Alistair Strathern MP: I will push for better services

When we came into office in July, we could be under no illusions that we would be inheriting difficult challenges.

The sheer scale and range of issues left for us from cost-of-living pressures to struggling public services affected us all. 

On arriving in Government though, it quickly became clear the sheer scale of these challenges was beyond what even we could have expected.

Public services even closer to crisis point, with prisons about to burst and the Darzi report laying bare the desperate state of the NHS.

Public finances even further away from stacking up, with the treasury, OBR and IFS all confirming a huge and growing black hole in spending left by the previous Government.

Faced with these realities, it’s little wonder the previous Prime Minister called an early election, it certainly wasn’t because he thought things could only get better.

But politics is about choices. And having had millions place their trust in Labour, we owed it to the country not to shy away from them.

For too long we had shied away as a country from facing up to the need to balance the books and invest in getting our economy and public services working again.

Through these difficult choices though the test for us is clear, we had to ensure we spread the burden fairly, and invested in starting to address the priorities of our community. This was a budget that delivered on both.

Everyone across our towns and villages has a friend or family member who’s been touched by the challenges facing the NHS.

The budget marked the start of finally addressing these, with record investment and reform in the additional appointments, doctors and nurses, and equipment needed to ensure we can get the NHS back on its feet.

Also, ending the strikes which had caused havoc with people’s operations and appointments.

It’s right too, that tough conditions on managers pay and hospital performance will accompany the investment to ensure this money makes a real difference to patients. 

It’s been heartbreaking speaking to young people and their families because of the dire state of SEND provision.

I’ve been working hard locally to push for improvements at CBC and Herts, but at its heart, the crisis is a national one.

It’s why I’ve also been campaigning for additional funding for SEND provision nationally, and it’s why I’m thrilled that our Labour Chancellor announced an additional £1 billion in funding specifically for SEND provision.

This is a significant step toward providing the support our young people desperately need.

Across our towns and villages, our roads are crumbling and for too long potholes have been an all too visible reminder of a decade of neglect.

Torn apart by heavy vehicles and rising traffic from new developments. I know that residents have done their part, reporting issues time and again, but action has been lacking.

That’s why we prioritised a record £500 million increase for road maintenance, starting the hard work of getting our roads back to the condition we’d expect.

There was plenty more to welcome too. Record funding for food production and farming, with welcome additional funds for farmers affected by flooding.

Commitments to bring forward reforming business rates to support the much loved businesses that bring our high streets to life.

And a commitment from 2028 to end the Conservative stealth tax we inherited of freezing income tax bands, making a meaningful difference to all our pockets as the public finances improve.

To deliver this, there were of course tough choices that had to be made on welfare, spending and taxation.

But while keeping our commitments to protect payslips and sharing the burden as fairly as we could, this Government didn’t shy away from taking the decisions needed to get things back on track.

As your MP, I will be pushing for the accountability needed to ensure we get the services we deserve.

For too long we’ve tolerated the managed decline of the services and economy we all rely on. The hard work to put that right has begun.