Andy MacNae MP: speeches

Speeches

• 7 Jan 2025 · Road Safety · Hansard source

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  There is no doubt that speed limits are a crucial part of this work, as long as they are targeted and appropriate. However, I cite the need for effective enforcement, because if people feel that there are no consequences from breaking those speed limits, they will be broken. Enforcement is a crucial part of the consideration. Returning to average speed cameras, I urge the Minister to consider how sharing best practice between authorities could be improved. As the College of Policing noted, and as I and colleagues have seen all the time, there is a significant variation in the methods used to implement average speed cameras and assess their validity. Many authorities are unaware of the significant cost saving measures that have been pioneered over the last decade and the new technologies that exist. To take one example, we were told by Lancashire county council that a relatively small average speed system on one key road in Rossendale was unviable as it would cost many millions to implement and maintain, yet when we approached a Home Office-approved supplier recommended by another local authority seen to be a pioneer in the area, we were given a quote of £800,000 for not just that scheme, but three others that together covered all the key risk areas in Rossendale. That huge disparity demonstrates not only how funding might be used inefficiently, but how local authorities are unnecessarily being held back from implementing schemes by an out-of-date view of their costs. We need to recognise that cost is a genuine factor and that funding models under the previous Government were wholly inadequate, with road safety budgets squeezed alongside other local authority budgets. Under the last Labour Government, we had a system of netting off road fines, which helped to fund road safety enforcement activities. That should be reviewed as a possible funding stream to pay for road safety improvements, increasing policing numbers and making the best use of new and existing technology to reduce road risk. With increased information sharing, clarity over the costs of such schemes and hypothecated funds, there is significant potential to reduce the obstacles to enforcement that local authorities believe they face. In addition to speed reduction methods, major gains can be made through improving pavements and creating cycle lanes through a genuine safe-system approach. Shockingly, of all road deaths in 2023, 25% were pedestrians, with cyclists accounting for 5%. Despite many local vision zero strategies, our road safety design evidently fails to protect those vulnerable users. I urge the Minister to use the upcoming strategy to encourage councils to meet their ambitions with action, utilising support from Active Travel England and genuinely adopting safe system approaches. That requires proactive interventions, whether through establishing clearer and protected cycle lanes, constructing safe footways or building new traffic lights and crossings where needed. Another key area that we can tackle is the safety of commercial vehicles, as we have touched on. As I mentioned, there are schools in my constituency that border dangerous roads that are frequently used by large commercial vehicles. Due to the force of impact, HGVs are the second most dangerous vehicles on the road, killing 6.9 people per billion passenger miles—significantly higher than the comparative figure of 1.6 for cars. Considering that, it is completely unacceptable that in 2023, 36% of lorries were seen to exceed the speed limit. Drivers often have minimal oversight and training from companies, which have weak corporate safety standards. We must proactively recognise and respond to the heightened risk that such vehicles pose. One crucial step could be to incentivise companies to maintain high safety standards in their fleet, be that through offering lower insurance to companies that demonstrate best practice, naming and shaming companies that do not, or even making companies fully liable for work-related collisions. Alongside that, a variety of other proactive, low-cost methods could be used to improve the safety of our roads—for instance, tightening the regulations on tyre safety. Poor tyres accentuate the impact of speeding or poor driving. Over the past decade, an average of 182 people have been killed or seriously injured per year because of poor tyre conditions. MOTs flag over two million cars with sub-standard tyres each year, 1 million of which are so poor that they are considered actively dangerous. Given the improvements in tyre technology, coupled with the fact that the highest proportion of serious incidents occur in the winter months, there is room for the Minister to consider mandating that all new vehicles be equipped with all-season tyres. More generally, there are significant opportunities offered by safe vehicle technologies, which can be embedded through advanced vehicle safety regulations. Let me touch on a point raised earlier about driver education, particularly protecting young drivers. This is a complex area, which needs a debate in its own right, but given that 16% of car driver fatalities are younger drivers, there is no doubt that this area really needs attention. Finally, as we have touched on, increasing devolution is also central to ensuring that communities’ voices are heard. In places such as Lancashire, road safety interventions are still determined on a county level. Officials and county councillors are often very far removed from the roads and communities impacted by their decisions. When this responsibility is held on a unitary level, the voices of communities are louder, and decision makers are much closer to the area in question. Given the widespread local government reorganisation coming in this Parliament, the Minister has a significant opportunity to establish best practice in new unitary and combined authorities. I urge her to seize this unique opportunity, and to provide meaningful support and guidance to these emerging authorities. To wrap up, considering the reactive and inefficient approach to road safety that the Minister inherited from the previous Government, I urge her to utilise her upcoming road safety strategy to move the country towards a preventive, community-led and statistics-informed model of road safety, alongside a sustainable funding approach. Central to that approach, I call for the following measures to be given detailed consideration within the road safety strategy: first, ending the safety postcode lottery via a robust, mandated national road safety strategy, based on a community-led, data-informed, safe system approach and, within that, prioritising lived experience and perceptions of safety over arms-length data.

• 7 Jan 2025 · Road Safety · Hansard source

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  I agree entirely. Again, it is devastating for communities to raise those issues repeatedly, stridently and sometimes desperately, yet feel that they are not being heard. The message they get back is, in effect, “We have to wait for someone to get killed before we do anything”, which is surely is not the message our communities should be hearing. As well as Burnley Road in Rossendale, I could tell stories about Todmorden Road, Burnley Road East through Whitewell Bottom, Market Street in Whitworth, Bury Road in Edenfield, Newchurch Road in Waterfoot, Bolton Road, Sunnyhurst Lane, Hollins Grove and Pole Lane in Darwen. In each case, residents see close calls day by day, but are told that the statistics do not merit action, and even when they do, they are simply told there is no money. This approach is nonsensical and out of line with even the county council’s own adopted vision zero strategy and is decades behind those employed internationally. Ultimately it costs lives and money. Beyond this, unsafe roads have far-reaching impacts affecting an area’s sense of place and identity. They take lives, devastate families and shake up communities. Roads felt to be unsafe have a significant impact on the day-to-day lives of people living near them. Residents feel less able to get around, uncomfortable on their own doorstep and cut off from each other.

• 7 Jan 2025 · Road Safety · Hansard source

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  I agree 100% with my hon. Friend. She has framed her example tremendously well—the greatest fear that most of us have is that combination of primary schools, unsafe roads and large vehicles. Sadly, that can only end one way.

• 7 Jan 2025 · Road Safety · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for making that point. How we value road safety interventions must recognise the full gamut of those impacts. Far too often, we use narrow measures of cost-benefit. Emergency response, impacts on wider infrastructure and the general feeling of being unsafe are hugely important considerations. I have tried to highlight a few approaches to identifying areas of risk proactively before collisions occur. Again, we know how to do this. With those risks identified, we also have a range of effective, advanced interventions that we can utilise to reduce the risk of incidents. Average speed cameras have been proven to be particularly effective, yet due to fears about cost and a lack of awareness of advanced technology, many authorities have been reluctant to implement them. Looking at the evidence, a review by the RAC Foundation found a 36.4% reduction in serious or fatal injuries at sites with average speed cameras installed, with a further 16% reduction in incidents of all severities. In some cases, the installation of speed cameras has reduced incidents by up to 86%. With Lancashire county council valuing the cost of a road-related fatality at £2 million—I do not know how it gets to that figure, but none the less that is the figure being used—it is no surprise that effective safety measures like these save the Government money in the long term. The College of Policing has found that through a reduction in medical treatment and repair fees, the financial benefits of these schemes exceed their costs by 3:1. On the point made by the hon. Member for Gordon and Buchan (Harriet Cross), that is on a narrow basis, perhaps not recognising some of the wider impacts. The figure only increases when we look at the benefits beyond five years. I urge the Minister to use the upcoming strategy to stress the significant long-term benefits of proactively implementing speed reduction schemes with average speed cameras.

• 16 Dec 2024 · English Devolution · Hansard source

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  I hugely welcome the White Paper. For us who are in the frontline trying to deliver services to our residents under the dysfunctional two-tier system that exists in Lancashire, this is a breath of fresh air. It is exactly what we have been requesting for years. Does the Minister agree that now is the time for Lancashire leaders to put aside short-term personal and political considerations, not to wait for the Bill to be published, and to work with urgency in drawing up proposals for new local government structures that are focused on the needs of residents and, ultimately, bring the highest level of devolution to Lancashire?

• 12 Dec 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Small businesses are at the heart of our local economies, and they are crucial to our ambition to deliver sustained growth. Last weekend, it was great to meet so many inspiring small businesses in Rossendale and Darwen during Small Business Weekend. I was also privileged to attend the Rossendale business awards, which was a great celebration of entrepreneurial and community spirit. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating the business award winners? Bear with me, as there were quite a few: Bacup Museum, Baha Accessories, D.O.G. Grooming, The Chubby Duck, Rossendale Radio, Carvansons, SolvAssist, Kelsea Bennett, Be You Lifestyle, Design Hut, Whitworth leisure centre, Olive Branch, The Ashcroft, Dansworks, Unscripted—

• 5 Dec 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  In the light of today’s very important announcements about the mission milestones, could we hear a bit about the important work of the mission boards, which have led us to this point?

• 5 Dec 2024 · Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led Government · Hansard source

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  I welcome each and every one of the milestones, and the real, tangible difference that they will make to the lives of my residents in Rossendale and Darwen. Each is a crucial step in the process of mission delivery. I also welcome the recognition that to get them met, we need to do government differently. Devolution and a move away from command-and-control government represents a real opportunity to enable more effective and efficient delivery, and perhaps even restore some of the trust in politics that was so broken and destroyed by the Conservative party. In Lancashire, we have been held back by an outdated two-tier local government system. Does the Minister agree that it is time for Lancashire leaders to come together to grasp the huge opportunity that devolution offers?

• 5 Dec 2024 · Improving Public Transport · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Member for Glastonbury and Somerton (Sarah Dyke) on securing this important debate. It was a pleasure to hear the maiden speech of my hon. Friend the Member for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard (Alex Mayer)—wonderful stuff. As many Members have done, I massively welcome the debate. It is a hugely important topic. Public transport is vital to not only the connectivity and economic growth of our communities, but the wellbeing of our residents. For so many people who cannot afford a car, public transport is a lifeline, allowing them to get to work, to school, to see friends and family, and to visit doctors and hospitals. Without good, reliable public transport links, our communities suffer, as so many sadly do today in my constituency of Rossendale and Darwen. It is vital that we get to grips with this issue, so I am encouraged by the work that the Government have done so far to begin the work of rebuilding our public transport links after the stark disinterest of the previous Government. I welcome the trans-Pennine route upgrade, which will ensure that our key towns in the north are better connected, with faster and more frequent trains. With that greater connectivity and mobility, we can begin to address the constraints that have held back our northern economy for many years. Alongside that, I am pleased to see the commitment to a further £650 million for transport links outside of cities. That is much needed, with lines like those serving Darwen in my constituency crying out for improvement as they suffer constant cancellations and delays. I also hope that this will be an opportunity to address left-behind areas, such as Rossendale, where one in four of my residents commute into Manchester and yet we are the only local authority area in the north without any sort of commuter rail link. That results in 79% of journeys being by car, with all the resultant congestion and air pollution. The City Valley rail link proposed by our borough council and county councils would be an absolute game changer. It would take half a million cars off the road and enable up to 5,000 jobs. To me, it is the definition of a no-brainer and an example of exactly the sort of connectivity issues that we need to address if we are to genuinely deliver on our growth mission. Similarly, I was delighted to see the Government’s recent commitment to £1 billion of funding to support our local bus networks, with areas in my constituency receiving millions of pounds in support. We can now begin the vital work of strengthening our bus routes, many of which have faced years of unending cuts. In my constituency, villages such as Edgeworth, Edenfield and Weir have long felt cut off, and we need to judge the value of restoring those connections for not just short-term passenger numbers, but with consideration of all the social, wellbeing and economic benefits that come from connecting remote communities with the services, training and employment opportunities they need. I recently wrote to Lancashire county council and Blackburn with Darwen council calling on the leadership to work with me to ensure the new funding is used to address the long-standing connectivity issues, and I reiterate that call now. In Rossendale and Darwen, the bus issues are compounded by cross-border challenges, and I am pleased to see other colleagues recognising that fundamental issue. With many key services crossing between Lancashire, West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester, the local government areas have not traditionally worked well together, and we have suffered from that lack of joined-up thinking. We cannot discuss improving transport links without discussing improvements to local authority structures. As we are seeing in Manchester with the Bee Network, an empowered mayor and an effective combined authority can turbocharge the development of efficient, reactive, joined-up and innovative transport infrastructure that serves residents and grows the economy. Yet, in counties such as Lancashire, with an out-of-date two-tier structure and no mayor, we lack a strong voice and a coherent, joined-up transport strategy. That is why there is a pressing need, central to any efforts to tangibly improve public transport, to pursue fully fledged devolution deals for every area of the country. Only with empowered local leaders working together to quickly recognise local needs and opportunities can we have the sort of public transport system that our country and my residents in Rossendale and Darwen need.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Farming and Inheritance Tax · Hansard source

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  As someone who lives on a farm, which is surrounded by farms, and whose family has farmed, and diversified, for generations, I add my voice to all those who have paid tribute to farmers for the crucial role they play in our economy. Many other hon. Members have said it more eloquently than I can, but let us all recognise the vital role of farms in our economy. In common with colleagues, I met with farmers in the post-Budget period. Frankly, I was expecting a pretty hard time and there were some robust discussions, but they were also civil, constructive, informative and understanding. I pay tribute to the farmers and the NFU representatives who took that approach to the discussions. What most surprised me was how quickly the discussions immediately pivoted to the sense of anger, abandonment and betrayal that arose from the past 14 years, which have decimated the industry. Fellow Members have described in detail—the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron) described the situation particularly well—the betrayal of Brexit, the spiralling energy and feed prices, the spiralling land costs, and the terrible trade deals that opened the doors to poor-quality imports, which undermined the very farming markets that Conservative Members claim to value. As we have heard already, that dire management resulted in over 12,000 farms and agribusinesses going out of business since 2010. That is a terrible, shocking, shameful legacy. For Conservative Members to now present themselves as the champions of farmers is outrageous. They have used the word “arrogance”, but that is what they have displayed—a refusal to reference, understand or learn from their own history and failings.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Farming and Inheritance Tax · Hansard source

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  A range of reliefs, benefits and rights create an ability, in most cases, to avoid tax. Let us take the seven-year rule. It is a tapered rule, so after four years, the liability drops from 20% to 12%. Also—this has not been mentioned much today—inheritance tax insurance is available. Particularly for younger farmers who wish to gift those assets to the next generation, inheritance tax insurance effectively mitigates any risk of death inside seven years. I recognise that for older farmers that can become quite expensive; none the less, it is a mitigation that is open to anybody. I recognise the issue of gifts with reservation, but that is my central point. It is not just me saying this; the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that with sensible, realistic and relatively straightforward estate planning, estates worth considerably more than £2 million will remain exempt from tax. There are many measures that can be taken. However, in this context, one of the great benefits of having detailed discussions with farmers is the ability to recognise the practicalities and the detail. By talking to Becki, who runs a multi-generational farm in Darwen, I came to recognise that there are very good arguments for a degree of flexibility around gifting rights and timescales for the over-80s. It is a perfectly good argument for the provision of professional and detailed tax advice to allow genuine family farms to take full advantage of all the reliefs that are available. I genuinely believe that well-advised true family farms can, with a plan to pass those farms between the generations, mitigate or completely avoid any liability from these taxes. I will finish by going back to the main point that Members have made: farms do not make enough money. Turning things around, getting back to a situation— [ Interruption. ] We need to get back to a situation where farms can succeed as businesses and where we bring costs down, not just raise prices as was suggested. We need to bring energy costs down and make bills are more stable, use the Government’s purchasing power to buy locally produced food, protect farmers from being undercut through bad trade deals, and remove risk through a rural crime strategy and the floods resilience taskforce. Our plan for farms is supported by £5 billion, which is the biggest investment in farms in generations. Let us stop the scaremongering, get behind British farming and reverse 14 years of decline.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Farming and Inheritance Tax · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

• 4 Dec 2024 · Farming and Inheritance Tax · Hansard source

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  It is amazing; one of my colleagues talked about “the green fields opposite” in reference to the empty Conservative Benches. Given that background, it is no surprise that farmers are angry, worried and feeling vulnerable. I associate myself with the remarks made by the hon. Member for Tiverton and Minehead (Rachel Gilmour), who called for calm and sense in the debate. Emotive language, designed to sow fear and cause concern is irresponsible at the very least, so let us try to keep to the facts and keep things calm and reasonable. The focus of Conservative Members seems to be family farms, but the phrase “family farm tax” immediately creates a sense of fear and targeting, which is completely wrong. With some sensible tax planning, £3 million of assets can be exempt. Many speeches have glanced over the importance of gifting rights. Let us take the scenario of a family farm, in its truest sense, that is to be passed between generations. Surely, gifting rights are a massive opportunity to avoid all inheritance tax and remove the sense of fear that Conservative Members are trying to create. Most of the rest of the country has to do that simple estate planning by default.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Farming and Inheritance Tax · Hansard source

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  The NFU said that farms may be affected by the policy—that is the language that it used—taking no account of estate planning or any other mitigations that people might use. As the Secretary of State said, people take action in the event of change. The NFU has ignored that in quoting its statistics.

• 28 Nov 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I very much welcome the Government’s recent introduction of respect orders, which are much needed. Indeed, in my constituency of Rossendale and Darwen, we have recently seen a big increase in antisocial behaviour, with a spike in places such as Rawtenstall bus station and Bacup town centre. Does my right hon. Friend agree that co-operation is key in such situations? On the one hand, it is vital that all incidents are properly reported to police, but, on the other hand, police should be proactively communicating with town centre businesses and residents, responding visibly to what they are experiencing and not just relying on arm’s length data. With that in mind, will she agree to a debate on effective town centre policing?

• 21 Nov 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I wish to associate myself with all the warm tributes paid to John Prescott today. He really was an inspiration to so many of us. A great many residents in my constituency rely on bus services, so I very much welcome this week’s statement by the Secretary of State for Transport announcing an additional £1 billion of bus funding. This new funding represents a great opportunity for our local authority to address long-standing gaps in our bus networks. In Rossendale and Darwen, these gaps often occur where routes cross local authority boundaries. In the past, a lack of joined-up thinking has meant that those routes have been the first to be restricted or cut. In my constituency, that has seriously impacted the residents of Edgeworth, Bacup and Whitworth. Does my right hon. Friend agree that to make the most of this new funding, we need transport authorities to work together, think beyond their boundaries, and recognise the wider benefits of connecting people? If necessary, can she give us time to debate this?

• 31 Oct 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Businesses and commuters in Rossendale and Darwen are hampered daily by seemingly never-ending disruptive roadworks. This is not just an annoyance; it is actively holding back growth in the constituency, with major employers considering relocation. Yesterday, I attended an excellent Westminster Hall debate on this subject and was pleased to see strong cross-party consensus on the need for action. Does my right hon. Friend agree that now is the time to properly address poorly planned and overrunning roadworks? Will she provide time for further debate, if needed?

• 31 Oct 2024 · Income tax (charge) · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Member give way?

• 31 Oct 2024 · Income tax (charge) · Hansard source

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  It sounds as though the hon. Member is giving up on Britain. He seems to be saying that there is no point in trying to find a better future for ourselves because there is no money left, and the previous Labour Government left no money. Would he recognise that the level of debt left in this country at the end of the recent Conservative Administration is twice what was left by the Labour Government in 2010?

• 31 Oct 2024 · Income tax (charge) · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Member give way?

• 31 Oct 2024 · Income tax (charge) · Hansard source

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  I congratulate all my colleagues who have made brilliant maiden speeches today. As always, I am taken aback by the range of experience and expertise in this House. I had planned to be radical and speak very briefly about a few matters that are particular to the north-west, but before I do so, I have to pick up on some issues raised by Conservative Members. First, the right hon. Member for Maldon (Sir John Whittingdale) made a seemingly unequivocal statement that businesses facing increases in payroll have only two choices open to them: to reduce their workforce or increase prices. That is patently untrue. Businesses increase payroll all the time for perfectly good business reasons. We cannot be so simplistic in our analysis. Far more important for business is having the right infrastructure, and a skilled workforce who are able to get good healthcare and support—all things that the Budget will provide. Another Conservative Member, who would not take an intervention, drew the tired analogy between household budgets and national budgets. They are not the same. It is that sort of rubbish that got us in this mess in the first place. Finally, there were several references to short-term growth forecasts. Conservative Members are either unaware of or wilfully ignoring the fact that there is a lag between good infrastructure investment and meaningful, sustained growth. The decisions that we are taking now are long-term decisions—the sort of decisions that previous Governments ducked. These decisions will deliver sustained growth in four, five, six or seven years, which will make a real, sustained difference to the country —not short-term, sugar-rush growth for political gain. Let me focus now on the north-west. Like much of the country outside the home counties, the north-west was badly let down by the cuts and false promises of the previous Government, so I am particularly pleased that the Budget will reverse that trend and start the process of rebuilding our infrastructure and public services. I am particularly pleased to see the very significant commitment to northern rail infrastructure. With the commitment to fund a trans-Pennine route upgrade, our cities and towns across the north will be better connected, with more frequent and faster trains. I also welcome the recognition of the importance of local connectivity, with the commitment of £650 million specifically to fund local transport links outside the key city regions. In that context, I look forward to continuing to make the case for a commuter rail link from Rossendale to Manchester. I am also delighted to see our Government’s commitment to properly funded local growth deals and town funds, with both Darwen and Rawtenstall set to benefit from £20 million over 10 years. I will be excited to work with local leaders to develop innovative implementation plans. I look forward to the development of ambitious regional growth and investment plans that will unlock the true potential of our area. Another hugely important aspect of the Budget is the move towards integrated settlements for mayoral combined authorities. That will truly move decision making away from the centre, end the command-and-control mindset, and put power in the hands of local leaders and communities, who know our area so much better than officials in Whitehall. That approach has the potential to bring transformational change to our region and deliver both greater value for money and better outcomes for our residents. While Lancashire is not currently in a position to receive that sort of settlement, the Budget should be a signal to council leaders and other key stakeholders in the county of the huge opportunity for Lancashire if we can all work together to get a devolution structure in place. I look forward to continuing to work with the Government and local leaders to grasp that opportunity and put Lancashire back in the fast lane. Finally, with the average income in Rossendale and Darwen much lower than the standard throughout the UK, and even in the rest of the north-west, I wholeheartedly welcome the rise in the national living wage that the Chancellor introduced. It will mean a £1,400 pay rise for many of my constituents—a rise that can make a truly significant difference to people’s day-to-day lives. Taken together, I am delighted to see how the measures in the Budget start the process of real and sustained change for the north-west, but I am very much aware that it is simply the start of the process. I look forward to future Budgets.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Income tax (charge) · Hansard source

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  rose —

• 30 Oct 2024 · Roadworks: Journey Times · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger, and thank you for allowing me to speak. I congratulate the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Lewis Cocking) on securing this important debate. This is a matter of a disturbing level of cross-Bench consensus, I fear, because we are all largely saying the same thing. In my constituency of Rossendale and Darwen, single trunk roads serve the vast majority of the constituency and residents and businesses are delayed and constrained daily by the incessant roadworks they face, to the extent that several of the major employers in the valley, on which we are entirely reliant, are threatening to leave or considering leaving the area because of the costs to their business that the relentless roadworks impose. The situation is a constraint on growth and on people’s everyday lives. It would be fair to say that there is a complete consensus that something must change, yet we are constrained by the previous legislation—I think the last Act was the Traffic Management Act 2004—and it limits what we can do. There is a limit on the amount that can be charged as fixed-penalty notices for street works that overrun or do not follow their permits and a limit on the approach to lane rental schemes to 5% of a given local authority’s road network, but those are relatively straightforward things to change. I hope that, with this level of cross-Bench consensus, the Government’s imperative on growth and the recognition of the impact on everyday lives, we can make what I hope will be relatively straightforward changes and give our communities and our businesses the boost they need for roadworks that are properly managed and regulated, with proper and effective penalties for overruns that are, in many cases, inexcusable.

• 24 Oct 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. After last week, I shall heed your request for speed. Rossendale is the only local authority area in the north without any sort of rail station or commuter link, as I may have mentioned in the House before. That cuts my constituents off from opportunity and constrains the growth of east Lancashire, despite years of hard work by the borough council—with the support of the county council and myself—on its excellent and deliverable plans for a city valley rail link. Will the Leader of the House agree to grant a debate on the delivery of that link in the context of a northern rail strategy?

• 24 Oct 2024 · Special Educational Needs and Disabilities · Hansard source

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  SEND is the single greatest issue facing schools in my constituency, and I have had far too many heartbreaking conversations with families who are not getting the support they need. Does my hon. Friend agree that supportive early intervention and diagnosis is the single most effective way of reducing this demand and ensuring better outcomes?