One of the most brutal consequences of more than a decade of Conservative austerity is the effect it has had on local services delivered by councils. 

While demand has risen, a quarter of council funding from government has been cut in real terms since 2010 under the Conservatives. Council tax has become a bigger and bigger slice of the funding pie to plug the gap and stop services collapsing completely. 

Fifteen years after austerity cuts began we can see the consequences all around us; Sure Start centres gone, libraries closed or scaled back, roads in a worse state and charges introduced for things you used to get for free. The legacy is enormous pressures on budgets for care for the elderly, support for the disabled and for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and children in care.

Ever the opportunists, local Tories are slamming Labour for the current situation. But they have very short memories. In 2020, Conservative led Allerdale Council announced in its budget press release that “The budget has been set in the climate of continued financial pressures for local authorities… the amount it [Allerdale Council] receives in government grants has dropped by 96 per cent since 2013/14.”

The truth is this is now a problem that needs fixing, rather than a political football to be kicked. Conservative run councils are in exactly the same position and are making the same decisions to increase council taxes or make brutal cuts to local services like waste collection, road repairs and social care. As the Conservative deputy leader of Lancashire County Council said last year when setting their last budget under a Conservative government: “Whilst the Government has increased funding in some areas, the hard truth is that it is simply not enough to plug the gaps we have in our budget”.

We finally have a government committed to building back up our local services and Cumberland has done well from Labour’s settlement. Overall, Cumberland has received a 6% boost to its core spending power, including a record £13 million for local public health initiatives, an extra £7 million for roads, £5 million to support local bus services, a further £652,000 for disabled facilities grants and a share of the government’s £1 billion boost to SEND support.

In addition, the government is giving Cumberland access to £23.5 million extraordinary financial support, along with 29 other councils of all political stripes, to support its recovery, protect local services and avoid the need for higher council tax rises.

I’m not here to defend the council. I will represent the interests of my constituents without fear or favour, regardless of who is in charge locally or nationally. Cumberland needs to spend extra money wisely to stabilise council finances, deliver good quality public services and invest in improving our communities. I know Labour councillors are committed to those goals and they have my support to deliver.

Whitehaven and Workington MP Josh MacAlister put his pottery making skills to the test on a visit to West House Pottery in Workington.

The Pottery is a not for profit social enterprise run by West House, Cumbria’s leading care and support provider for children, young people and adults with learning difficulties. Josh visited West House Pottery on the eve of ground being broken for the construction of the new Hall Garden facility, due to be completed later in 2025. 

Josh had the chance to meet staff and service users and see some of the fantastic pottery made there, which is available to buy online. He also got the chance to try out his pottery making skills.

Josh also visited Cafe West in Whitehaven for lunch. Cafe West is another West House social enterprise which provides invaluable work experience and training opportunities for young people and adults with learning disabilities.

Josh said:

“West House does such important work with young people and adults in West Cumbria and it is always a pleasure to visit one of their enterprises to meet the brilliant staff and service users and see firsthand the great work they’re doing.

“Unfortunately, I think if politics doesn’t work out for me I don’t have a budding career ahead as a potter – I’ll leave that to the experts at The Pottery!

“I encourage all residents to support their work by giving them your custom. Pop in to Cafe West in Workington or Whitehaven for lunch and go buy some pottery!”

Jodie Grainger, Developing Manager at West House, said:

“Thank you to Josh MacAlister for visiting us at West House Pottery! It was a pleasure having him explore our creative space and enjoy a bit of pottery. We appreciate his support and hope he found some inspiration during his time with us. He’s always welcome back!”

Energy bills for heating homes and powering businesses are some of the highest in the world. Speeding up the transition to homegrown clean power – nuclear and renewables – is the best bet for creating new jobs and bringing down bills. 

Which is why I was struck by seeing Reform UK’s new energy policy launched last week. Under the guise of banishing the bogeyman of ‘net zero’, Reform proposes turning away from the global shift to homegrown, cheap, clean energy and back to oil and gas. They claim this would bring bills down but the opposite is true.

It doesn’t matter where they are produced, oil and gas are traded on a global market and prices are set globally. We learnt this under the Tories, who left the UK enormously exposed to energy shocks by selling off our gas reserves and holding back rapid construction of new nuclear and renewables. The new Labour government is acting fast to reduce our dependence on petro-states and dictators like Putin, but Reform would roll that back.

Perhaps Reform’s policy is no surprise given that Nigel Farage openly admires Vladimir Putin and describes him as a victim of the West. Reform’s energy policies would be a form of surrender to Putin and they would undermine our own energy independence. What is surprising is that Reform would take this position when they know it would mean higher energy bills for homes and businesses. 

Just as damaging however are Reform’s proposals for new taxes on renewables and higher fees for grid connections. This would hit bills and jobs by making it more costly to build and deliver clean, cheap, homegrown energy at a time when we’re seeing record levels of investment in energy infrastructure in this country, creating tens of thousands of jobs.

Despite claiming to be pro-nuclear, Reform’s plan would choke off a nuclear industry which is just now starting to build back after collapsing under the Conservatives. 

So the consequences of Reform’s energy plan are clear: a hit on consumers through higher bills, less investment and jobs in the UK, knocking confidence on nuclear and offering a gift to Putin and other foreign actors.

It’s a pro-Putin energy plan which will hit our bills hard. There’s nothing patriotic about that. 

Labour’s plan isn’t ideological, it’s pragmatic. We want clean, cheap, homegrown energy instead of reliance on hostile states and volatile global prices.

As your MP, I’m working hard to ensure we feel the benefits of that here in West Cumbria, through investment in new nuclear and clean energy projects and attracting the jobs that could power.

I’ve spent my first seven months as your MP banging the drum for West Cumbria in Whitehall to secure the tools and resources we need to deliver new nuclear, retrofit cold homes, invest in our roads and railways, rebuild our towns and improve public services.

Imagine if we had the powers and the funding we needed to do those things ourselves, without having to go cap in hand to Whitehall?

Well, Cumbria came a step closer to taking back control from Whitehall last week when we were selected for the Devolution Priority Programme.

This means we have the opportunity to be at the forefront of the devolution revolution. To shape a deal for Cumbria which allows us to chart a course to a brighter future.

What is on offer goes well beyond the deal dangled by the Tories a few years ago. Substantial new powers over buses, roads and rail. The tools to build houses where they’re needed and require developers to invest in amenities. Control of the Warm Homes Plan to retrofit draughty housing. The ability to direct business, employment and skills support and join up public services.

All this will be backed by a multi-year integrated funding settlement enabling us to deliver on our priorities and make real change after years of poorly managed decline under the Conservatives.

I hear three main concerns that I want to address briefly:

This creates more politicians. 

We got rid of hundreds of politicians through local government reorganisation and the Mayor would take on the responsibilities of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, removing that position. So it will create no new politicians. 

Why can’t we have this without a Mayor? 

With greater power comes greater accountability and that’s why new powers and funding require agreement to a directly elected Mayor. A Mayor also gives Cumbria a single strong voice with a seat at the top table of government. Look at Greater Manchester to see how beneficial that has been for their area.

We had a Mayor in Copeland and it didn’t work out well! 

I urge people not to base your view on what has come before. An effective Mayor speaking for the whole of Cumbria with the resources to make real change, with proper scrutiny and accountability to hold them to account, will avoid a repeat of past mistakes.

This isn’t a stitch up; if the deal doesn’t work for Cumbria then MPs won’t support it and councils won’t vote for it. Share your views and help to shape the strongest possible deal for councils to consider.

I’d welcome your feedback. Please take my survey at joshmacalister.uk/takebackcontrol

This letter appeared in the Whitehaven News on 29th January 2025:

Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust’s engagement exercise on the future of Yewdale ward closed last week. I met the chief executive of the trust shortly before it closed and know that a huge number of people responded. From my conversations with residents, I expect that these responses will be overwhelmingly opposed to the closure of the ward. 

 It was therefore disappointing to see the Trust making the case for the closure in last week’s newspaper. 

They have yet to fully address the concerns raised by me or others about how they will reduce demand for acute inpatient services below the number of beds that will remain in Cumbria at the Carlton Clinic in Carlisle, if Yewdale closes. 

The Trust have been given additional money by the Government to pilot a new early intervention open access community mental health service in Whitehaven, which is very welcome. I want this service to be an additional resource and if it works it may well over time reduce demand for acute services like those at Yewdale. But it is irresponsible to remove an acute service like the Yewdale ward before forms of earlier intervention have been opened, let alone given time to demonstrate that they work. 

Here in West Cumbria, we have some of the greatest mental health needs in the country so any changes should be made with great care and based on evidence. 

This is why I oppose these plans from the Trust. It appears as though they have made up their minds, even before a full consultation has been completed. We need and deserve mental health services that help people live happier lives and that are within reach of where they live. That’s why I’ll continue to push for a pause and a rethink. 

Residents can support my campaign at joshmacalister.uk/yewdale

Josh MacAlister OBE MP

Labour MP for Whitehaven & Workington

Storm Eowyn tore through Cumbria over the weekend and left devastation in its wake. Thousands of local premises were without power, in some cases for almost four days. It was a difficult time for our community, but it also showed the best of us.

I want to put on record my thanks to the engineers who worked round the clock to get homes reconnected to the grid as quickly as possible; to the council employees who were busy clearing highways and keeping residents up to date; to the emergency services who responded to a range of incidents with professionalism; to all the local businesses and community groups who offered up their premises as a warm place to stay; and to every individual who checked on a neighbour or cleared debris.

My office was in constant contact with Electricity North West throughout the weekend, relaying information about communities that remained without power, passing on requests for door knockers and catering vans to visit isolated areas and sending details of vulnerable individuals who needed extra assistance for follow up. I’m pleased we were able to help a number of people and thank Electricity North West staff for being so responsive.

There are however lessons to be learned from this to ensure a more efficient response next time and better communication and I’d welcome feedback from residents about what ENW can do better before I meet with them in the coming weeks. Get in touch via my website at joshmacalister.uk/contact or by calling 01946 458023.

What also became clearer this weekend is the impact of the digital phone line switchover during power cuts. In many rural areas with a mobile signal reliant on one mast and where landlines are now connected via the internet, a power cut lasting more than half an hour leaves them with no way to communicate. I’ve already raised some individual cases about this with mobile network operators and BT following other recent power cuts but I’ll now be bringing all the relevant stakeholders together in Parliament for a wider discussion about how we can ensure rural communities stay connected during power cuts as the digital switchover continues. Sign up to my e-newsletter to keep up to date with my work on this and other issues: joshmacalister.uk/enews.

Finally, I promised to be a visible and accessible MP and I am keeping that promise, with a range of public events scheduled right across West Cumbria up to the end of April which you can find and register to attend at joshmacalister.uk/meetjosh or by calling my office on the number above. Upcoming events include a coffee morning in Whitehaven, a drop-in in Workington and a public meeting in Cleator Moor this Friday.

This country’s first ever independent Armed Forces Commissioner, a voice to champion service personnel and their families, is one step closer to reality this week, as it passed its third reading in the House of Commons. 

This change, a vital one for our brave service personnel, can’t come soon enough. 

The importance of the Bill can’t be overstated for the people of West Cumbria and I was pleased to vote in favour. 

The first duty of any Government is to keep our country safe, and at the heart of our security are the men and women who risk their lives for our nation. We are deeply proud of our Armed Forces – theirs is the ultimate form of public service – and their professionalism and bravery are rightly respected the world over. 

The Armed Forces Commissioner is a central part of this Government’s plans to renew the nation’s contract with those who bravely serve. 

The Commissioner will be a direct point of contact for personnel and their families to raise service issues affecting their lives, from kit, to housing, to childcare. 

After 14 years of Tory hollowing out and underfunding of our Armed Forces, morale in the military fell to record lows – with just four in ten personnel reporting satisfaction. And the forces are facing a Tory-manufactured recruitment and retention crisis. 

Just last month, shocking statistics revealed that nearly 5,000 members of the armed were relying on Universal Credit before the election. 

This Labour Government is determined to turn this around. 

We want the independent Commissioner to have proper powers to investigate issues affecting service life, make recommendations, and report to Parliament. And to have access to personnel, information, and to defence sites. 

And we want them to hold us to account, too. 

This Labour-run Ministry of Defence, led by Secretary of State John Healey, understands just how vital the safety and security of our forces personnel are. 

Just months after we confirmed the largest pay rise for our personnel in over 20 years, today’s Parliamentary vote shows again that we will always stand up for those who serve our country. 

This Labour Government is on a mission to raise military morale. This Bill is just one step of many to right the wrongs of the last 14 years and ensure that our personnel know just how much they are valued. 

People will always be at the heart of our defence plans: those who make great sacrifices to keep Britain secure at home and strong abroad will always be championed under a Labour Government.

In September last year, two months into my time as your MP, I was confronted with one of my first major challenges. 

Dozens of residents in the Slipway flats in Whitehaven had been issued with eviction notices and given two months to find new homes. Some had lived there for decades. Many struggled to find alternative accommodation and had to present as homeless to the council, putting further strain on already stretched homeless provision.

The residents were evicted not for bad behaviour, criminal activity or failing to pay their rent. They were evicted for no fault at all. Alongside local councillor Emma Williamson, I did everything I could to help those who contacted me and convince the building owners to change their minds, but, under current law, this practice is entirely legal.

Last week I had those residents in mind when I voted for the Renters’ Rights Bill, which will finally ban these ‘no fault’ evictions for good, protecting thousands of private renters in West Cumbria.

Banning no fault evictions was a promise made by Theresa May in 2017, yet, in seven years, successive Conservative Prime Ministers failed to get it done. It is a promise made and a promise kept by this Labour government.

The Bill doesn’t just ban no fault evictions, it is the biggest package of protections for the private rented sector in over 40 years. It applies the Decent Homes Standard to private rented homes, to give private renters safer, better value homes; includes new rights to request permission to keep pets; strengthens local authority enforcement powers and sets up a new Ombudsman to deal with complaints; ends the practice of rental bidding which drives up prices; and much more.

Shamefully, every Conservative and Reform MP present voted against the Bill (Nigel Farage didn’t bother to show up – perhaps he was busy with one of the other eight jobs which earned him half a million pounds in the last six months on top of his MP salary).

Good landlords have nothing to fear from this Bill. This puts into law good practice already followed by the vast majority of good, responsible landlords. But dodgy landlords are on notice – clean up your act or face the consequences.

The problem the Bill doesn’t solve is exorbitant rental prices and the lack of availability of homes for private rent here in West Cumbria. It’s a demand and supply issue that we need to solve by increasing the supply of homes and that’s where our planning reforms and commitment to build 1.5 million new homes come in. Including many more affordable and social homes. Homes like those at the new Harbour Place development I visited in Workington last week. 

I’m fully behind and determined to see us deliver these new homes for the many thousands of people across West Cumbria locked out of the housing market or stuck on waiting lists for social housing.

Patients in West Cumbria will be able to access more appointments closer to home and get the treatment they need faster under Labour’s plan to tackle hospital backlogs.

In the NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board area there are 354,743 people on waiting lists at huge cost to their health. 110,532 of these have waited more than 18 weeks for treatment.

Tackling the 7.5 million strong waiting list inherited by the government so that the NHS once again meets the 18 week standard for planned treatment is a key milestone in the government’s Plan for Change. Restoring this standard will mean patients in West Cumbria no longer have to have their lives put on hold.

Currently, too many patients face long waits for appointments or surgeries and may be referred to hospitals they don’t choose at inconvenient times, while appointments and staff time are being lost to inefficiencies or inconsistencies in care.

The Labour Government’s Elective Reform Plan, published this week by NHS England, sets out a whole system approach to hitting the 18-week referral to treatment target by the end of this Parliament. This includes opening Community Diagnostic Centres on evenings and weekends so that many more people will be able to access tests and checks while going about their daily lives, and the NHS will also increase the number of surgical hubs, which help protect planned care from the impact of seasonal and other pressures.

The plan will drive forward progress on the government’s commitment to deliver 2 million extra appointments in its first year, equivalent to 40,000 every week. The reforms will put patients first, harness technology to support staff and help the NHS to do things more efficiently.

Under the plan, 65% of patients will be treated within 18 weeks by the end of next year. Based on the size of the current waiting list, that would mean a fall of more than 450,000 people waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:

“This Government promised change and that is what I am fighting every day to deliver.

“NHS backlogs have ballooned in recent years, leaving millions of patients languishing on waiting lists, often in pain or fear. Lives on hold. Potential unfulfilled.

“This elective reform plan will deliver on our promise to end the backlogs. Millions more appointments. Greater choice and convenience for patients. Staff once again able to give the standard of care they desperately want to.

“This is a key plank of our Plan for Change, which will drive growth that puts more money in people’s pockets, secures our borders and makes the NHS fit for the future so that working people live longer, healthier, more prosperous lives.”

Josh MacAlister, MP for Whitehaven and Workington, said:

“Hundreds of residents in West Cumbria are stuck on the record long waiting lists inherited by the Labour Government at huge cost to their health.

“That’s why the reforms announced this week to cut NHS waiting times from 18 months to 18 weeks will make such a huge difference. With so many people waiting for treatment, it is more urgent than ever that we reform our NHS so it will always be there for you when you need it.”

I have spent my career supporting vulnerable children. First as a teacher in some very tough schools, then as the founder and leader of a national charity bringing new people into frontline children’s social work to give every child the champion they need, and then as the Chair of the landmark national Independent Review of Children’s Social Care for the previous government, which included meeting with and hearing evidence from many victims of sexual abuse. 

I have therefore been deeply troubled to see a gravely serious issue like child sexual abuse exploited by an ill-informed American billionaire and political opportunists here in the UK to score cheap points at the expense of delivering justice for victims and ensuring a scandal like this never happens again.

MPs are elected to be problem solvers, not problem exploiters. But what Conservative and Reform MPs did last week was attempt to vote down a Bill – the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill – which contains significant measures to keep children safe and protect them from this sort of abuse. I know this because I recommended many of the measures it includes in my Independent Review back in 2022. Measures which were ignored by the previous Conservative government but which will now be delivered in this Bill by a Labour government, who I have been working with on the content of this Bill for several months. 

The Bill also saves parents money by rolling out free breakfast clubs in every primary school and limiting the number of branded uniform items schools can require children to wear. If you’ve got a child in primary school these measures could save you approximately £500 per year.

I was proud to vote for the Bill and not for the Conservative wrecking amendment which would have seen all of these measures fail and put more children at risk of abuse.

We do not need another lengthy national inquiry which will delay justice even further. We had one under the last government, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). As part of this seven year inquiry, there was a dedicated two year investigation into child sexual exploitation specifically by gangs which took extensive evidence from across the country.

I want to see recommendations from previous reviews delivered and I’m very pleased that the Labour government has committed to delivering the recommendations from the IICSA and is already getting on with that work.

Finally, I think it is important to note that only 5% of child sexual abuse is group-based. It is very important that we tackle grooming gangs, and that we are candid when there is a racial component to this, but we must not overlook the 95% of child sexual abuse not carried out by grooming gangs. Victims of these crimes also deserve our attention.