Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Whitehaven & Workington, Josh MacAlister, has called on the Government to release vital funding for new dedicated sixth form space at Whitehaven and Workington academies to free up space for more students to attend the schools.

Cumbria Education Trust, which runs the academy, has submitted a request to the Government for urgent consideration of capital investment to continue delivering a quality 11-18 education offer across the Whitehaven and Workington academy sites, which are nearing capacity. Sixth form numbers are expected to double in the next 4-5 years.

Josh has written to Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education, asking that the department urgently releases the capital investment needed from the underspend in its existing budget. Approximately £10 million is needed. The Department for Education has an underspend of at least £830 million for 2023-24.

Josh said:

“It is great to see local schools doing so well but frustrating for parents who want their children to attend and can’t get in. I have visited both Workington and Whitehaven academies and heard directly from the school leadership about the capacity challenges they’re facing.

“The Department for Education is responsible for capital funding for schools and Cumbria Education Trust has already put in a bid for investment. This funding for a dedicated sixth form is vital both to ensure that quality 16-18 education can meet expected demand in the coming years but also to free up space that could be used to increase the number of school places for future intakes at year 7.

“I have written to the Secretary of State urging her to release the funds so work can begin.”

Josh has launched a campaign to put pressure on the Government to release the money.

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Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Whitehaven & Workington, Josh MacAlister, has condemned the Government for what he calls a “shocking betrayal” of West Cumbria over new nuclear.

Sign up to Josh’s New Nuclear Now campaign

Information revealed in answers to Parliamentary Questions tabled by Labour MP Sarah Jones on behalf of Josh MacAlister shows “at best, disinterest and disengagement, and at worst, complete negligence” on the part of the Government, says Josh, speaking exclusively to the Whitehaven News.

• The Government acknowledged that proposals have been made by Solway Community Power Company to build small modular reactors on a site adjacent to Sellafield and that multiple meetings have taken place between Government and Community Power Company – facts denied by a local Conservative MP.

• The Government admitted that despite receiving proposals and holding multiple meetings, they have made no assessment of Solway Community Power Company’s £6 billion plan to build two SMRs on the site near Sellafield.

• The Government also admitted that they made no economic impact assessment following the collapse of the NuGen deal in 2018 to assess the impact this would have on electricity generation, job creation and investment in West Cumbria.

• Finally, the Government was forced to acknowledge that they have no idea how many projects or proposals have been made for nuclear development on the Moorside site.

Josh said:

“I asked Labour’s frontbench team to submit these questions because I suspected they would be very revealing.

“What the answers show is, despite warm words from Ministers, the Government has done nothing to progress new nuclear power here.

“No thought was given to the impact of the collapse of the NuGen deal. No assessment has been made of a £6 billion proposal to build two small modular reactors. And the Government still will not allow the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to sell land near Sellafield for the project. It is a shocking betrayal of West Cumbria which shows at best, disinterest and disengagement, and at worst, complete negligence.

“I urge local people to beware false promises from the Tories about delivering new nuclear power at the next General Election and judge them on what they’ve done over the last 14 years, which is nothing.

“Labour will turbocharge development of new nuclear power stations and if I am lucky enough to be elected as your Labour MP I will move heaven and earth to get West Cumbria to the front of the queue. We deserve nothing less.”

The answers came as the Government announced funding in the Budget on 6th March to purchase two sites elsewhere in the country for nuclear development.

Last year I wrote to the Prime Minister demanding the transport funding we need to upgrade our railway, roads and buses in West Cumbria.

Ahead of the Budget this week I wrote to the Chancellor demanding that he commit the funding we were promised to improve rural bus services and upgrade local roads and the West Cumbria Coast Line.

We didn’t see a single penny to fund those promises in his Budget. 

The Tories have failed to deliver for West Cumbria for 14 years and now they expect us to believe their promises of jam tomorrow. 

Local people have had enough of empty promises from Tory politicians that disappear once the election has been and gone. 

It’s time for change. It’s time for an MP and a Government with a plan to deliver for West Cumbria.

I was delighted to welcome Ed Miliband, Labour’s Shadow Energy Secretary, to the Port of Workington to discuss the pitch laid out in my industrial plan for West Cumbria to double the Port of Workington in order to attract new industry to the area.

Major expansion of the Port of Workington is central to my industrial plan for West Cumbria because it opens up the potential for new industry and thousands of jobs.

I’ve been working with Ed Miliband to make the case for inclusion of Workington in the £1.8 billion Port investment programme promised by the next Labour Government.

Ed confirmed that Workington is in a prime position to benefit from this investment and I look forward to working with him and Cumberland Council if I’m elected to deliver it.

Read the coverage in the Times & Star

Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Whitehaven & Workington, Josh MacAlister, has launched a survey seeking ideas from Whitehaven residents to make the town “the Whitby of the west”.

The survey has already received almost 100 responses in just a few days, with ideas ranging from very simple things like cleaning up the streets and the frontages of empty shops, introducing more regular police patrols and reviewing parking charges, to more ambitious proposals to bring empty buildings back into use, attract more tourists into the town and better integrate the harbour into the town centre.

Josh said:

“Whitehaven is a beautiful town with so much potential. It is a difficult time for the high street, but there are lots of examples, like Whitby, which have bucked the trend. Why can’t Whitehaven be one of them? It has all the right ingredients.

“There are already some positive things happening, like the new digital and gaming hub, and there are some quick wins we should be able to deliver easily without additional resources, but we need a detailed, long-term masterplan for the regeneration of the whole town centre.

“I want to hear the ideas of local people who use the town about how they think it should be improved and then I’ll lobby local decision makers, business investors and national government to get the resources and levers we need to make it happen.

“If I’m elected as your MP, this is the sort of thing I’ll do. Get people around the table, knock on doors in Westminster, be a champion for our area, and bang the drum for West Cumbria at every opportunity.”

One issue mentioned by lots of respondents is the need to tackle business rates, which price many new businesses out of the town centre. Labour has committed to abolishing business rates and replacing them with a fairer system.

Complete the survey

I was delighted to welcome Bridget Phillipson MP to West Cumbria this week.

We visited Howgill Family Centre in Cleator Moor, held a Q&A with apprentices at Gen2 and hit the streets to talk to voters about our campaign for free breakfast clubs for every primary age child. Sign my petition here

Read the coverage in the Whitehaven News

Our area has a proud history of leading the world on nuclear power. We need government approval for a new nuclear plant in West Cumbria so that we can unlock new advanced manufacturing and industrial jobs.  That’s why I’ve been leading the New Nuclear Now campaign.

The Tories are continuing to drag their feet on new nuclear. Their ‘road map’ is just warm words, further consultations and reheated announcements.

Fourteen years and not one new nuclear site has opened, despite inheriting 10 approved sites from the last Labour government. Labour supports new nuclear and if you elect me as your Labour MP, I’ll be an unwavering champion for our area’s nuclear future.

I was honoured and surprised to be recognised in the New Year’s Honours List with an OBE for services to volunerable children.

These awards go to individuals, but all the work I’ve done to improve lives for children has been a team effort.

I would not have been able to launch Frontline ten years ago and build the charity without incredible colleagues or thousands of people prepared to start their career tackling social injustice through social work.

The independent review I led was shaped by those that children’s social care exists to serve – children, parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents and care experienced adults. These people made me pause, laugh and cry and their stories continue to fuel me about the change that is needed.

We’ve got our work cut out here in Cumbria and across England to make sure that the most vulnerable children get a fair chance. I’m looking forward to getting back to this work in 2024!

Read coverage in the Whitehaven News

Labour’s Josh MacAlister has today written to the Chancellor to demand answers after the Conservatives secret £7.3m cut to local families was exposed. This comes just a year after the Conservatives crashed the British economy.

The Household Support Fund is an £842m fund to help families with food and energy costs. Incredibly, as the cost of living crisis deepens, driven in no small part by the largest tax burden in 70 years, the Chancellor has abolished the fund – cutting £7.3m in support for households in Cumbria.

Labour’s letter to the Chancellor is reproduced in full below:

Dear Jeremy,

Under the Conservatives families in Cumbria have faced 13 years of stagnation, low growth, falling wages, rising taxes and crumbling public services. Last year, your party recklessly crashed the British economy, setting off run-away inflation and hammering working families further. The cost of living crisis you have delivered is hurting each and every one one of us. 

Your Autumn Statement was an opportunity to fix the mess you have created. Labour has set out a plan to deliver the growth this country needs – it is a real shame you failed to take it up. 

Now, to add insult to injury, it has emerged that you not only failed to offer the support struggling families need – in secret you are taking it away. The household support fund provides much needed assistance to those who need a little help to make ends meet through the cost of living crisis your party helped create.

Taking that support away is an attack on hard working families in Cumbria who are doing everything they can to get their families through the worst parliament for living standards in history. 

The Conservatives have utterly wrecked the British economy – and you are asking families in Cumbria to pay the price.

Cumbria needs an end to the unthinking incompetence. After 13 years of failure we badly need a plan for growth.

I look forward to your response – and your plan to properly support families in Cumbria through the Conservative cost of living crisis.

Yours,

Josh MacAlister

Standing to be Labour’s MP for West Cumbria