Newspaper column 20 October 2021 - Paying tribute to Sir David Amess

I am sure we have all been shocked by the killing of Sir David Amess, the Member of Parliament for Southend West, on Friday. Sir David was stabbed during one of his regular MP Surgeries.

I had the privilege of knowing David as a colleague in Parliament, in fact I remember my last conversation with him, on the last day Parliament sat before the recent recess, when he congratulated me on my recent appointment and had words of encouragement for me. This was typical of the gracious and generous person he was. This is a memory I will now  treasure fondly.

It has been clear from the outpouring of love and appreciation towards him since his death that Sir David was someone who was held in high esteem by people from all walks of life but especially his constituents.

Sir David was one of the kindest and most polite people I have ever met. He was hopelessly cheerful, optimistic and positive and always sought to see the good in everyone, including his political opponents. He was a determined campaigner and champion for his constituency.

On Monday the planned business of the House of Commons was cancelled and instead the house paid tribute to Sir David. There were many moving tributes from those who had known and worked with him over many years. It was especially fitting that the Prime Minister announced that Her Majesty the Queen had agreed to award Southend city status, a cause that David had campaigned for over many years. I welcome this as a very fitting tribute to David.

David was killed whilst going about his work as an MP doing what many MPs would have been doing on Friday, meeting with constituents in order to listen to and understand their concerns and seek to assist them. In fact, I learnt of the attack on David whilst I was doing the very same thing on Friday.

The fact that he was killed whilst going about an activity that is key to the role of an MP strikes right at the heart of our democracy. We often take for granted in this country just how open and accessible our politicians are. Virtually all MPs hold regular events when constituents are able to come and meet with them face to face in order to raise concerns or ask questions. This is something that does not happen in many other democracies. David is the second MP to be killed in this way in the last 5 years, following the killing of Jo Cox in 2016.

Sadly, the fact that this has happened for the second time does raise a number of questions about the safety of MPs and indeed other public servants. I am pleased that the Home Secretary has announced that there will now be a review into the security for MPs. It is right that we look at how we can ensure MPs and importantly their staff, can be kept safe whilst going about their job. But it will be a very sad day if the outcome of these tragic events is that MPs are less accessible to the people they represent and serve.

My view is that whilst we need to do all we can to keep MPs and their staff safe, this should not result in MPs becoming in any way cut off from our constituents. If we allowed this to happen then those who seek to attack our democracy will have won a victory.

But there are some wider points that do need to be addressed. Sadly, in recent years MPs and politicians in general have become the brunt of a great deal of abuse and hatred. Fuelled particularly by social media and the ability for a degree of anonymity, hiding behind their screens, there are those who abuse the accessibility of MPs through social media platforms to attack and vilify them in a way they would almost never do in person.

This, I believe, has created an atmosphere that dehumanises politicians and we are seen by some as fair game and that we deserve everything we get. But it cannot be acceptable in a democracy that this type of behaviour is seen as OK and even sadly encouraged by some.

David personified an ability to disagree, sometimes passionately, whilst respecting everyone. If there is one thing, that comes about as a result of his death it should be that we recover in our country the ability to disagree, and debate and argue, without resorting to hatred, abuse or personal attacks.

I believe all of us need to take stock and remind ourselves that we are all human and deserve to be treated with respect whatever our political views. This I believe would be a fitting tribute to David.

Newspaper column 13 October 2021 - Reporting back on my survey

I will never forget that I am your voice in Westminster and so I always want to know what matters most to you. To this end, in September I launched a St Austell and Newquay constituency autumn survey, so you can let me know the issues you feel should be focused on in the coming months, through the rest of 2021 and beyond.

Thank you to everyone who took their time to complete the survey. Nearly 500 people completed it in just over a month, and I thought in my column this week that I would go through some of the results

I asked, generally, which issues were most important to you and your family. The responses received showed that the NHS and Housing were most important to the majority of people who replied.

I asked in terms of local priorities, what you felt I should be prioritising to work with Cornwall Council on, and the majority of those who replied said that they felt affordable housing and health and social care were most important.

In terms of the actions that I highlighted in my survey, the ones that had most support from responders were ‘More funding for Cornwall's NHS including £450million to improve services in our Duchy’ and ‘Working with the Government to better regulate second homes and holiday lets’, both of which had more than 90% of responders in favour. Creating more opportunities and jobs for young people also scored highly throughout the survey

There was clearly significant interest in health and social care and housing issues, as well as the need to create more opportunities for our young people at every level of my survey responses, so I thought I would update you on both what I have already done, and what I will be doing in these areas in the future.

In my time as MP since 2015 I have worked with the Government to increase NHS funding across Cornwall, with a real term increase every year. Since 2019 we have also seen £100million for a new women and children's hospital at RCH Treliske, and £450million to upgrade NHS services across Cornwall. As well as all of, this last year the Government wrote off £42.5million of RCH Treliske’s debt.

There are of course extraordinary current pressures on our NHS, caused by the unprecedented circumstances of the pandemic, and the backlog of operations that this has caused, as well increased demand for regular services as we look to return to normal, and delays in discharges that Cornwall Council is now working on reducing.

The recently announced NHS and Social Care NIC Levy will also see more funds to ensure the NHS has the resources it needs throughout this Parliament, including tackling the backlog of operations and funding the 3% pay-rise for nurses. It will also allow the Government to invest the largest amount of any government to upskill the social care workforce, strengthen the adult social care system and finally implement a solution to cap adult social care costs.

Turning to housing issues, there is no doubt that we are in a housing crisis in Cornwall, and I have made it a priority to address this since the current session of Parliament first sat in June.

Along with my Cornish MP colleagues I am currently working with the new administration at Cornwall Council to discuss further action that can be taken to make the housing market fairer for local people including potentially putting an additional council tax charge on second homes, piloting new planning rules to restrict the use of “primary residences” for holiday homes in areas which already have high percentages of second homes, setting up a new brokerage to encourage second home owners to make their properties available to long-term renters, and a crackdown on the illegal use of former council homes as holiday lets.

Several of the proposals will require changes to primary legislation to allow Cornwall to pilot measures which are not currently backed by national law, and as MPs for Cornwall we look forward to working with the new Ministerial team at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities to progressing these for these for the good of the people of Cornwall.

Finally, on creating more opportunities and jobs for our young people, it is so important that we create the well paid, highly skilled jobs that we need in order to help our young people stay in Cornwall, have careers here and bring up their own families. I am pleased to have worked with Cornwall College and the Government to secure funding for the refurbishment of their St Austell campus, and have also worked hard to make the Spaceport Cornwall project a reality, as well as with emerging industries such as lithium extraction and geothermal to create new and exciting opportunities for our children in the future.

I will be responding in more detail to those people who replied to my survey, but in the meantime, it is really helpful to understand your priorities for me as your Member of Parliament. The survey is still open and if you want to respond to it, you can do so via my website

https://www.stevedouble.org.uk/st-austell-and-newquay-autumn-myplan-survey

 

 

 

 

Newspaper column 6 October 2021 - Winter support

As our country continues on the road to recovery form the COVID-19 pandemic, the past week has seen the ending of a number of the emergency support schemes that were put in place to protect jobs, businesses and livelihoods. It was always the case that the unprecedented support made available to millions of households would need to end. These schemes were always intended to be temporary, and their removal is another step on the road of leaving the pandemic behind.

I know the ending of the job retention scheme (furlough), business support such as the 5% VAT rate being phased out and reduced stamp duty rates ending will be challenging to some, but it is right we now seek to remove these tax-payer funded support schemes.

One issue that has been raised with me over the past few weeks has been the ending of the emergency temporary uplift of £20 per week for people claiming the Universal Credit benefit.

This has been framed as a ‘cut’ by people with a certain political agenda, but this is not the case. The uplift was only ever supposed to be temporary, and was introduced to help people claiming Universal Credit with anticipated additional costs of having to stay at home during the lockdowns.

Now the lockdowns are a thing of the past, the reason this additional support was put in place has now come to an end. The Government has already extended this support well past the end of all COVID-19 restrictions earlier in August.

The uplift cost £6billion a year to fund, and while this was justifiable as a one off, at the same time as the Government was supporting numerous other people and businesses through measures like the furlough and business support grants, and due to very specific circumstances, it is in my mind not justifiable as a permanent increase now the circumstances that necessitated its use have ended. It this uplift was to be made permanent then a source for the £6billion per year additional funding would have to be identified.

But we should also be clear that this is not the end of the support available for households most in need. We do recognise that the months ahead will be challenging for many. I was pleased to see last week the Government confirm that vulnerable households across the UK will be able to access a new £500million support fund to help them with essentials such as fuel and food costs over the winter months.

The new Household Support Fund will support millions of households in England and will be distributed by councils in England, who know their local areas best and can directly help those who need it most, including for example, through small grants to meet daily needs such as food, clothing, and utilities. Cash will be made available to Local Authorities like Cornwall Council from later this month.

With more people in work and the economy bouncing back, the Government is focused on investing in jobs and skills – increasing prospects and wages across the country – whilst ensuring those in greatest need can access vital support to help cover everyday costs. Alongside this, the government’s Plan for Jobs is helping people move back into employment so they can earn a regular wage, progress and increase their financial resilience.

With that being said, families will also continue to benefit from the energy price cap, recent rise in Local Housing Allowance and increases in the National Living Wage. In terms of support for the vulnerable this winter, the Household Support Fund mentioned above is additional funding that goes along with the Warm Home Discount which provides a £140 rebate on energy bills each winter to over 2.2 million low-income households and the Cold Weather Payment which provides £25 extra a week for poorer households when the temperature is consistently below zero.

The Holiday Activities and Food programme will continue over the Christmas Holidays and to further support for families with children, the Government has also doubled free childcare for eligible working parents, worth up to £5,000 per child every year as well as increasing the value of Healthy Start vouchers by over a third, helping disadvantaged women who are pregnant or have children under four.

I am pleased to see support, both broader and tailored, made available for those who need it most, while also acknowledging that we are going to have to continue to make sensible and responsible decisions on our public finances in the years ahead, to balance the books for future generations who will otherwise have to pay for this pandemic.

As always, my office is available for any constituents needing help, advice or guidance. Please do get in touch if I can help – tel. 01726 829379, email – office@stevedouble.org.uk