Everybody in West Cumbria deserves the right to live in a home that is well insulated and where their bills are affordable. These were key commitments in Labour’s manifesto before the election. This week we started to deliver on those promises.

Under plans announced this week by the Labour Government, up to 300,000 households across the UK will benefit from home upgrades in the next year, with new funding to help households of every kind in West Cumbria take up measures that can help save money on their bills and deliver cleaner heating.

This includes boosting the budget for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme to support more households to switch to a heat pump – which can save families around £100 a year compared to a gas boiler by using a smart tariff effectively. Homeowners can get a £7,500 heat pump grant through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which had the highest number of applications ever in October according to Ofgem. And we’re removing the need to submit a planning application to install a heat pump and removing the 1m rule to make it easier to switch.

We’re also going to insulate more homes across the country – potentially saving homeowners around £200 per year. Social housing residents, lower income householders and renters will receive funded energy efficiency upgrades – including insulation and low-carbon heating. I’ll be doing everything I can to get this support for as many households in West Cumbria as possible and I’ve met with the Energy Minister twice already to make our case.

One of the things we need is the workforce who can deliver the programme, which is why I was so pleased last week to open the new Green Energy and Skills Centre at Lakes College. Through this new centre we can train up the workers we need to deliver a major retrofit programme. Congratulations to everyone who has been involved in pulling this new centre together. This will help to secure new jobs as part of these plans to reduce energy bills. 

Working alongside Labour’s mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower, the Warm Homes Plan will ensure millions more households benefit from homegrown energy delivered by every new turbine, solar panel, nuclear power plant or pylon built on the path to energy independence.

This follows our plan to lift over one million households out of fuel poverty by consulting on boosting minimum energy efficiency standards for all renters by 2030, delivering warmer homes and cheaper bills.

And in the short term, we’re providing over £400 million of support for families and pensioners this winter through the Household Support Fund and we’ve worked with energy companies to announce half a billion pounds of help with energy bills for those in the most need.

Our plans, alongside the immediate support for families this winter, will put an end to the short-term approach that failed our community under the Conservatives.

Latest figures reveal there were 482 children in care in Cumberland in the final year of Conservative Government as Labour announces the biggest reform to children’s social care in a generation.

The reforms deliver many of the recommendations made by Whitehaven and Workington MP Josh MacAlister in his Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in 2022.

Josh, who was commended by the Secretary of State for his work in this area during her announcement of the reforms, said:

“Looked after children in West Cumbria deserve loving homes, their families should get timely, intensive help and taxpayers must be given value for money. That’s what these reforms are all about and they implement many of the recommendations I made in my review which were overlooked by the previous government.

“Labour is fixing the foundations of a broken children’s social care system after years of neglect and ballooning costs under the Conservatives. Today, we are spending far too much money on crisis-level intervention, and some of the most vulnerable children are being failed. That has to change and the work of change has begun.”

Bridget Phillipson, Secretary of State for Education, praised Josh’s work during her statement announcing the reforms in the House of Commons:

“I pay tribute to my honourable friend for his tremendous work in this area. I am delighted that we have been able to act in many of the areas that he identified as part of his review. 

“He is right to draw our attention to the thousands of people, including those with lived experience, who contributed to his vital work. It is testament to his work and their contributions that the Government are able to take forward work in so many areas that will make a significant difference to the lives and experiences of vulnerable children across our country, from today and over many years to come.”

Across the country, the number of children in care has risen 5% over the last 5 years to 83,632 across England in the year to March 2024. According to analysis by the Local Government Association, there are now over 1,500 children in residential care each costing the equivalent of over £500,000 every year, while the largest 15 private providers make an average of 23% profit. 

New rules will require companies providing foster and residential care to share their finances with the government, allowing profiteering to be challenged. Increasing financial transparency will ensure the providers that have the biggest impact on the market don’t unexpectedly go under and leave children without a home.

There will also be a “backstop” law to put a limit on the profit providers can make, that the government will introduce if providers do not voluntarily put an end to profiteering.

More widely, the government is beginning the process of rebalancing the whole children’s social care system in favour of early intervention, giving every family the legal right to be involved in decisions made about children entering the care system. There will also be new laws to make a range of public bodies, like universities and hospitals, behave as corporate parents for children in care and care leavers. 

One of the most damaging consequences of the last 14 years has been the underinvestment by previous governments in our roads and public transport network. The consequences of that have hit hard in rural areas like ours. Bus services slashed, a train line that is crumbling and, despite the best efforts of the council, too many potholes on our roads.

Fixing the roads, delivering better buses for West Cumbria, securing investment to upgrade the Cumbrian Coast Line and tackling some of the issues currently causing delays and cancellations on our railway are key priorities of mine and I seek every chance I can to lobby ministers and officials.

We’ve seen some really positive announcements in recent weeks from the new government which mean we can start to address these longstanding issues. 

On roads, an extra £500 million was allocated to councils for local road repairs in the Budget, which means we can fill more potholes and resurface more broken roads. And I met last week with National Highways to lobby for a multi-million pound project to improve safety on the A595 to be funded next year, which I’ll do my best to deliver. 

We had a major announcement at the start of this week of £1 billion extra for bus services next year – including £5 million for Cumberland – which will protect existing routes and deliver new ones. This is a huge boost to back our buses and means we can be even more ambitious in our plans to connect more communities to the bus network in our area. Cumberland Council are doing great work on this already, with recent improvements and new services delivered. Phase two is being consulted on as we speak. This money means there can be a phase three to those plans and I’ll be working closely with Cllr Denise Rollo and the Labour leadership of the council to get maximum benefit for West Cumbria.

On rail, I’m pulling all the relevant local stakeholders together to update the business case for a major upgrade of the Cumbrian Coast Line so that we’re in the best possible position next year when funding decisions start being made. I stood up in the chamber last week to ask the Secretary of State to intervene to resolve the long-running Northern conductor dispute which the Tories did nothing to address. And I’ve met with Northern and Network Rail in Parliament in the past week to discuss improvements to the track and timetable.

Every week I go down to Westminster with you in mind and I fight for the things you tell me are important to you. We won’t win every fight, but I hope you know I will always do my best to deliver for West Cumbria.

Josh MacAlister MP and Cumberland’s Labour council have today backed the Labour Government’s transformative plans to deliver better buses across Cumberland by providing £5 million in funding next year.

The investment has been designated to enhance popular routes, protect and create new rural services and increase bus use for shopping, socialising and commuting. It will help prevent service reductions on at-risk routes and improve punctuality, to bring an end to the current postcode lottery of unreliable services.

Totalling £955 million across England, the funding represents a record level of recent investment for bus improvements for the majority of areas, alongside once in a generation reform to deliver London-style bus services to every corner of the country.

Under the Conservatives, bus services in England outside London collapsed, with thousands of bus services cut, and almost 300 million fewer miles driven by buses per year, since 2010. Across Cumbria alone, bus miles declined by 20%.

As part of this investment, the way funding is allocated has been reformed. The reforms will allocate funding based on need and will end the Conservative’s wasteful system of competitive bidding for funding, which wastes resources and delays decisions. 

This funding announcement comes alongside the Government’s plans to deliver the biggest overhaul to the country’s bus services in a generation, and call time on four decades of failed deregulation.

The Labour Government is expanding the power to take back control of local bus services to every community, and is speeding up the process of delivering public control of buses by removing barriers to bus franchising and public ownership.

The funding announcement is the latest stop on the Government’s journey to better buses, with a new Buses Bill to be introduced to Parliament in the coming months. 

Cllr Denise Rollo, Cabinet Member for Sustainable, Resilient and Connected Places on Cumberland Council, said:

“I am delighted that the Transport Secretary has confirmed over £5 million of new bus funding across our council area.

“People across Cumberland are tired of unreliable, infrequent bus services holding them back from opportunities after a decade of neglect of our local bus services.

“This new Government has a plan to deliver better buses across the country, and this funding boost is another crucial stop on that journey.”

Whitehaven and Workington MP Josh MacAlister said:

“Buses are the lifeblood of communities, but the system is broken. Too often, passengers in West Cumbria are left waiting hours for buses that don’t turn up – and some rural areas have been cut off altogether.

“That’s why the new Government is reforming funding to deliver better buses across the country and end the postcode lottery of bus services. We’re set to feel the benefit of that here in West Cumbria and I’m excited about the changes we can now make with this extra resource.

“By delivering better buses, we’ll ensure people have proper access to jobs and opportunities and can access health services and leisure facilities. I look forward to working with Denise and the council to ensure our area feels the maximum benefit.”

New analysis from Josh MacAlister reveals that an estimated 3,196 workers on the National Minimum Wage in West Cumbria are set to receive up to an additional £1,400 a year after Labour’s first budget saw the National Living Wage rise to £12.21 an hour.

The boost is a significant step towards making sure the minimum wage is a genuine living wage, and comes as part of Labour’s wider mission to grow the economy and making working people better off.

In addition to the rise in the minimum wage, Labour has:

· Ensured working people won’t face higher taxes in their payslip, with no increase in National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax, or VAT.

· Announced £240m in additional funding to get Britain working. This will include trailblazers in mayoral combined authorities to join up work, skills and health support and implement the Youth Guarantee.

· Extended the Household Support Fund for a full year, on top of the six months already announced, with an additional £750m to help struggling families and pensioners in England.

· Announced a clear plan to fix the foundations of our economy by restoring stability, increasing investment and reforming the economy to drive up prosperity and living standards across the UK.

Publishing the analysis, Josh said,

“After 14 years of stagnation and decline under the Tories – and the worst parliament for living standards in British history – Labour is determined to make working people better off. This huge boost to the National Minimum Wage will make full time minimum wage workers in West Cumbria £1,400 better off a year. That’s a huge step towards our goal of making the minimum wage a real living wage – a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work.

“But Labour won’t stop there. The new Labour Government is fixing the foundations of our economy, investing in the infrastructure we need to deliver long-term growth and providing struggling households here in West Cumbria with an extended Household Support Fund, because we recognise that the cost of living crisis is far from over.

“Labour is turning the page on the last 14 years of failure under the Conservatives – fixing the NHS, rebuilding our economy and protecting working people.”

The number one priority of any government is to keep its citizens safe. That also means looking after those in our armed forces who put their lives on the line to maintain that safety and honouring those who make the ultimate sacrifice in service to our great country. 

Over the weekend it was a great honour and privilege to represent Parliament and the Government for the first time as your MP at Remembrance Sunday commemorations in Whitehaven and Workington. 

For me it was the culmination of a week of events to recognise and remember west Cumbrians and those across Britain who fought and died for our country – and those veterans still living who need our support.

I planted a poppy cross in the Garden of Remembrance outside Parliament to recognise our Whitehaven and Workington heroes, noting in particular all those miners from our area who went from the pits to the frontline in service of the nation. 

I also took part in the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Ride in Parliament, although sadly I didn’t come top of the leaderboard! 

And I joined volunteers from the Legion and local cadets to collect donations in Morrisons. RBL branches locally do such a fantastic job of supporting our veterans and I’d like to put on record my thanks to them for their work all year round, but especially their outstanding efforts for the Poppy Appeal this year. 

But we can’t leave it all to charities, the government has an important role to play in supporting our troops and veterans. And the Government took several positive steps this week to right the wrongs of recent years. 

First, the Bill to create the UK’s first Armed Forces Commissioner was tabled in Parliament. The Commissioner will be the first independent advocate dedicated to supportive serving personnel and their families and I’ll proudly support its passage through Parliament. 

Second, the Government announced new support for our veterans. It is a travesty that under the Tories people who fought for our country were sleeping on the streets. We’re determined to right that wrong and we’ve put an extra £3.5 million into the Reducing Veteran Homelessness programme, which provides wraparound specialist support for employment and independent living for veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness. This programme was set to end next year under the Tories, we are extending it to 2026. 

This is in addition to our commitment to exempt veterans from rules which require a connection to a local area to access social housing in England, as part of the Government’s “homes for heroes” pledge. 

This is a Government committed to delivering for all those who serve and have served. As your MP I will ensure our veterans get the support they need and deserve, not just at Remembrance but year-round.

Last week a Budget was delivered by a Labour Chancellor for the first time in fourteen years. The Chancellor had a difficult task with the inheritance she was handed by her predecessor and I don’t envy her having to make some of the decisions she did.

Just as a brief reminder, the Conservatives crashed the economy, sending mortgages through the roof, and then called an early election to avoid having to deliver this Budget. They wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on their failed asylum system, propping up private rail companies and dodgy COVID contracts – leaving a £22 billion black hole in the nation’s finances and public services on their knees.

The choice at the Budget was clear: five more years of the same failed Conservative policies and more austerity that leaves working people having to pick up the bill. Or change with a Labour Government that fixes the foundations to invest in Britain’s future so we can fix the NHS and rebuild our country, while ensuring working people don’t face higher taxes in their payslips.

The Budget asks the wealthiest and businesses to pay their fair share and takes tough decisions on spending and welfare by cracking down on fraud, tax avoidance and waste, and making sure every penny of taxpayer money is spent wisely. The Labour Government will make sure that those who make their home in Britain, pay their taxes here too by abolishing the non-dom status.

The tough choices we have made mean we can raise the minimum wage and give millions of workers and apprentices more money in their pockets. It means we can protect the triple lock, giving pensioners a boost of around £1,700 during this Parliament. That we can allocate to our farmers the largest pot of funding directed at sustainable food production and nature recovery in history. It enables us to deliver our manifesto commitments to 40,000 extra elective NHS appointments a week and new scanners and diagnostic equipment as part of a £25 billion increase in NHS funding. We can’t get growth without investment, so the Budget also boosts public investment in infrastructure over the next five years whilst keeping debt on a downward path.

This Budget delivers the change that so many people voted for.

It is the start of a new chapter towards making Britain better off: more pounds in people’s pockets. An NHS that is there for you when you need it. And businesses creating wealth and opportunity for all. It is a Budget that invests in Britain’s future so, alongside business, we can build the homes, the infrastructure, the roads and the railways our country needs.

After the last 14 years, mental health services are on their knees. Nowhere is this felt more starkly than in West Cumbria, where we have some of the highest suicide rates in the country and an urgent crisis in access to mental health support.

We need more mental health professionals, more early intervention services to stop people reaching crisis point and enough acute inpatient beds for those who need them.

Before the election I called for a new community mental health hub in West Cumbria and I’m delighted that one will open this year in Whitehaven. This will be a 24/7 service anyone can access without a referral which will provide a range of support services from both the NHS and community organisations. It is really exciting and we should celebrate it.

However, this should be an addition to and not a replacement for existing services.

Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, which runs mental health services in Cumbria and across the North East, is proposing to close the Yewdale Ward at West Cumberland Hospital. This is the only inpatient acute mental health ward in West Cumbria. Its 16 beds are almost always full. The trust proposes to replace this provision with more beds at its Carleton Clinic in Carlisle and four short term beds at the new community hub in Whitehaven. Four beds in the whole of West Cumbria. Everyone else will have to travel an hour to Carlisle.

I’m up for a conversation about switching focus from acute to community care, but we first have to have the community care in place and proven to work. Any reduction in acute inpatient beds should only be considered at a time when these beds are not needed as a result of improvements to early intervention, with fewer people reaching crisis point.

The onus is now on the mental health trust to release detailed plans for how they will improve mental health services in West Cumbria showing how they will get us to this point. Until then, I’m calling on them to call off the closure.

Residents can support my campaign at joshmacalister.uk/yewdale and join our Facebook group ‘West Cumbria Mental Health Action Group’.

Register to attend my public meeting on health services in West Cumbria

A cross-party delegation of Cumbrian politicians met with Rail Minister Lord Hendy this week to make the case for a major upgrade of the Cumbrian Coast Line from Carlisle to Barrow.

The delegation included Whitehaven and Workington MP Josh MacAlister, Penrith and Solway MP Markus Campbell-Savours, Carlisle MP Julie Minns, Westmorland and Furness MP Tim Farron and the leaders of Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness councils.

The previous government announced plans to upgrade the railway but didn’t allocate a single penny to this or dozens of other rail projects, leaving their futures in doubt. The new government is reviewing all railway projects and will lay out its future priorities in the Spending Review, which is due to be announced in March 2025.

Speaking after the meeting, Josh said:

“We’re working together on a cross-party basis to make the strongest case we can for investment in our railway because of its importance to the whole of Cumbria, our people and our economy.

“While the Conservatives governed by press release, announcing projects they didn’t have a plan or any money to pay for, the new Labour government takes its fiscal responsibilities seriously. All projects are being reviewed and the Spending Review will lay out the investment this government will make in our railway infrastructure.

“Our meeting with the Minister was to make our initial pitch for the Cumbrian Coast Line and discuss next steps to get a plan together ready for the government when the Spending Review has concluded. Partners will now work together to refresh the business case for the upgrade in order to get that in front of ministers early next year so we are in the strongest position we can be to secure the funding we need.”