I have spoken to so many of you out on the doorstep, and I hear from many more through my social media and emails. Together, you have told me the three issues that matter most to you are the NHS, the cost of living and immigration.
In today’s Spending Review, your government has taken action on those issues – and more – to make the positive change this country needs and you deserve.
NHS
I’m delighted that the NHS has secured record funding, I know how important it is to us all.
• An extra £29bn per year for the day to day running of the NHS
• An extra £4bn of annual capital investment by the end of the spending review
• Increasing the NHS technology budget by 50%
• Extra funding to train thousands more GPs
This will deliver more appointments, drive down waiting lists, build new hospitals and provide new equipment to provide more efficient, productive and high-quality care this country deserves.
Cost of living
You tell me how challenging the cost of living is, so I’m so pleased this government is tackling it head on.
• free school meals extended to over half a million more children
• free school-based nursery funding boosted
• the Winter Fuel Allowance extended to every pensioner who needs it
• warm homes grants boosted
• the £3 bus fare cap extended
Asylum/immigration
To secure our borders we will spend £280 million more per year by 2028/9 on the new Border Security Command.
Rachel Reeves also committed to ending the costly use of hotels to house asylum seekers, which sky-rocketed under the last government, by the end of this Parliament.
There is also an extra £200 million of transformation funding to the Home Office to cut the asylum backlog. Together this will save billions over the lifetime of this Parliament.
Affordable housing
I know how hard it can be to find somewhere affordable to live locally, so we are investing to get Britain building again, to bring down waiting lists and give young people a chance to buy their first home.
That means a record £39 billion over the next decade in a new Affordable House Plan – the biggest cash injection into social and affordable housing in over 50 years!
And finally…
As always, I’ll keep you informed of the ways these announcements and others benefit our area as time goes on.