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Tag: Mary Glindon

  • Mary Glindon – 2024 Speech on Planning, the Green Belt and Rural Affairs

    Mary Glindon – 2024 Speech on Planning, the Green Belt and Rural Affairs

    The speech made by Mary Glindon, the Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend, on 19 July 2024.

    It is a great honour to be in the Chamber to hear so many wonderful maiden speeches, especially those of my north-east colleagues. They have made me very proud today, and I think they are going to be fantastic representatives of all their constituents.

    This is my fifth election to Westminster, but my constituency has changed, with only four wards from my former North Tyneside constituency and six wards added from the former Newcastle upon Tyne East constituency. I thank the people of my former constituency for giving me the honour of serving them for the past 14 years, and I thank the people of the new constituency for placing their trust in me at the general election. I will work hard to honour that trust.

    Voters in the former Newcastle upon Tyne East constituency were fortunate to be represented for 41 years by the right hon. Nick Brown, who commanded great respect in this House. Constituents hold him in high regard for all his work and achievements, both in the constituency and as a Minister in the last Labour Government. He has earned his well-deserved retirement, but personally I am grateful to Nick for all his help and friendship.

    Across my new constituency, people face the same challenges—the cost of living crisis, a shortage of good social housing, hikes in mortgages and diminished public services—and they have all taken a toll on people’s everyday lives. My constituency is crying out for this Labour Government’s shared mission of renewal. I share the view of our new North East Mayor, Kim McGuinness, in fully supporting the English devolution Bill. Kim believes that her office will be the delivery arm of the Labour mission in the north-east, and she is keen to start that work at pace. Although I know it will not be easy, I have great hope that the announcements made in the King’s Speech will start to turn the tide and make life better for everyone in this country.

    I was a North Tyneside ward councillor for 15 years before I entered the House, so I have a self-confessed bias for North Tyneside council. The council’s planning committee has not voted against offers or recommendations on any medium or large house building site for over a decade. It has an up-to-date local plan and ambitious housing targets of its own, yet it still has sites stuck in the planning system. Although National Highways agreed in the local plan that strategic sites should proceed and be accommodated in road infrastructure, when it came to planning applications being submitted, National Highways placed a holding objection on the sites, leading to 5,000 new homes being stuck in the system. Alongside dealing with other planning reform issues, I ask Ministers to look at the impact of statutory consultees on delays in the planning system, to help authorities such as North Tyneside.

    The Health Equals campaign coalition, which is made up of 27 organisations, has launched its visually though-provoking campaign, “Make Health Equal”, to highlight the fact that levels of poverty and deprivation lead to people in parts of my constituency and other such areas living 16 years less than people in more affluent parts of the country. The coalition acknowledges that the King’s Speech will start to repair some of the building blocks of health, such as decent and secure housing, good work opportunities and clean transport. It looks to the Government to assess the impact of the King’s Speech on health inequalities, and, in the spirit of unity, to work with such groups to deliver the mission in my constituency and across the country.

    I also make a plea on behalf of the offshore energy industries. Although the Great British Energy Bill is welcome, we must not lose sight of the fact that oil and gas play a massive part in our economy, and will continue to do so. On the tobacco and vapes Bill, I hope that the Government will, unlike the previous Government, take into account the views of the industry.

    I look forward to supporting the King’s Speech in the voting Lobby, along with my 411 colleagues and, hopefully, Members of the Opposition. In so doing, we will vote for an agenda fixed on making the lives of everyone in this country far better.

  • Mary Glindon – 2023 Speech on the Budget

    Mary Glindon – 2023 Speech on the Budget

    The speech made by Mary Glindon, the Labour MP for North Tyneside, in the House of Commons on 20 March 2023.

    I am sorry that I cannot be as enthusiastic about the Budget as the hon. Member for Bassetlaw (Brendan Clarke-Smith), but it is good to see somebody so upbeat about something.

    Personally, I am very disappointed with the Budget. I had expected more from a Chancellor who had been a Secretary of State for Health, and subsequently Chair of its scrutiny Committee, with responsibility for one of our biggest and most treasured public institutions—the NHS. There was nothing in this Budget to address the staff crisis in the health service, and no mention of the long-awaited workforce plan. While the controversial decision to remove the lifetime pension allowance may or may not encourage senior doctors to put off retirement, there was no confirmation of a pay award for the health workers, or the thousands of other skilled and hard-working public sector workers across the board, who have had no option but to take strike action after 13 years of pay cuts and a fall in real wages. The OBR confirms they will fall again this year. Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the TUC, in commenting on the Budget, was right to say:

    “The Chancellor spoke about a high-wage and high-skills economy but did nothing to deliver it. The UK is still in the longest pay squeeze for more than 200 years. And our public services are still run-down and understaffed.”

    Childcare is important to the Budget and the economy, not just in North Tyneside but across the country. It is a massive issue for parents in North Tyneside and for nursery providers, and we know it will be a priority for an incoming Labour Government. The Chancellor’s increase in funding for childcare is welcome, but the two-year phasing in programme does nothing to solve the immediate need. Where does that leave families struggling to find and fund adequate childcare now? How does it help the childcare providers struggling to pay ever-increasing overheads and meet salaries for existing staff, when the increase in Government funding for free childcare places still falls far short of the hourly rate of pay for those staff? That is not to mention the problems attracting new recruits to the profession; the salary hardly seems appropriate for years of training and the prospect of working long hours when people can earn more money working in unskilled jobs.

    Save the Children says that we also need a strategy for investing in skills development for childcare workers. High-quality childcare must be about enabling every child to have the best start in life. That does not seem to be a priority for the Government. Reducing the ratio of adults to children, for example, just sends out the wrong signal.

    Our seven local authorities, including North Tyneside, have welcomed the north-east devolution deal, which will bring £4.2 billion of investment into our region over 30 years and see additional powers transferred from Whitehall to local people. However, the Chancellor did not mention the all-important trailblazer status that was agreed with the Secretary of State at the signing of the north-east authority agreement.

    North Tyneside itself was short-changed in the Chancellor’s Budget. The council will get £500,000 in pothole funding, but that is only £1 of every £8 the Government have cut from the pothole budget since 2021. North Tyneside will not receive any of the regeneration funding that has been announced and will still have to bid as a lower-priority area in the next round of the levelling-up fund. While I congratulate South Tyneside Council on its new levelling-up partnership funding, I am concerned—and, I confess, a little jealous—that there is no such funding for North Tyneside.

    I continue to be worried about the future of small businesses in North Tyneside. The Federation of Small Businesses says that the Chancellor missed the chance to bring in measures that could have jump-started a new era of growth and productivity. For years, small business have been the backbone of the economy. The Chancellor would do well to listen to the FSB.

    With the cost of living crisis still bearing down on households in North Tyneside and across the UK, the Chancellor provided little comfort other than extending the energy price guarantee for a further three months and a few more crumbs from the table. For my constituents and people across the country, times have always been hard under the Tories, and that will continue while they remain in power. It is time for Labour to take the reins.

  • Mary Glindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Mary Glindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2015-11-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the value was of child maintenance payments made to receiving parents under each scheme and each type of payment arrangement in each year since 2010.

    Priti Patel

    Information on the value of payments made to receiving parents, on the 2012 scheme, or Parents with Care under the 1993/2003 Schemes are included in the Client Fund Accounts. Previous publications can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/child-maintenance-client-funds-accounts

    The Client Funds Account 2014/15 is planned for publication by the end of 2015.

    “

  • Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what change there has been to the level of the Equality and Human Rights Commission budget since 2007; and if she will make a statement.

    Caroline Dinenage

    Following the results of the Spending Review the Department for Education is currently finalising budgets over the review period for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) along with other budgets for which the Department is responsible. I am not in a position to confirm the level of funding that the EHRC will receive until this process is complete.

    The EHRC’s budget is available in its annual report, which is available to view here: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/about-us/about-commission/corporate-reporting/annual-reports

    “

  • Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2016-07-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when his Department plans for local authorities to have access to (a) tenancy deposit protection scheme data and (b) the database of rogue landlords and property agents as provided for in the Housing and Planning Act 2016.

    Gavin Barwell

    Following the positive measures to tackle rogue landlords that we have delivered in the Housing and Planning Act 2016, we are working with the Tenancy Deposit Protection (TDP) Schemes on providing local authorities with access to the relevant data by the end of this year.

    Work is also underway to prepare the database of rogue landlords and property agents which will require affirmative regulations to be considered by Parliament.

  • Mary Glindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Mary Glindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2015-11-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much the Child Maintenance Service has collected in charges since their introduction.

    Priti Patel

    Income received from fees and charges for the 2012 Child Maintenance Scheme is disclosed on page 136 of the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2014/15. Up to 31st March 2015, £2.802 million has been collected.

  • Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the reasons are for the time taken to supply the Kurdistan Regional Government with new rounds for British machine guns.

    Penny Mordaunt

    We have previously provided some 50 tonnes of non-lethal support, 40 heavy machine guns and nearly half a million rounds of ammunition to the Kurdish Peshmerga. The Kurdish Regional Government has made a number of recent requests to Her Majesty’s Government for further assistance, including for ammunition. These requests are currently under consideration to see whether we can assist, taking into account the UK’s own requirements and stocks, and notifying Parliament in the normal way on assistance provided.

  • Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2016-07-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when his Department plans for local authorities to have the power to issue banning orders against landlords as provided for in the Housing and Planning Act 2016.

    Gavin Barwell

    The Housing & Planning Act 2016 introduced a power enabling local authorities to apply to the First tier tribunal for a banning order against a person or organisation who has been convicted of a banning order offence. Banning order offences will be specified in regulations following a public consultation and will be subject to the affirmative procedure. We are planning to introduce this power on 1 October 2017.

  • Mary Glindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Mary Glindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2015-11-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total cost to the public purse was of repayments made following the Manual Process 217 computer errors in child maintenance collection.

    Priti Patel

    From February 2015 to November 2015 the Department has awarded 305 payments for financial loss under Manual Process 217, at a cost of £122,000.

    Note: This figure has been rounded to the closest thousand pounds.

  • Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the reasons are for the time taken to supply the Kurdistan Regional Government with new rounds for British machine guns.

    Penny Mordaunt

    We have previously provided some 50 tonnes of non-lethal support, 40 heavy machine guns and nearly half a million rounds of ammunition to the Kurdish Peshmerga. The Kurdish Regional Government has made a number of recent requests to Her Majesty’s Government for further assistance, including for ammunition. These requests are currently under consideration to see whether we can assist, taking into account the UK’s own requirements and stocks, and notifying Parliament in the normal way on assistance provided.