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.”