Labour

Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Housing John Healey MP, responding to the government’s announcement on renting, said:

“These disappointing proposals fall far short of what is needed.

“Government figures show that affordable housebuilding has fallen to the lowest level in 24 years, with the number of homes being built for social rent now at the lowest level since records began.

“Ministers continue to do next to nothing to help people who rent from a private landlord and have consistently blocked Labour’s attempts to change the law to control costs and give renters security.

“Ministers even voted down Labour’s efforts to ensure that private rented homes were simply fit for human habitation.

“After seven years of failure on housing, renters deserve better than this.”

Andy McDonald MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, commenting on a report by the Commons Transport Select Committee, said:

“Privatised rail has left us with a fragmented and inefficient network that drives up costs and under delivers.

“A railway works best as an integrated network but privatisation and franchising have meant breaking it up to create opportunities for companies to extract a profit, resulting in costly inefficiencies. For example, hundreds of people are employed full time on the railway to argue about which company is responsible for delays.

“It’s not just that money which should be used to improve services or keep fares down is syphoned off or wasted, we have a confusing fare structure and services are disjointed and difficult to use for passengers.

“The current system is broken. It is time for our railways to be run under public ownership, in the public interest as an integrated national asset with affordable fares for all and long-term investment in the railway network.”

Labour will invest to transform the economy of the North – McDonnell commits Labour to delivering Crossrail for the North

Today the Shadow Chancellor has committed Labour to delivering on “Crossrail for the North”, a series of major rail improvements across existing west-east links in the North of England.

Labour will commit to reversing decades of underinvestment in Northern transport infrastructure that has undermined the economic potential of the north of England and help deliver 850,000 new jobs by 2050.

The current Tory Government has failed to invest in essential electrification of Hull to Selby and other lines, and delayed electrification of the critical Manchester-Leeds Transpennine route, which is not now due for completion until at least 2022. Labour will commit to fight alongside its mayoral candidates and local authorities to demand that the Westminster Government brings forward the resources needed to help unlock the £97bn of economic potential in the North.

John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, is expected to say:

“Labour is absolutely committed to delivering HS3, a Crossrail for the North, starting right here in Liverpool and connecting the great cities of the north of England.

“There is so much potential here currently squandered by underinvestment, delays and a lack of real commitment from Whitehall.

“So with our mayoral candidates in Manchester and Liverpool, and councils across the north, Labour will be pushing for this government to deliver.

“It’s at least a £10bn commitment from Labour to invest in the north.

“It means the journey from Manchester to Leeds will take just 25 minutes, instead of close to an hour.

“Or you could get from Liverpool to Manchester in 25 minutes.

“Crossrail for the North will become the foundations for a transformed Northern economy.”

Ends

Clive Lewis MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, commenting on the energy price increases from Npower, said:

“This government is doing nothing to enforce their own regulator’s strong advice that there should be no price hike.

“They have done nothing to increase the number of families getting help to insulate their home. And they are not doing enough to ensure better customer treatment. Theresa May should take urgent action to stand up for bill payers”

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, commenting on the latest winter pressures data from NHS England, said:

“The NHS has been stretched to its limits this winter, with wards closed, operations cancelled and treatments delayed. Over 3 million people have had to go to A&E since the start of December and A&E diverts are 86 per cent up on last winter.

“But this week brought further evidence of an NHS recruitment crisis – with 2.7 million breaches of the Government’s agency cap in nine months, applications for nursing degrees driven down 23 per cent and news today that in 2016 only half of junior doctors progressed to specialty training. It will be patients who suffer further as a consequence.

“Theresa May and her ministers simply cannot keep burying their hands in the sand. The Prime Minister’s utter disregard is letting patients and their families down.

“The Government is failing to protect our NHS for the future. Urgent action is required and Labour is calling for a sustainable funding package for health and social care to be brought forward in the March Budget, so that the NHS and its patients never have to go through a winter like this again.”