Gavin Williamson, MP for South Staffordshire has welcomed the Chancellor’s Spending Review and Autumn Statement. It delivers on the promise the Conservative Party made to the British people that we would put their security first by:
- Protecting our economic security – taking the difficult decisions to live within our means and bring our debts down. The public spending plans set out in the Spending Review mean Britain will reach a surplus of £10.1 billion in 2019/20 – that’s higher than was forecast at the Budget and means Britain will be out of the red and into the black.
- Protecting our national security by defending our country’s interests abroad and keeping our citizens safe at home. The Spending Review announced there will be no cuts in the police budget with real terms protection for police funding and delivers on the Government’s commitment to spend 2 per cent of our national income on defence.
In total, the Spending Review commits £4 trillion pounds over the next five years. A huge commitment of the hard-earned cash of British taxpayers, and the Conservative Party knows we have an obligation to make sure it is well spent. Our approach is not simply retrenchment, it is to reform and rebuild, with:
- Full funding of the Five Year Forward View put forward by the NHS itself as the plan for its future with the first £6 billion delivered up-front next year.
- The biggest real terms rise in the basic State Pension in 15 years. Thanks to our commitment to the triple lock, next year the basic state pension will rise by £3.35 to £119.30 a week.
- The biggest house building programme by any government since the 1970s with a doubling of the housing budget to over £2 billion a year. Our bold plan to back families who aspire to buy their own home will deliver 400,000 affordable new homes by the end of the decade.
- New apprenticeship levy to deliver 3 million apprenticeships. This will ensure large businesses share the cost of training, but businesses with a wage bill below £3 million won’t have to pay. We will also increase funding for apprenticeships to make sure they are high quality apprenticeships.
- Real terms protection of the schools budget. We will maintain funding for free infant school meals, protect rates for the pupil premium, and increase the cash in the dedicated schools grant. We’re also going to open 500 new free schools and University Technical Colleges, and invest £23 billion in school buildings and 600,000 new school places.
- The largest ever investment in free childcare so working families get the help they need. From 2017, we will fund 30 hours of free childcare for working families with three and four year olds. We’ll support £10,000 of childcare costs tax-free and, to support nurseries delivering more free places for parents, we’ll increase funding for the sector by £300 million.
- The improvement in the nation’s finances used to help on tax credits. Because of the improvement in the public finances, the simplest thing to do is not to phase these changes in, but to avoid them altogether. Tax credits are being phased out anyway as we introduce universal credit.
- Average saving of £30 from the projected energy bills of 24 million households by introducing a cheaper domestic energy efficiency scheme.
The Chancellor also announced several plans for the West Midlands that will invest in the infrastructure of the region, improving road, rail and flood protection for residents. A new Midlands Connect Strategic Board will build on the £5million to the Midlands Connect from earlier this year and will develop a long-term strategy for the region.
A West Midlands Rail Ltd (WMR) will be created, jointly launching a consultation with the region and working together to award the contract for part of the West Midlands rail franchise commencing in 2017. Eventually, we aspire to fully devolve to WMR the local and commuter services served by the franchise.
In further West Midlands infrastructure investments, a £250 million National Potholes Fund has been set up to fill over 4.5 million potholes through a new dedicated Potholes Action Fund – with total road maintenance funding equivalent to filling 20 million potholes a year.
Commenting on the Spending Review, Gavin said: “This Autumn Statement delivers on the promise we made to working people in South Staffordshire that we would put their security first.
“I was also extremely pleased to hear that a new funding formula for schools will be introduced setting a national rate that every school will receive for each pupil, with additional funding for those with extra needs. This is an issue that I have been campaigning locally on since my election in 2010. I am delighted that the Government has committed to introduce a national funding formula for English schools, ending the postcode lottery. This announcement is a huge step forward for schools in South Staffordshire.
“Employment in the West Midlands is up and businesses continue to grow. Over the last parliament 130,000 jobs were created, the number of businesses grew by 42,300 and the number of people claiming the key out of work benefits more than halved, a fall of 83,580. Protecting our economic security by taking the difficult decisions to live within our means and bring our debts down and protecting our national security by defending our country’s interests abroad and keeping our citizens safe at home.”