It has been a tumultuous few days, both politically and in the financial markets. As I write we have a new chancellor and a very different version of the mini budget.
In the light of the market’s response to it and worsening conditions in the global economy, many of the tax cuts have gone. The energy support package, the removal of the National Insurance increase and raising the Stamp Duty thresholds remain which will help households and those starting on the property ladder. We must balance the books, but I do have some concerns for our small businesses that were already struggling. Keeping corporation tax low could have been a lifeline.
Growing the private sector is essential to pay for the high-quality public services we need so the growth agenda must not be lost even though it will now move forward more slowly. We will also see where inflation and interest rates go in the coming days and the consequences for investors, savers and mortgage payments but we must make sure that the least well off and pensioners are protected in these challenging times.
During the week, I led a debate in Westminster Hall on access to health and care in rural areas. This does really matter. I have been concerned for some time that the current one-size-fits-all system simply doesn’t work. I recently published the findings of a three-year inquiry into this issue that I chaired. This debate was a chance to press home the findings in that report – and ask for its recommendations to be implemented.
A good example of where the system doesn’t work is our emergency care. Remoteness and distance need to be better factored in and budgeted for to enable an effective and timely response. We need to find a new way of dealing with emergency calls. If we integrated our use of fire services, police, and ambulances working with our first responders, we would get a better outcome. We could triage the calls as they come in differently, and remove the many barriers to integration including different pay scales.
If we don’t solve the care problem, we won’t be able to get the NHS back on its feet. The adult social care discharge fund, although welcome, is not going to be enough. This is a huge problem in rural areas where the number of beds per head of population is very low. With a shortage of care in the community, and ever decreasing numbers of residential nursing care homes, we need to put a halt to closing community hospitals like Teignmouth and look again at how they can be used. Perfection can often be the enemy of the good.
Government needs to properly understand and investigate the needs in different rural communities, and then provide appropriate funding to meet them. One way of improving recruitment and retention is to design more local training schemes. Too many medical schools are in urban settings with no rural content or experience. We should also create new, shorter courses and new professions to enable us to get on top of the backlog faster. We need to design narrower roles and careers to supplement what we have already.
In the main chamber, the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill started its passage through both houses. This Bill will help to crack down on economic crime – preventing foreign owners from laundering their money in the UK and abusing corporate structures to hide their illegal activities. This is thoroughly welcomed. The Bill will reform Companies House, allowing better sharing of suspicious information with law enforcement bodies. It will tighten company registration requirements and update our laws so crypto-assets can be seized and recovered. It will also enable better and more rigorous scrutiny of who directors are, and whether they are fit to be directors.
As always, if you would like to book a surgery appointment (in-person or virtual) or raise a specific issue, please call my office on 01626 368277 or email annemarie.morris.mp@parliament.uk to arrange an appointment.