Shaun Davies MP: speeches

Speeches

• 20 Apr 2026 · Educational Capacity · Hansard source

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  Telford is the third fastest growing town in the UK. The Government are investing in my town, and the Secretary of State saw the fruits of that investment during a recent visit. However, teachers and educational staff need us to go further by investing in new school places, bringing a new university campus to the heart of Telford and narrowing the attainment gap of children with SEND and on free school meals. What more will the Government do to invest in fast-growing places such as Telford, and will the Secretary of State meet me to discuss unlocking Telford’s potential?

• 20 Apr 2026 · Educational Capacity · Hansard source

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  1. What steps she is taking to increase the level of educational capacity in areas of increasing population.

• 16 Apr 2026 · Children and Young People · Hansard source

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  In Telford, the Church—through Rev. Laura Lenander at Telford Minster, Rev. Andy Ackroyd at St Michael’s church and Rev. Jo Farnworth at St Leonard’s church—plays a key role in supporting families, including by offering pastoral support and providing spaces for volunteers. What more will the Church do to support these churches and parishes in fast-growing areas such as Telford?

• 16 Apr 2026 · Children and Young People · Hansard source

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  2. What steps the Church is taking to support the provision of activities for children and young people in communities.

• 16 Apr 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  This week, Telford experienced a major fuel tanker fire near a primary school in Newdale, which affected many children, families and staff. I thank Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service for its swift action, together with other blue light services. In particular, I thank Rachel Cook, the headteacher of Newdale primary school, I thank the children for their fast action, and I thank the community for the way in which it rallied around those children to get them away from danger, including PureGym, the Grazing Cow public house, Lawley village academy, Lawley nursery and Morrisons. Can we have a debate in Government time on the importance of community resilience, and will the Leader of the House join me in thanking everybody for supporting that community effort to ensure that those children were safe?

• 26 Mar 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  There are 461 looked-after children in Telford and the Wrekin, and I want to see every one of them given the care, support and opportunities that they need to thrive. I am grateful to the organisations large and small, and the residents across Telford, who have helped me in my efforts to deliver an Easter egg to every looked-after child in Telford. They include Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service, Housing Plus Group, Sophie’s Sweetcheeks, Dawley Social Club, the Outpost and many more. Will the Leader of the House join me in thanking these organisations, wish every child in care across our country a happy Easter, and grant Government time for a debate on corporate parenting?

• 9 Mar 2026 · Immigration Policy · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Government’s focus on closing the hotels, and I am delighted that the last remaining hotel in my constituency that was opened by the Conservatives will be closing in the coming weeks, but will the Minister recommit the efforts of the Home Office to recovering the excess profits made by the providers of the contracts that were so badly negotiated by the last Government?

• 5 Mar 2026 · Energy Markets · Hansard source

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  Today’s statement is a stark reminder that energy security is national security and economic security, and those who oppose clean, green British power are handing a gift to people who wish to do us harm. Will my right hon. Friend ensure that it is only the British interest that determines energy policy?

• 5 Mar 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust today came out of special measures for the first time since 2018. The community, the staff, the leadership of the trust and I know that there is far more to do, but this is a vital step and the hard work required should not be underestimated. Will the Leader of the House join me in thanking the frontline NHS staff for their hard work? A lot has been done, but there is more to come.

• 3 Feb 2026 · Court Backlog: Shropshire · Hansard source

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  Since the election, the justice system in Telford and Shropshire has seen a massive increase in capacity. First, a magistrates court has been brought back into use, following years of closure because of a broken roof. We have also received news this week that the Nightingale court will become a permanent court, which is great. However, in order to increase capacity, we need to recruit and retain magistrates. To my great surprise, His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service is not currently recruiting for magistrates in my area. Will the Justice Secretary take a look at that, and work with me, so that we can recruit and retain as many magistrates as possible for our justice system?

• 21 Jan 2026 · Cross-border Health Services: England and Wales · Hansard source

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  7. What discussions she has had with the Welsh Government on improving cross-border health services.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Cross-border Health Services: England and Wales · Hansard source

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  The incredible Lingen Davies cancer charity provides lifesaving and life-changing cancer care, working with the NHS to support patients across Wales, Telford and wider Shropshire. The charity and the NHS have plans to double the capacity of cancer treatment. I am proud to support this campaign. Will the Secretary of State and the Minister meet me to discuss how they, the Welsh Government and the Welsh NHS can work together to double cancer treatment capacity across our area?

• 20 Jan 2026 · 5G Connectivity: Telford and West Midlands · Hansard source

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  I completely agree. My hon. Friend makes the excellent point that this issue is not just about economic growth and access to public services, though that is important; it is also about access to lifesaving services in an emergency. In case I have come across too negative, at this point I would like to acknowledge the progress that is being or will be made. I recently had the chance to meet officials and Baroness Lloyd who is a Minister in the Department for Science, Innovation and Skills, who informed me about Ofcom’s reporting tool—a map that enables my constituents to show Ofcom where they are not getting 5G signal—but I gently point out to the Minister that the expectation cannot simply be on our residents to report problems, when network providers are making millions in profit. I have written to Ofcom and providers, including O2, EE, 3 and BT. I found them all to be responsive, and I met some of them this week and will do so again. It is so important that we seek action. Although what they say sounds great in principle, I hope that providers will forgive me and my constituents for saying that we will believe it when we see it, because ultimately the test is whether, in 2026, people can connect to a 4G or 5G signal.

• 20 Jan 2026 · 5G Connectivity: Telford and West Midlands · Hansard source

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  I agree with my Shropshire neighbour. This is a rural issue and an urban one. A mobile signal is very much like a utility; people expect it to work for both their personal life and their work-related life. Telford and Wrekin council kindly shared with me a report containing research by the River Severn Partnership. Between 2024 and 2025, it found a “significant difference” between what Ofcom estimated 5G coverage to be and real-world experience. The survey found that 28% of Telford postcodes did not have a good phone signal, but Ofcom claims there is not a single postcode in Telford where the signal is poor. Again, that is in direct contrast to the lived experiences of our residents. This goes to the heart of the problem and it is exactly what our residents are saying: what Ofcom and the Government say just does not live up to the real-life experiences. In an answer to a written question last January, the then Minister for Data Protection and Telecoms, my hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda and Ogmore (Chris Bryant), told me that 99% of all premises in my constituency have 5G available. I am not in any way attributing blame to that Minister, because I know that the Government get their data from Ofcom, which in turn gets its data from the network providers, and those network providers told me in a meeting this week that their data is provided through computer generation and analytics. The real-life experiences of residents are not taken into consideration. The Local Government Association—an organisation with which I am very familiar—authored a report with the all-party parliamentary group on digital communities. That report was very validating for my constituents. It said that residents who make complaints are not imagining things, and the association took the same issue with Ofcom’s data, confirming that “while Ofcom’s regulatory oversight has supported progress in expanding digital infrastructure, significant concerns remain about the accuracy of coverage data. The current system relies heavily on operator-supplied modelling, which often fails to reflect the lived experiences of residents.” I want to make it clear that there are two sides to this problem, but they are connected. We need better reporting of 5G coverage, although obviously my constituents care more about improving the coverage itself. The path to better 5G infrastructure in my constituency and other constituencies across the west midlands requires an acknowledgment that there is a problem in the first place.

• 20 Jan 2026 · 5G Connectivity: Telford and West Midlands · Hansard source

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  It is good to see the Minister in his place. He is a man with great knowledge of, and passion for, this agenda, and I know he will take it forward in Telford, west midlands and further afield. I also want to place on record my gratitude to the Department for how helpful and proactive it has been with me since I raised this issue both in this House and outside of it. I am also grateful for the opportunity to raise in Parliament something I have been talking about for some time, but which my constituents have been putting up with for even longer: 5G connectivity in Telford and across our region—or the lack of it. Debates on this subject often focus on connectivity in rural areas, and rightly so, but I want to start out by reminding anyone who is unaware that, despite our beautiful nature and green spaces, Telford is no village. It is a town with more than 185,000 people. Our borough is predicted to reach 200,000 people by 2032; that represents12.5% growth from 2018. We are just a half an hour drive from Wolverhampton and 40 minutes from our second city, Birmingham, but despite our size, population and proximity to major cities, we have very patchy 5G connections. In fact, constituents tells me that getting a 4G reception is often a challenge. Telford is a cultural and economic hub, bustling with industry. I cannot tell people to come and employ people in our great town, or to visit our wonderful world heritage site, when connectivity in whole areas across our town are, frankly, in the dark ages. This problem feels all the more sharp because we are in the heart of a region—the west midlands—which, according to the West Midlands combined authority, has the best 5G in the country. The combined authority is doing excellent work, led by Mayor Richard Parker. He is harnessing technology to reduce congestion and pollution, and to improve the local economy and the services it offers. Telford is run by a forward-thinking council that would be very keen to innovate in similar ways, if we were only given the opportunity. Constituents have been raising this issue in conversations with me for a very long time, but I wanted to get some numbers so I ran a survey of my constituents. The results were stark: almost 100% of respondents told me that they have no 5G connection whatsoever. For many, that was the experience in their homes, their workplaces and even in our town centre. One constituent, Bill, told me that his connection both at home and work has got worse in the last five years. Another, Joanne, said her signal with O2 has deteriorated even in the last few months, although O2 denies this. Two other constituents, Waz and Phil, both said they had changed providers multiple times but found them to be “all the same”. One former constituent, Peter, who now lives in Europe, told me that the contrast between us and our international partners is “shocking”. I could go on with the results of my survey, but if the Minister would like to hear directly from my constituents he is very welcome to visit them, or I can share the survey results with him.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Residents across Telford and wider Shropshire are reporting long delays for Royal Mail delivery, including my constituent Ed Pritchard, who is waiting for urgent information from the NHS. Posties have contacted me privately to tell me that they have been ordered not to deliver post and to prioritise parcels. Will the Leader of the House ask the Minister responsible to give an urgent statement to the House so that we can get Royal Mail to deliver to Telford, Shropshire and other affected areas of the country?

• 15 Jan 2026 · New Towns · Hansard source

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  It is a privilege to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Macclesfield (Tim Roca). Telford is a little further ahead than his and other proposed new towns, having been designated in the 1960s. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch (Katrina Murray) on securing the debate and on her powerful speech. Telford was in the second phase of new towns and learned from her community’s journey. It is a delight to see my hon. Friend the Housing Minister in his place. Unlike so many of his predecessors, he not only understands housing but has been in his position longer than a few minutes. New towns such as Telford, Cwmbran and East Kilbride, and the hundreds of thousands of people who live there, are the physical embodiment of hope and opportunity. First made possible by the Attlee Government, new towns gave families like mine a chance for a new life. The increase in affordable, high-quality housing made home ownership and renting away from the big cities possible for people who had never dreamt that that could be their future or reality. It was life-changing not just for the newcomers, but for those who, like my family, were in the area before the new town designation. They saw opportunities for their children and grandchildren that they could not have dreamt of for themselves. As the Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi), clearly outlined, these new new towns need to learn lessons from those that came before them. New towns are not only important as symbols of hope and aspiration; they are incredible achievements in their own right. Telford still grows at a rate unlike almost any other town in the country, with 1,800 new homes built last year alone. Despite being one of the biggest and most YIMBY towns in the country, Telford excels in access to nature. Thanks to the national authority, since its existence Telford has designated 10 local nature reserves covering 600 hectares, and has more than 300 protected green spaces and more Green Flag parks than ever before. These spaces are loved and cared for by volunteers, such as Richard Shaw of Rick’s Environmental, and thousands of street champions and countless friend groups that have love, passion and pride for their communities. New towns were built on the principle that people do not just live in houses; they live in homes in communities, and they need schools, jobs, healthcare, transport and green spaces. The community of Telford is thriving thanks to the dedication of groups, such as Telford Community Support and Telford Crisis Support. New towns continue to offer unique opportunities. Thanks to good transport links, Telford has become a hub of industry and manufacturing in particular for the defence sector, with Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land manufacturing tanks and employing over 1,500 people, but there are also major centres for Kraft Heinz, Besblock, Bridge Cheese and more. Telford, though a new town, also has a history. It has a claim, with Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale, to be the birthplace of the industrial revolution. I pay tribute to Marcus Keane of Telford Memories and Steve Bowers of Telford Ultimate Guide for the work they do in promoting Telford’s proud history and rich diversity. I also pay tribute to people like Dennis Athersmith of Dawley Memories, who celebrate what came before Telford’s designation. But we do need more. We need the M54-M6 link road, which was proposed at the same time as Telford’s designation but has never come to fruition. It has thankfully been promised by this Government. The direct train link from Telford to London was scrapped under the last Conservative Government, but there are plans to reinstate it under this one. We need better buses. The town being designed for cars means that our bus transport system is limited, and perhaps we could dream of one day having a metro system. For decades, Governments have failed to keep up with and support new towns. New towns have grown significantly above the regional and national averages. Particularly at times when the rest of the national economy has stalled, new towns have continued to power on, but that has resulted in new towns not getting their fair share of enablement funding. I refer to what other hon. Members have said about housing. Houses, in particular those around south Telford, were built with a life expectancy of 30 or 40 years. Now, 60 years later, they need regeneration, but for the past 14 years we have not had an ambitious programme of estate renewal. I ask the Minister to consider what this Government can do on that. We have an ageing population, with those people who came to Telford 60 years ago now in their 70s, 80s and 90s. We have the fourth highest growth in the elderly population in England. Today I welcome the renewed interest in new towns thanks to this Government’s agenda to build three new towns. I hope that the Minister and those new new towns will look to places such as Telford and other new towns for inspiration. But as Captain Matthew Webb, the first person to swim the English channel, said, “Nothing great is easy”. We must measure the new new towns not in 10 years, but in 50, 60 and 100 years, so that they can realise their potential. As the new towns are built, the Government should also turn to the former new towns, experienced towns and, in some cases, the new cities to understand how the mistakes that were made, frankly, around town centre positioning can be avoided, and to invest and back them. I have three specific asks of my hon. Friend the Minister. First, the Government should ask each existing new town with a record of delivery what it needs to do to break through the Whitehall machine to reach its next phase of opportunity. If the Government have an ambition to get the economy growing and to build those houses—and I genuinely believe they do—why not look to those areas that have already been doing it for decades and give them the opportunity to contribute to that national mission? Secondly, as I have already mentioned, the Government should learn from those new towns. In Telford, it was the council, not Homes England, that delivered new homes. It remodelled town centres and converted a shopping centre into a place where universities were springing up and people are now living, and that new town centre identity will be so important to Telford’s next story. Thirdly, as the 1980s advert said, come to Telford. I would love to take the Minister on a tour of communities such as Lightmoor Bournville village, show him the history and beauty of the Ironbridge gorge, show him the future of Telford—whether that is the new theatre backed by Government funding or the new swimming pool in Dawley, home of the first person to swim the English channel—or take him to Southwater, our new town centre, where people like Dan Blasczyk have continued to campaign to turn that place from a shopping centre into a town centre. The Minister could see the amazing Anstice hall in Madeley, a former working men’s club that has now been regenerated with a fantastic all-female leadership team, as well as so much more. If the Government back these new towns in the same way that Attlee and previous Labour Governments did, there is a moment in history for this Government and this Housing Minister, so that in 50, 60 and 70 years’ time, they can look back and see the legacy of this Government.

• 14 Jan 2026 · Northern Powerhouse Rail · Hansard source

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  Under the previous Conservative Government, Telford became one of the largest towns in the country without a direct link into London, we have a trainline into Birmingham and mid-Wales that is overcrowded, and private operators, who are falling over themselves to provide a solution, are being blocked by the Office of Road and Rail. I welcome today’s announcements, particularly around the links between Birmingham and Manchester, but will the Secretary of State or the Rail Minister meet me to explore all options to get Telford connected to the capital?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Resident Doctors: Industrial Action · Hansard source

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  I thank my right hon. Friend for his leadership, and also the NHS bosses up and down this country for theirs. They often do not get the praise that they deserve in this House. This situation is bad for patients and their families and also for NHS staff, but above all it is bad for trust and confidence in our NHS. We know that there are people in this House and across the country who want to attack the very principle of the NHS. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the BMA needs to take into consideration that this is about not just the deal on the table today but the very principle our NHS?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Conduct of the Chancellor of the Exchequer · Hansard source

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  Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Conduct of the Chancellor of the Exchequer · Hansard source

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  There are 4,600 reasons in my constituency why this Budget is the right thing to do: 4,600 children who will be lifted out of poverty by the Budget. On the basis of the Opposition’s remarks, it is my understanding that the Conservative party would plunge those 4,600 children back into poverty as part of a £46 billion welfare cut if it were to win the next general election—as well as potentially scrapping the triple lock. Does my hon. Friend agree that that is morally bankrupt?

• 8 Dec 2025 · Child Poverty Strategy · Hansard source

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  I was a child who received free school meals when my both my parents were working. Free school meals gave me a helping hand, not a handout. Now 4,000 children in Telford are looking for the same, so that they can contribute proudly to this country and its future. Will my right hon. Friend tell me one reason why she believes that the Conservatives wants to plunge 4,000 Telford children back into poverty?

• 8 Dec 2025 · Restriction of Jury Trials · Hansard source

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  In Shropshire and wider West Mercia, victims of rape and other serious offences are being told to wait for their jury trials into 2027, 2028 and even later. Meanwhile, defendants of some other offences are opting for jury trials, the magistrates having already accepted jurisdiction. Is it not time that we back, trust and empower our magistrates and district judges up and down this country?

• 8 Dec 2025 · Motability · Hansard source

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  The Motability scheme stems from the vital principle that people with disabilities should be able to live a dignified and independent life. I have heard from several constituents about how accessible cars can help them into work and healthcare, which I welcome, but I have also heard from a number of others about those with questionable conditions being provided with cars that, quite simply, the average working family could not afford. In many cases the cars are not even made in Britain. Does the Minister agree that, in order to keep faith and confidence in the scheme, it is really important that the scheme addresses real need across the country and in my constituency? Will he meet me to discuss some of the extreme cases that I am hearing about in Telford?

• 8 Dec 2025 · Motability · Hansard source

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  4. What steps he is taking to improve the Motability scheme.