Anna Dixon MP: speeches

Speeches

• 7 Jan 2026 · Rural Communities · Hansard source

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  Will my hon. Friend give way?

• 7 Jan 2026 · UK Town of Culture · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Furniss. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) on securing the debate. Being from and representing a constituency in the Bradford district, I would like to take the opportunity to share some of the amazing highlights of our year as the city of culture. I particularly hope that some of the impacts I describe will be useful to those who are considering applying for the town of culture competition or hoping to be successful in it. It is a fantastic development. Although we talk about the city of culture, it was really the whole district. Towns in my constituency of Shipley and Bingley were very much part of the Bradford 2025 experience, which celebrated both our rich history and the dynamic contemporary culture found across the Bradford district. Some people may not be aware that it is already designated a UNESCO city of film. It also hosts a wonderful collection of works by Bradford-born artist David Hockney at Salts Mill. That is a brilliant example of culturally led regeneration, which some hon. Members here may be interested in. Salts Mill is in Saltaire, which is also a world heritage site and which now hosts the Peace museum, a fantastic historical collection. The year started in Centenary Square—it was minus 10° —with a celebration called RISE, showcasing some amazing spoken word poetry, as well as acrobats. It concluded in Bingley in my constituency with Brighter Still and fantastic stories of hope celebrating the diversity of people who are born and raised in Bradford or who have moved there and made it their home. In the few minutes I have, I want to highlight the sense of community that that generated. With more than 5,000 events across the whole district, audiences in excess of 3 million, 650 local artists and organisations, and participatory projects that brought in some 87,000 people, there was something for everyone. We had Our Patch co-ordinators on the ground working with community organisations to involve them in everything from creating skate park murals to rap songs. That has resulted in eight in 10 residents now saying that the city of culture programme made them feel proud of where they live. On top of that, we had a national profile. Great collaborations with the likes of the BBC meant that we hosted the “Antiques Roadshow” and “Songs of Praise”, and at some point in the year 38% of the UK population watched part of something featuring Bradford. Furthermore, the Turner prize 2025 exhibition is in Cartwright Hall—outside of London for the first time—and it has not quite closed yet. Being the city of culture also brought huge economic and social benefits. With more than 2,700 volunteers involved as youth ambassadors, the hope is that the legacy of the city of culture will be the opportunities it gives our young people to gain skills in the creative industries, which West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin has made a critical priority in the West Yorkshire industrial strategy. I conclude by asking the Minister to support the legacy of the city of culture in Bradford, and to congratulate the directors, Shanaz Gulzar and Dan Bates, who were honoured with MBEs in the new year honours for their fantastic work. I wish all colleagues here much success with their bids.

• 7 Jan 2026 · UK Town of Culture · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman talks of the importance of local authority leadership in city of culture success. Will he join me in congratulating Bradford council on having the vision to apply to be the city of culture and on having taken the risk to invest in it and then crowd in further investment, which has benefited the whole district?

• 7 Jan 2026 · UK Town of Culture · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for his congratulations. Bradford council has already committed about £13 million over the next five years to the legacy, but much more is needed for capital projects, such as the Bingley town hall creative workshop. Would the Minister agree to meet me and representatives of Bradford council to discuss how we secure the legacy of Bradford 2025?

• 6 Jan 2026 · Net Zero: Local Authorities · Hansard source

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  Happy new year, Mr Speaker. I hope that the Minister will join me in commending another council, Bradford council, for its ambitious climate action plan 2025-2028. The plan sets out a pathway to net zero for the Bradford district, including really innovative projects such as a district heat network, new investment in a low-carbon hydrogen industry, creating fantastic jobs, and a massive conversion of street lighting to LED. When it comes to pathways to net zero, does the Minister agree that other councils should learn from councils such as Bradford?

• 18 Dec 2025 · Animal Welfare Strategy · Hansard source

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  I hope that you, Mr Speaker, like me and my family have already got your turkey ordered from the local butcher for Christmas. Like many of my constituents, I really care about animal welfare, so I look forward to the strategy being published next week. Will the Secretary of State outline the steps that the Government are taking to ensure that there is really clear labelling and communication, so that we can all be confident when we go and buy our Christmas turkey of the welfare of the animal we are eating?

• 18 Dec 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  A very happy Christmas to you, Madam Deputy Speaker. This weekend, Bingley’s Myrtle Park will host the closing event of Bradford 2025. I hope you will agree that it has been a fantastic year for Bradford, with so many brilliant events. There have been thousands across the whole district throughout the year, with audiences in the millions, since the opening ceremony, Rise, in Centenary Square back in a very chilly January. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating all those involved in making the city of culture year such a success, and grant time for a debate on the legacy of Bradford 2025?

• 18 Dec 2025 · Support for Dairy Farmers · Hansard source

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  Merry Christmas to you and your fantastic staff, Mr Speaker. I note that the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) obviously has better things to do than turn up and speak for farmers. I want to speak up for dairy tenant farmers. Tenant farmers manage a third of all farmland in England. As well as running her dairy farm, Rachel at Low Springs farm in Baildon also runs Baildon farmers market and is the director of the Great Yorkshire show. Will the Minister set out how this Labour Government are implementing the recommendations of Baroness Rock’s review to help tenant dairy farmers such as Rachel?

• 18 Dec 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls Strategy · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her leadership and determination in bringing forward this ambitious strategy. I really welcome the focus on prevention, and particularly the focus on reducing online harm for young people—the Public Accounts Committee, of which I am a member, raised that issue in its report. Bradford Rape Crisis and Staying Put provide vital support to women and girls in my constituency who have been victims of violence against women and girls. I hugely welcome the £1 billion in the statement, if I heard right, that will be invested in victim support and safe refuge. Will the Minister explain how those funds will help victims of domestic abuse in my constituency to get support and a safe place to call home?

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

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  I am sure you would like to join me, Madam Deputy Speaker, in thanking the Minister for backing Bradford in her response to our hon. Friend the Member for Bradford East (Imran Hussain). This Government’s fair funding is finally turning a corner for councils like Bradford that have been at the sharp end of Tory cuts to local government. Does the Minister agree that, with elections in May next year, if residents in my Shipley constituency want to see improvements in local services, they will need a Labour council working with a Labour Government?

• 16 Dec 2025 · Planning Reform · Hansard source

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  There is much to welcome in the Minister’s statement, and I would like to invite him to come and have a look at the opportunity for new housing around Shipley station. As the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on housing and care for older people, I particularly welcome the commitment in the NPPF to more accessible homes for older and disabled people. In reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi), the Minister mentioned that 40% of new homes would be mandatory at M4(2) standards. Can he confirm that that is a baseline, and that the ambition is for planning authorities to go further and move towards 100% of all new homes?

• 15 Dec 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls Strategy · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend has been refreshingly honest about how the delays in publishing the strategy have been about ensuring that it delivers where others have not. As the lead member of the Public Accounts Committee when we looked at the failures of the last Government’s 2021 strategy, I found that the Home Office failed to get commitment from other Government Departments. In delivering the ambitious target of halving violence against women and girls, will she ensure not only that every part of society responds but that every part of government delivers?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Kashmir: Self-determination · Hansard source

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  rose—

• 10 Dec 2025 · Kashmir: Self-determination · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Sir Roger, and please accept my apologies. I thank my hon. Friend, who is a great advocate, for taking an intervention. In the great city of Bradford we share a large British-Kashmiri community, whom I met recently. Will he join me in calling for greater international diplomatic efforts to try to bring a resolution to the situation and give the Kashmiri people the self-determination for which they have been waiting for so long?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  When I have talked to small and medium-sized enterprises in my constituency of Shipley, they have welcomed the announcement that there will be free apprenticeship training so that they can help the next generation of young people get into higher-skilled jobs and have careers. Does the hon. Lady agree, and does she support the Government’s announcement about apprenticeships as part of the youth guarantee?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  Perhaps the hon. Gentleman would like to come and walk with me down the high street in Saltaire, where property valuations mean that many businesses will have lower business rates in absolute terms. Has he explained to his local pubs that that property revaluation has been hanging around for many years, but his Tory Government did nothing to implement it? That is the main reason why some of his pubs might be experiencing increases—it is due to property valuation, not business rates.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  Like many of my Labour colleagues, I was out talking to small high-street businesses at the weekend, specifically in Saltaire, in my constituency. For many of them, the permanent reduction in business rates announced by the Chancellor is very welcome. They are not being hit by property re-evaluations and they will be getting those business rate reductions, and they welcome the levelling of the playing field with the online giants. How does the hon. Gentleman propose to pay for his party’s unfunded proposals?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  rose —

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  I draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I am chair of the all-party parliamentary group on carers and a member of the Public Accounts Committee. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Falkirk (Euan Stainbank) for speaking so much about his personal experience of working in the hospitality industry. Like him, I started out in the industry. I worked as a waitress in a hotel in Ilkley for just £1.70 an hour, so I am pleased that the Labour Government are doing all they can to raise the minimum wage for our youngest workers. Under the guise of wanting to support seasonal workers, the Opposition are actually looking to scrap the biggest uplift in workers’ rights in a generation, which this House recently voted on. The Employment Rights Bill is a landmark Bill that delivers on this Labour Government’s promise to put an end to insecurity, poor productivity and low pay for working people. The Conservatives, along with Reform and the Liberal Democrats, opposed ending exploitative zero-hour contracts, ending fire and rehire, day one rights on paternity, parental and bereavement leave and giving statutory sick pay to 1.3 million of our lowest-paid workers. I would therefore like to focus my remarks on the benefits of the Employment Rights Bill, and what it means, particularly for adult social care and unpaid workers. While care workers are not necessarily seasonal, they have a lot in common with seasonal workers: low pay, insecurity and variable hours each week. It was a tragedy that during covid so many of our hard-working and dedicated care workers feared staying at home when they were ill because they were not entitled to statutory sick pay. I am therefore proud that this Labour Government are strengthening those care workers’ rights. What is good for workers is good for business, so I do not see this as a choice between the two. Take unpaid and family carers. Flexibility is hugely important to many of those who juggle care and work. The Bill will ensure that unpaid family carers, many of whom are women, can apply for a job, confident that they will have rights from day one. Workers with guaranteed hours will not have to worry about whether they can feed their kids or pay their bills. Keeping people in work, reducing recruitment costs and absenteeism, and boosting productivity—those of the results of giving security to workers. Healthy workers and a healthy workplace are better for workers, business and our economy. The Employment Rights Bill makes good on the promise of a fair pay agreement for care workers. The Health Foundation’s analysis has found that one in five residential care workers live in poverty. I find that to be an absolute travesty, given the vital work that care workers do, looking after older and disabled adults, day in, day out. It is perhaps not surprising, then—given that the public recognise what great work those care workers do—that 77% of the public believe that care workers are paid too little. Not only are the Government delivering on the fair pay agreement for social care workers through the Bill, but they have already ensured a fairer funding formula for local authorities, and I hope that as that gets negotiated, it will result in a fairer package of terms and conditions. Many not-for-profit providers already pay the national living wage, but it is important that care workers feel that they have a career, and that caring is a good job for them. Hopefully we can attract more young people into those sorts of jobs, and give them a more secure career in care work. They should have not low pay and zero-hour contracts, but guaranteed work and better pay, so that they can take that first step in a career in health and care. Those changes will make a huge difference to those who provide amazing care and support for disabled adults and older people. The second issue that I want to highlight is the introduction of a fair work agency. Members may be wondering what that has to do with care workers, but sadly, under the Tories, the decision taken, with no plan or preparation, to open up the skilled worker visa to care workers resulted in the horrific exploitation of care workers. Overseas agencies were charging extortionate fees. New businesses were set up and registered here solely to employ overseas workers. I have heard of cases in which those workers were given tied accommodation and zero-hour contracts, and were expected to travel far away to get care work. As a result, they got into debt. If they complained, they were sacked. With no sponsor, they could not take any other job in the economy here. That is verging on modern slavery, and that is why I am glad that the new fair work agency will have powers to crack down on those unscrupulous employers that leave workers so susceptible to abuse.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  Clearly, the package of changes that the Chancellor brought in are a huge boost to the economy and jobs. There is investment going into businesses, and support for scaling up businesses. I have brilliant businesses in my constituency, like Jack Pennington Ltd, which is investing in a whole new warehouse. It has the confidence to base its business in Shipley, and to expand. Some of the capital funds will go a long way on this. There are also the apprenticeships and the youth guarantee, and we are already seeing youth unemployment coming down; I am confident that will continue. We still have too many vacancies and unfilled posts in care work, and a lot of that is because it is a very hard job, both physically and emotionally, and many people working in care found that they could get a better paid job at Aldi. We have to lift up the value of care work and value it more as a society to attract people. There are jobs there, and we need to encourage young people into vital jobs like care work. The Public Accounts Committee was highly critical of the lack of assessment of the exploitation risks that led to vulnerable migrant workers facing debt bondage and unfair conditions, so as I say, I am pleased with the creation of the fair work agency. I hope that—perhaps the Minister could address this—it will also help tackle the problem of overseas recruitment fraud. Care workers are exploited in other ways, too, like other part-time workers. They are often not paid for travel or for night sitting, even though there have been legal cases to say that they should. Again, the fair work agency, as I understand it, will address that issue for those underpaid workers who are not even receiving the minimum wage. In conclusion, I support the Government amendment to the Opposition motion. I believe that Labour is pro-business and pro-worker. The care sector is a major part of our economy. It employs some 1.6 million people, as well as providing vital care and support to millions of people. I hope that these reforms will be the beginning of us creating the foundations for a national care service.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Water Scarcity · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman—

• 9 Dec 2025 · Water Scarcity · Hansard source

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  I commend the Minister for all she has done so far to address the problems in the water sector, and look forward to the forthcoming water White Paper. I realise she cannot give away too much, but I urge her to look again at some of the recommendations of the People’s Commission on the Water Sector, particularly the idea of a SAGE for water—having an expert advisory panel—and stronger democratic oversight, particularly of catchments. I urge her to look at those ideas again before she finalises her paper.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Water Scarcity · Hansard source

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  The Leeds and Liverpool canal runs through my constituency of Shipley, and on it is the very famous Bingley Five Rise locks. Because of water scarcity, that lock, and passage through it, has been shut for some time. Does the hon. Member agree with me that as part of managing our water system, it is essential that we keep our canals moving?

• 9 Dec 2025 · Water Scarcity · Hansard source

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  As neighbouring MPs, the hon. Gentleman and I have a shared interest in Yorkshire Water’s performance. As he set out, this is not a recent problem; it has been going on for decades. Given his previous role in the last Government, would he take some responsibility for the consequences of the lack of funding for the infrastructure of our water system?

• 9 Dec 2025 · Water Scarcity · Hansard source

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  As the hon. Gentleman may know, the chief exec of Yorkshire Water, while publicly not taking her bonus, took quite a large sum of money from the Kelda Holdings company. Given that lack of transparency at Yorkshire Water, does the hon. Gentleman agree that companies such as Kelda Holdings should not be involved in water, leveraging debt and handing out large secret bonuses to their chief execs?