Alison Bennett MP: speeches

Speeches

• 24 Apr 2025 · Ukraine War: London Talks · Hansard source

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  It is being reported today that the White House is considering lifting its sanctions on the Russian Nord Stream natural gas pipeline —more evidence, in case it was needed, that this US Administration are increasingly siding with Russia. This is hugely concerning, as I am sure the whole Chamber agrees. May I please urge the Minister and the Department to use whatever leverage they have with the US Administration to prevent that from happening? If it does go ahead, what will the Government’s next steps be?

• 24 Apr 2025 · Plan for Change · Hansard source

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  As the Minister is undoubtedly aware, part of the plan for change is kick-starting economic growth. Prior to the recess, the Secretary of State for Transport advised me in relation to her statement about electric vehicle charging that the Cabinet Office is responsible for EU reset negotiations. What assessment has the Cabinet Office made of the cost of the UK not being in a customs union with the EU?

• 23 Apr 2025 · Sewage · Hansard source

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  There were 754 spills in my constituency last year alone. We do not want to see those numbers anywhere, but in a constituency that does not have a major waterway, that is absurdly high. Does my hon. Friend agree that if we want to start genuinely holding these water companies to account, a great place to start would be replacing Ofwat?

• 22 Apr 2025 · Residential Estate Management Companies · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart. Residents in Mid Sussex continue to fall victim to sky-high management fees and poor customer experience on a grand scale by companies such as McCarthy Stone and FirstPort. We need good quality homes for people to live in. We need them for first-time buyers, for growing families and for older people looking to downsize. Those looking for suitable housing in their later years in Mid Sussex often look to flats run by McCarthy Stone. Sadly, many of them and their families are being badly let down. Perhaps the most shocking example involves a constituent of mine in Corbett Court in Burgess Hill, where McCarthy Stone charges up to £14,000 a year as standard. An elderly Corbett Court resident was charged £8.54 for an on-site staff member to come to their flat and pick up a remote control. People in all stages of their life are finding themselves living on estates run by management companies like FirstPort. Constituents from Hassocks to Lindfield have written to me, setting out a raft of issues that residents are facing. FirstPort refused itemised breakdowns of fees despite huge increases, and in one instance a constituent was told that they had been incorrectly charged and were immediately told to pay £575 within three weeks—clearly a totally unreasonable timeframe, not least because the mistake had been made by FirstPort. All of that while residents tell me, “FirstPort’s communication has been non-existent and they are not completing their duties.” People have been through enough. If we want to successfully and sustainably grow our housing offer for future generations—young and old—something needs to change.

• 8 Apr 2025 · New Homes: Affordability · Hansard source

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  At the weekend, The Times revealed the problems in the retirement housing market, in terms of both new builds and resales, and many of my constituents have been experiencing a loss on the houses and flats that they have inherited. Does the Chancellor consider the housing market to be adequately providing decent, affordable homes for those who are downsizing as well as first-time buyers?

• 7 Apr 2025 · Town Centres: Population Growth · Hansard source

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  11. What steps she is taking to ensure that town centres can support growing communities.

• 7 Apr 2025 · Town Centres: Population Growth · Hansard source

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  I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Burgess Hill is fast-growing, and the Lib Dem-run council is working hard with Homes England to deliver 3,500 new homes, hundreds of which will be affordable. However, after years of Conservative failure, my constituents are worried that housing growth will go hand in hand with the hollowing out of the town centre. My Lib Dem colleagues want to deliver a buoyant town centre through a public-private partnership, so will the Minister visit Burgess Hill to see the innovative approaches we are taking to make it thrive again?

• 7 Apr 2025 · Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate · Hansard source

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  UK businesses in the automotive supply chain, both across the country and in my constituency, need more support. Indeed, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders agrees that a package of measures is needed for the supply chain. What consideration has the Secretary of State given to supporting the needs of the supply chain specifically? Given that she is not inclined to be tempted by my hon. Friend the Member for Wimbledon (Mr Kohler) imploring her that we should join an EU-UK customs union, what assessment has the Department made of the cost of not doing so?

• 2 Apr 2025 · School-based Nursery Capital Grants · Hansard source

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  Emma, who runs a nursery in the small village of Sayers Common in my constituency, wrote to me recently about the impact of national insurance rises. I recognise that today’s announcement is focused on really deprived areas, and I can see that two primary schools in Crawley in West Sussex that will benefit. That is a town with proper deprivation, but deprivation also exists in rural areas, and I am worried that today’s announcement is giving with one hand to deprived urban areas, but taking away with the other by hammering nurseries in our rural villages with increased national insurance contributions.

• 1 Apr 2025 · Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund · Hansard source

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  In Mid Sussex, Beacon House provides help to so many children. It was led to believe that only a small minority of families were eligible for continued ASGSF funding, but it appears that, in fact, more than half of its service users were eligible. It would have known that had timely and detailed advice from the Government been forthcoming. We must not forget that at the heart of this are the children and families affected. My constituent Joe has had to explain to their distraught child why their therapy would not continue. As Joe rightly says, this is “cruel”. This is the fourth time I have raised the matter and the urgent need to continue the funding. I welcome today’s decision, but given that the Minister is clearly unable to answer my colleagues’ questions about whether the funding will continue in future years, would she like to apologise on behalf of the Government for the distress caused to those children and families?

• 1 Apr 2025 · Official Development Assistance: Refugee Costs · Hansard source

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  Does the Minister agree that rather than being used to meet in-donor refugee costs, the official development assistance budget should prioritise tackling extreme poverty? It is now a year since the OECD development assistance committee’s mid-term review, which showed that the UK had only made good progress on two of the 10 recommendations since the 2020 peer review. What progress has the FCDO made over the last 12 months in better meeting the committee’s guidance?

• 25 Mar 2025 · Nursing Career Progression: Inequalities · Hansard source

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  My constituent Ben has spent two decades working as a nurse. He tells me that his paramedic and midwife colleagues received automatic pay band increases post qualification while he and his nursing peers did not. Ben and his hard-working nursing colleagues have missed out on tens of thousands of pounds compared to colleagues in other disciplines. Does the Minister agree that something must be done urgently to make up for this inequity?

• 25 Mar 2025 · Construction Standards: New Build Homes · Hansard source

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  I have no knowledge about the workings of Bradford council, being a Sussex MP, but in my experience—and I should declare an interest in that I am a district councillor in Mid Sussex—local councils do not necessarily have the powers needed to move swift enforcement action. In section 106 negotiations, they do not necessarily have the deep pockets of the development sector to lawyer up and get those good deals. Does the hon. Gentleman agree?

• 25 Mar 2025 · Construction Standards: New Build Homes · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for giving way, and for the case she is setting out. This is something that I have experienced with residents in Mid Sussex over a number of years, particularly in the village of Hurstpierpoint. The village has taken considerable numbers of new houses, and there have been houses among those developments that have been substandard. I think in particular of a family who had a brand-new house where, if you ran your hand down the wall, you could tell there was a film of grey mould. It took years of hassling the housing association and the developer for them even to admit that there was a problem and that they were are at fault. Does the hon. Member agree that if we are to win the hearts and minds of people who are sceptical about housing growth in their villages and towns, confidence in the quality of new build housing must be beyond question?

• 25 Mar 2025 · Construction Standards: New Build Homes · Hansard source

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  I have done exactly that. I sent out a street letter and flushed out all sorts of problems with new build estates. Problems with management companies sometimes come up in those surveys. Is that something that the hon. Gentleman wants to comment on?

• 25 Mar 2025 · Seriously Ill Children: Financial Support for Parents · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for his excellent advocacy for Hugh’s law since his election to Parliament. I wholeheartedly agree with the campaign. Two families wrote to me in anticipation of this debate. One family’s child was diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer at the age of just two. They were forced to drastically reduce their joint working hours so they could not only care for their sick child but also look after their other children. It is an enormous burden: “No parent should face financial ruin while fighting for their child’s life.” Does the hon. Member agree that day one support for these parents, as advocated by the Hugh’s law campaign, would be very welcome?

• 18 Mar 2025 · Free School Meals · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes a point that I want to draw out. Gattons infant school in Burgess Hill in my constituency is paid £2.53 per meal, but the caterers charge it £3.15 per meal, so there is a shortfall of 62p per meal per child per day, which amounts to £7,839 over a year. Added to that, the caterers now charge the school an additional £2,000 per year to take away all the waste from the meals. That is a colossal amount of money for a small infant school to sustain. Does my hon. Friend agree that schools should be compensated for the true cost of free school meals?

• 18 Mar 2025 · Welfare Reform · Hansard source

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  Culture matters. Those who have been victims of the carers’ overpayment scandal describe the culture at the DWP as spirit-crushing, but the culture of the Government matters too. Last week, I spoke to my constituent Geoff, who lives in Haywards Heath and is partially sighted. He told me that he and the partially sighted community have been sick with worry about what is being brought forward today. Does the Secretary of State think that the pitch rolling that has gone on over the past 10 days is the right way to make these kinds of announcements?

• 18 Mar 2025 · Stations: Step-free Access · Hansard source

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  A constituent with mobility issues recently wrote to me about his concerns about Wivelsfield station in Burgess Hill. It was part of the Access for All scheme, but the money for improvements has yet to be forthcoming. It is another example of a station like that mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Wimbledon (Mr Kohler), where one side of the platform is accessible but not the other. Will the Minister ask officials to look into what is happening at Wivelsfield station and write to my office with an update on progress?

• 17 Mar 2025 · G7 · Hansard source

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  On 25 February, the Foreign Secretary told me in this Chamber that he was minded to “move from freezing assets to seizing assets.” —[ Official Report , 25 February 2025; Vol. 762, c. 626.] I note that he has used that phrase again this afternoon. Given the increasingly mercurial nature of our American allies’ support of Ukraine, what progress has been made? What is the Foreign Secretary’s best estimate of when our Ukrainian friends will be able to benefit from those frozen assets?

• 13 Mar 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The community equipment services sector, with its organisations such as Millbrook, which serves constituents in my constituency, plays a vital role in working with local authorities and the NHS to help people to live independently outside hospital, providing essential equipment such as bed aids, bathroom safety equipment and mobility tools. That delivers significant cost savings to the Government. I met representatives yesterday who told me that rising national insurance contributions are placing extra strain on a sector already under pressure. They also told me that there is a mixed picture in the reuse of equipment, so there is loads of potential to save the Government money. Will the Leader of the House allow time to debate the use of community medical equipment to ensure that the sector is at the forefront of helping people out of hospital and back into their homes as part of its critical role in supporting a functioning health and social care system?

• 13 Mar 2025 · Small Business Support · Hansard source

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  Many families are supported by the work of my constituents, Alison and Kevin, who run a small care business. They tell me that they already operate on tight margins in a sector under huge pressure. The hike in employer national insurance contributions will force them to make tough decisions on staffing and simply reduce the amount of care they can offer. Kevin and Alison rightly say that this hike makes no sense at a time when the Government tell us that they want to move to community care provision and get people out of hospitals. Does the Secretary of State not agree?

• 13 Mar 2025 · Young Carers: Educational Opportunities · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Furniss. I thank the hon. Member for Harlow (Chris Vince) for securing this important debate. It is fair to say that he has timed it well following Young Carers Action Day, which, as he mentioned, we both enjoyed yesterday, despite the hail on the open-top bus. What struck me about that trip around central London, talking to carers like Holly and Olly, is just how strong they have to be, because they have no choice. I find that humbling. Every time I talk to young carers, it is deeply humbling to realise what they are contending with at home, what they are managing to achieve at school and how they hold all that together. It is absolutely right that we should do more to try to support them and to put the framework in place, through all the arms of government, to ensure that they can achieve their potential and feel that they are not letting down their families at the same time. Something that comes through loud and clear is that sense of guilt. I was talking to Holly about deciding whether to go to university, and she felt incredibly guilty about leaving her mum and her sister, who she cares for. But she went ahead and did it. She got into Oxford, and she is in her final year studying French and linguistics. She is an incredible young woman, and I think she will go far in life. As the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for care and carers, when I speak to young carers—and old carers— I feel very fortunate indeed. It is always a privilege to hear their stories. I am always reminded about how much more there is to do to support them. They make extraordinary sacrifices for their loved ones, but, as we have heard from hon. Members, they quite often do so to the detriment of their education and their futures. In the 2022-23 school year, young carers missed an average of 23 days of school, compared with just 14 days for children without caring responsibilities. Perhaps even more concerning is that 39% of young carers in secondary school were considered persistently absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of school days. Those high levels of absenteeism are alarming, and the consequences are hugely damaging. Research shows a clear link between school absence and academic performance. Only 40% of absent pupils achieve their expected standards in reading, writing and maths at the end of key stage 2, compared with 65% of all pupils nationally. For young carers, the gap only widens as they move further through their education, and they fall further and further behind. They are 37% less likely to achieve high A-level grades and 38% less likely to obtain a university degree than their peers. If they care for a loved one for more than 35 hours a week, they are an astonishing 86% less likely to graduate from university. Although some support is available in the form of discretionary bursaries for further education, it often comes far too late down the line, when the damage has already been done. The young carers school programme, run by the Carers Trust and the Children’s Society, is an essential initiative that works to reduce barriers by training local authorities and carers’ services. That is making a difference, but I hope that most Members agree that it is not enough. Carers, teachers and local authorities all agree that support for young carers is lacking, particularly when it comes to understanding and identifying them in the first place, even before we get into looking at what their needs are. I hear time and again from carers that the lack of recognition is perhaps the most fundamental problem they face—not only recognition of them by others but realising in themselves that they count as a carer and that the support they provide is above and beyond what is normal. Too often when we talk to young carers they say, “I was just helping out my sister at school. She was having a meltdown and the teachers called me. I did not realise I was a carer.” Although the previous Government committed to developing training modules for educators to better spot young carers, charities and schools, as we all know, are stretched far too thin to ensure consistent coverage across all schools. A key theme that came up on the open-top bus tour yesterday was how different parts of the country have a very different offer for young carers. I firmly believe that young carers deserve more. No child should be forced to choose between their future and helping their family. The previous Government left young carers behind, struggling with school absences, lack of support and barriers to higher education. On top of that we layer the impacts of the pandemic, and, as the hon. Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Daniel Francis) said, that put extra pressure on his family. I commend him for what he has said this afternoon and for everything that he and his daughter do to help the family. We must ensure that young carers are recognised, supported and given the same opportunities as their peers. The Government have a real opportunity to do the right thing. Schools must play a more proactive role in identifying young carers, which is why I back our Liberal Democrat policy that requires every school to have an appointed, dedicated young carers lead. Meanwhile, higher education must be put within reach of young carers. To make that a reality, my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I believe we need to introduce a young carers pupil premium with targeted funding to support schools in offering academic and pastoral help for student carers. As with so many things, we must identify early and support early. This helps carers and it helps society as a whole, stopping problems before they have even begun and saving money in the process. My Liberal Democrat colleagues and I believe that young carers deserve better. With the right support, they can thrive in education, achieve their ambitions and build bright futures, all while continuing to provide the support that they need and want to provide for their loved ones. It is time to give young carers the recognition and opportunities that they deserve.

• 13 Mar 2025 · Young Carers: Educational Opportunities · Hansard source

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  It struck me as the hon. Member was speaking that an advantage of the proposal is that it would incentivise schools to identify carers. One of the problems we have spoken about this afternoon is the fact that many schools say they have no young carers. Does he agree that it would provide that incentive?

• 13 Mar 2025 · NHS England Update · Hansard source

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  The Secretary of State’s NHS shake-up is well under way. Many Members would agree that the NHS used to be the envy of the world, but years of Conservative failure have left patients suffering and unable to get the care that they desperately need. I and my Liberal Democrat colleagues therefore welcome steps to reform the NHS. The new leadership of the NHS has much to do, but can the Secretary of State advise the House whether new legislation will be needed to scrap NHS England given that he told the shadow Minister that it will take two years to complete this merger? When will that new legislation, if it is required, be brought forward? Any attempt to fix the NHS will ultimately fail if we also do not address the crisis in social care. The Secretary of State must show the same urgency in reforming social care as is being shown on the NHS. Where is that urgency? Long-promised cross-party talks have now been postponed indefinitely with no new date in sight. Care providers are hanging by a thread due to the rising cost of national insurance contributions. Does the Secretary of State agree that any attempt to fix the NHS will prove futile if we ignore the elephant in the NHS waiting room that is the crisis in social care? We will clear our diaries for cross-party talks, so will the Secretary of State give us a date today?