
standing up for our towns
I’m proud to be a part of the new Labour Towns group, which is made up of Labour MPs, councillors and members to stand up for our towns and call out the Tories for the damaging effect that eight years of austerity has had on them.
As the Member of Parliament for St Helens North, I represent two towns: Newton and St Helens. I have seen how our borough faces a complex blend of challenges that often don’t apply to larger cities or to more rural areas.
New research from the Labour Towns group has shown that towns have had half the rate of new jobs and businesses as cities since 2010, with the overall economy in towns growing at two thirds the rate of cities in the same period.
This lag in growth has been accompanied by savage tory cuts to our local government finances, with central government funding to St Helens Council falling form £103 million in 2010 down to a projected £56 million by 2020 – an expected drop of 45 per cent.
What the Government needs to do is focus on our towns as a new centre for economic growth, and St Helens and Newton are ideally placed to lead this work as it marks its 150th year.
I’ll be supporting Labour Towns in its important work making the case for places like St Helens and you can find out more about this here:www.labourtowns.co.uk

Government needs to support the local transport infrastructure
I spoke in the House of Commons on two important transport infrastructure issues facing my constituents.
I called for new works to the junction to be included in the next Road Investment Strategy, Haydock Island is a vital junction that carries traffic off the M6 where it meets very busy local roads.
Although it has been remodelled in recent years, there are still issues with heavy traffic flows and this is impacting local residents and businesses.
St Helens is ideally situated for businesses that trade in Liverpool and Manchester and it is vital for workers commuting there and for drivers in St Helens that traffic flows freely.
on the rail network, the Wales and the Borders train franchise runs through much of the North West, including areas of St Helens and my constituency of St Helens North.
Despite this, and the fact that a large number of passengers using the service start and finish their journeys at stations in the North West, no one from our region or indeed at the Department for Transport in London has control over who gets the franchise.
I raised this issue in the House of Commons and pointed out to the Transport Secretary that it is ludicrous that decisions affecting English passengers are made exclusively in Wales.
This is galling for commuters and rail passengers in my constituency who have already endured months of delays and cancellations as a result of Northern’s botched new timetable – also something that the Transport Secretary refuses to take responsibility for.
We need a publicly-run rail franchising system that delivers for passengers and is accountable to the proper authorities.