With Christmas drawing near, I want to wish all readers a very Merry Christmas. It’s been a challenging year on the national and international scene. I’ve always felt privileged to be the Member of Parliament for the area which had been home for me for many years. We not only have beautiful coastline but rolling hills and stunning countryside. It always looks very special at this time of year.
In the first seven of my eight years, I have been able to stand up in the House of Commons and talk about the challenges and opportunities we have. For the last year, I have been a Minister in Government. This means that I am only permitted to talk about my rail brief. Rest assured, the work which goes on inside Parliament and Whitehall means that I am continually making the case for our constituency. I hope this has been demonstrated by the three funding announcements which have been made for Bexhill and Rother. At approximately £20m per project, we now have the support to tackle some local priorities. As to what we can do with it and how to tackle some deep-seated challenges, I joined Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and Ministers representing every other Government Department to assess what further help Rother needs from the Government. I was there to represent the Department for Transport but, as Michael acknowledged, ‘this is your constituency, tell us how we can work together to improve things’. It’s this level of focus which will help to tackle a shortage of good quality housing and a workforce. We have an ageing population and we need to ensure we have the resources and the labour market to deliver for it. I am determined we will do so.
The role as a Minister has been an interesting one. We’ve made the decision not to proceed with HS2 north of Birmingham. The money which this saves, £36 billion, will be spent on other transport projects. We are still delivering HS2 from Euston to Birmingham. This construction is going on right now with almost 30,000 people employed on the project. It’s our largest infrastructure project and I am pleased to be running it. I am also pleased that we are going to be delivering more big railway projects across the country after this decision. It will mean more work to deliver for Bradford, Sheffield, Hull and I have spent a many days over the last couple of months visiting those who run our cities to discuss the design and the timelines.
The railways are of huge importance to us locally. I know how frustrating it has been when strikes stop us from getting around. It’s not just work or leisure, many of our young people rely on the train for their education. I have been working hard behind the scenes to resolve matters. This reached fruition recently when one of the large unions, the RMT, put our pay offer to its members. 90% of the members who voted did so to accept the pay rise and commit to reform discussions which will make for better skilled jobs and deliver efficiency to the passenger. This now just leaves the drivers union, ASLEF, to take the same action. We are offering drivers a pay rise which will take the average salary from £60,000 to £65,000 for a 4 day, 35 hour, week. In return, we want to modernise the service so that management do not have to ask drivers to volunteer to work on a Sunday but can roster that day as they can any other. The leader of ASLEF will not put this deal to his members and we are stuck. Conscious, as we are, that people need to use the railways, I have introduced into law the Minimum Service Level regulations. This will mean, if a strike is called, that rail employers can deliver a work notice which will require a proportion of the workforce to continue to work to enable 40% of the service to operate. This legislation attempts to strike a balance between the right to strike and the rights for everyone else to get to work, school or an appointment. Ultimately, I would rather we had no strikes in the first place and will keep on working to get the last deal struck.
I do recognise the challenging environment which we are living in. Costs are going up and it’s hard for many to budget. This is where the kind hearts of Bexhill and Battle constituency come to the fore. We are rich indeed in a community which pulls together and looks after those who need support. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and want to say ‘thank you’ for everything you do to make this a special place to live.
