And it is only the beginning of our plans to make the railways work for passengers and freight customers. A wider Bill will be introduced later this session to deliver root-and-branch reform of the railways.  The Government's  plan for fixing the railways and getting Britain moving demonstrates the sheer scale of our ambition to rebuild Britain, putting transport at the heart of our plans for change.  It is crucial to delivering our missions for Government by boosting productivity and driving growth.

The  Purpose of the Bill
The Bill would remove the presumption in favour of franchised passenger railway services being provided by the private sector, and instead allows train operations to be provided by a public sector company when existing franchise contracts end.
• It is needed to end the current requirement to franchise contracts back out to the private sector, so that they can be kept in public ownership.
• It is a short bill which would amend specific provisions in the Railways Act 1993 and the Public Service Obligations in Transport Regulations 2023 to enable this to happen.

I was delighted to vote for the Bill which passed its Second Reading: Ayes: 351  Noes: 84