Callum Anderson MP: speeches

Speeches

• 24 Mar 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T7. I recently visited the Gawcott Fields Community Solar project, which is a local solar farm that uses the income from the clean energy it produces to invest in energy saving and environmental projects, and it is anticipated that it will invest £2.8 million over 25 years. Can the Minister update the House on how the Government will use the local power plan to ensure that even more of my communities—particularly rural and low-income ones—can take control of their own energy?

• 7 Jan 2026 · Bletchley Railway Station: Eastern Entrance · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I know that she served for many years with distinction as a councillor and an elected representative for Bletchley on Milton Keynes city council, and she also served as deputy leader of the city council. She and I, and our hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes North (Chris Curtis), have been uncovering broken promise after broken promise in every corner of our city. This is just one example; the three of us have also fought for funding for a new hospital in Milton Keynes, again demonstrating the neglect of our city by the last Conservative Government and our predecessors. The business case prepared by East West Rail confirms that it would cut the distance for visitors and commuters between the station and the high street by more than 600 metres, making a meaningful difference for thousands of daily passengers and easing pressure on existing station infrastructure. The time to act is now. Passenger numbers are set to rise incredibly sharply with the arrival of East West Rail, which will place Bletchley and Milton Keynes at the intersection of the Oxford-Cambridge line and the west coast main line. If we add the proposed and very exciting Universal Studios theme park development, the future demand is clear.

• 7 Jan 2026 · Bletchley Railway Station: Eastern Entrance · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is an extremely diligent and dogged campaigner both inside and outside Parliament, and he is absolutely right. Towns such as Newcastle-under-Lyme and Bletchley benefit from being located near to significant cities such as Stoke-on-Trent and Milton Keynes. It is also really important that they are connected to us, so that we can unlock the full economic opportunities and connections to which he refers. A new eastern entrance at Bletchley station is also critical to unlocking the wider economic regeneration ambitions for Bletchley and Milton Keynes more broadly. Through the Bletchley and Fenny Stratford town deal, which was secured by our Labour-run Milton Keynes city council with the support of local councillors—including my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington), who was serving at the time—real progress is already under way. From public realm improvements and business support to upgrades to routes on Saxon Street, we are already transforming the area and building the momentum we need. Put simply, the eastern entrance is the missing piece that will unlock a revitalised town centre, new homes, better roads and improved public spaces. I have already thanked the team at East West Rail, but I want to place on record my thanks to the city council, to the whole town deal board, and to serving and former councillors, as well as council officers, for all the work that they have done over the past few years to help us to build a credible, ambitious plan, which now has comprehensive and unanimous local backing. The case is clear. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and if we seize it, Bletchley will become a true gateway—not just for the town itself, but for the whole city of Milton Keynes. We do not want to let this opportunity for growth pass us by yet again. I urge the Minister to work with me, our community, and our local political and civic leaders to secure the public investment needed to take this project forward. I would be most grateful for his help in brokering discussions with those across Government and the relevant agencies and boards who will take the final financial decisions, so that we can move this project to its next stage together. A modest commitment now will deliver benefits for decades. Bletchley is ready, our people are ready, and our plans are ready and in place. We just need Government to partner with us and help to build an eastern entrance that will ensure our railway station faces the town, just as its people face the future with confidence.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Pension Investment in UK Equities · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer, and to keep the Minister company on the Government side. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Salisbury (John Glen) on securing this debate and on a highly compelling speech and argument. The question of whether we can create the right incentive framework for domestic pension funds to invest more in the UK is a strong one—not only in UK equities but across all asset classes, including gilts and infrastructure. It goes to the heart of the Government’s growth mission. It is imperative for strengthening our national economy and for unlocking the regional potential of our economies, including in my own constituency of Buckingham and Bletchley, which lies in the engine room of the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor. Backing British businesses of all types and sizes across the UK with British capital is fundamental to jobs, greater levels of innovation and, in the long run, higher household incomes. However, it is also important for our economic sovereignty. As hon. Members have explained, if we are unwilling to invest in our own economy, we risk increasing our reliance on international capital, which may not necessarily prioritise the UK’s long-term national interest. I welcome the work that the Minister has advanced through the Pension Schemes Bill. It is a good Bill. Creating larger pension funds that are able to invest at scale will deliver stronger returns for millions of savers, including those in my constituency. The scale of the challenge with regard to domestic pension investment in our economy is stark. The right hon. Member for Salisbury was clear in setting out the data from the new financial think-tank. The right hon. Member for North West Hampshire (Kit Malthouse) and the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Richard Tice) explained the steady decline of domestic pension investment over the last two, three or four decades. Data that I would cite for international comparisons lies in the Capital Markets Industry Taskforce, of which I know the London Stock Exchange Group is a leading member, and which I cited on Second Reading of the Pension Schemes Bill, but it is worth repeating now. Canadian pension funds are hugely overweight in their own domestic economy relative to their share of the global markets by about two and a half times. The figure for France is a factor of nine; Italy 10; Australia 27; and South Korea is an astonishing 30 times overweight. By contrast, in the United Kingdom we are underweight by about 40%. That was the data from about a year ago. This is not a marginal trend; it identifies a structural weakness in our global competitiveness, our industrial capability and our long-term national economic resilience. As has been said, it is not just about our pension funds. Since the pandemic, UK households have accumulated greater levels of cash savings—depending on the financial institution, that is £600 billion, £700 billion and so on. It is positive that UK households have bigger cash buffers, but having excess cash not only potentially damages the ability to grow long-term wealth and secure financial security in the long run, but it deprives the many innovative scale-ups that we have in the UK from the investment that they need to grow, create jobs and deliver tax receipts for the Exchequer. If we want a stronger, more secure economy, we have to mobilise all sources of domestic capital—that includes pension funds, retail savings and also our public institutions like the British Business Bank—to meet what I think are three principal goals. The first is to strengthen the integrity and vitality of UK public equity markets—I do have an interest, having worked for the London Stock Exchange Group before I entered Parliament—which was rightly cited as a priority in the Government’s financial services growth and competitiveness strategy earlier this year. Listed companies are already employing 4 million people across the UK. When domestic capital supports the domestic economy, firms can raise further growth capital, which we saw to its benefit during the pandemic. It can also create further jobs. A vibrant public market can also attract, in turn, a wider pool of investors, domestic or international, and create a virtuous cycle of demand, valuation and innovation. Secondly, I have already referred to national economic resilience. When domestic firms depend primarily on foreign investors, as we have seen in the case of Arm—I was at LSEG at the time—they are more likely to list overseas and more likely to relocate there. Their leadership teams shift supply chains and take their tax receipts and intellectual property with it. We need to mobilise our own domestic capital, which secures our long-term economic sovereignty. Thirdly, lastly, and perhaps most importantly, it is about ensuring that our exciting innovators, of which there are many in my own constituency, are able to thrive and reach their full potential here. They all require patient capital, which was outlined in the industrial strategy. If Britain wants to lead in those industries, we must mobilise all our pension savings to give our unicorns the opportunity to compete globally. I will stop there because I am very aware of my six minutes.

• 24 Nov 2025 · Buckinghamshire Council: Funding · Hansard source

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  Multi-year funding settlements can help councils such as Buckinghamshire to prepare for the future and ensure the continuity of local services, but that approach was not necessarily applied by the last Conservative Government. In the north Buckinghamshire towns and villages that I represent, there is particular pressure on the economic and social infrastructure that meets rural requirements. Will the Minister set out in a bit more detail how the fair funding review will take all that into account so that residents in my community have the services they need?

• 4 Nov 2025 · Regional Economic Growth: Pension Funds · Hansard source

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  The establishment of the Sterling 20 sends a strong signal that this country is serious about mobilising more of its own domestic capital into productive domestic assets. As the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor’s anchor, my Buckingham and Bletchley constituency is primed to offer high-quality investment opportunities. Can the Minister set out more detail about how he is working with local authorities, such as the Labour-run Milton Keynes city council, to ensure that we provide that pipeline, and will he meet me to discuss how we can take it further?

• 13 Oct 2025 · New Social Housing: Buckingham and Bletchley · Hansard source

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  The on-time, on-budget delivery of 183 new council homes for local families on the Lakes estate in Bletchley is a good demonstration of what Labour can achieve in local government. Is my right hon. Friend willing to visit Bletchley over the coming weeks and months to discuss how further investment from the social and affordable homes programme could help ambitious, pro-housebuilding councils like Milton Keynes to go even further for local people?

• 7 Jul 2025 · Pension Schemes Bill · Hansard source

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  As I have said, I think that larger funds can manage risk better and deliver better outcomes for savers, which means that they can take greater ownership of how they spend their retirement years. I also think that the £25 billion threshold for megafunds in the defined-contribution market is the right level to deliver the objective. Other jurisdictions, especially Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands, have demonstrated that scale drives better governance, lower fees and stronger returns. I welcome consolidation and the path towards the professionalisation of the local government pension scheme. I disclose that before I entered this place, I chaired a local authority pension fund, so I know at first hand the potential of pooling, and share many experiences of pension fund meetings with the shadow Minister. I fully acknowledge that there will be resistance to pooling in some quarters.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Pension Schemes Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Stakeholders and firms that I have spoken to—in the local government pension sector, the private sector and the City of London—are unanimous that scale is very much an economic imperative. Have the Government considered what role fiscal incentives can play in helping to accelerate the consolidation of private DC funds, and whether there is scope to reduce the number of LGPS pools in the year ahead? I particularly welcome the Bill’s proposal for a comprehensive value-for-money framework to guide DC consolidation, which my hon. Friend the Member for Tamworth (Sarah Edwards) mentioned. This correctly tackles head-on the trustee cost mindset, which too often prioritises the cheapest over the most appropriate asset allocation. That approach has frequently been tried and tested, and it delivers poorer returns for savers and missed opportunities for the wider economy, so I very much hope that DC consolidation can be implemented as soon as possible. Finally, I want to address the issue of mandation, which, to be honest, probably warrants a debate all by itself. I appreciate the concerns that have been raised by Members from across the House, and by people in the investment industry. My hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier) referred to the parliamentary fund, and I note non-facetiously that the parliamentary fund, of which we are all ultimately beneficiaries, allocates barely 1% of its assets to UK companies.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Pension Schemes Bill · Hansard source

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  I am probably a parliamentary oddity, given that I have been looking forward hugely to rising to support the Bill—and what luck to follow such a colourful and interesting speech from the right hon. Member for North West Hampshire (Kit Malthouse). I believe that this landmark piece of legislation, which builds on the progress made by the last Administration, has the potential to fundamentally reshape the trajectory of British capitalism by addressing one of the most important long-term challenges facing our country, namely how we can unlock and unleash the full potential of British savings to support growth and prosperity here at home. It is a challenge that we must overcome if we are to tackle a number of deep-rooted structural weaknesses in our economy: low productivity, low business investment and regional inequalities, as well as the financial insecurity that pervades the lives of too many of our older citizens, especially those who do not own their homes. Before I go any further, I must pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Minister—the Bill bears the hallmarks of his serious and determined leadership—and also commend my hon. Friend the Member for Tamworth (Sarah Edwards) for her very interesting speech. The Bill seeks to address the lack of alignment between our nation’s vast pool of domestic savings and the long-term investment needs of our economy. Over recent decades, that growing misalignment has become all too evident in communities across the United Kingdom. During that time, our domestic pension funds, which now amount to about £.3 trillion, have steadily retreated from investment in the UK, although the trend has not been replicated in other comparable developed economies. Despite taxpayer support amounting to more than £60 billion a year—or £70 billion, according to the right hon. Member for Salisbury (John Glen)—too little capital is finding its way into British companies, infrastructure and innovation. Data from the Capital Markets Industry Taskforce—I must disclose the fact that I once worked for one of its member firms before entering this place—lays bare the scale of the problem. The data focuses primarily on public equity markets, but when we look at the largest pension schemes and funds in other countries and compare the size of their total equity allocations relative to their domestic equity markets, we see that Canada’s pensions are 2.5 times overweighting their home market, while France’s are nine times overweight, Italy’s 10 times overweight, Australia’s 27 times overweight, and South Korea’s are 30 times overweight. The UK is, massively, an international anomaly. Our domestic pension funds are underweighting our equity market by about 40%. That, I think, represents a structural weakness, with direct consequences for the global competitiveness of our economy, the vitality of our industries and, ultimately, our national economic resilience. If we are unwilling to invest in ourselves, we hold back our growth prospects. The UK has long needed catalysts for a modern economic renaissance. The Government have taken important first steps through their industrial and infrastructure strategies, the artificial intelligence opportunities action plan and the reforms of our planning system, but the common ingredient that is required to ensure their success is a reliable source of long-term capital. Even a modest rebalancing of that £3 trillion could unlock billions in investment for domestic growth. In real currency that our constituents can understand, that means investment in digital, physical and social infrastructure, and it means greater opportunities for entrepreneurs to not only start up businesses but scale them into something globally consequential, providing better jobs and higher incomes for families throughout the country. These investments are not just good for local economies. If we get the broader fundamentals right, they can also deliver stronger returns for tomorrow’s growing cohort of retirees, so the Government are right to propose tackling fragmentation across the UK pensions system. In particular, the private defined-contribution market and the local government pension scheme remain too fragmented. I must gently disagree with the right hon. Member for North West Hampshire: I think that there are too many small, sub-scale schemes that have not only driven up costs and created market inefficiencies, but resulted overall in suboptimal investment outcomes. I think that larger funds can manage risk better, and can invest in opportunities that can deliver higher returns for savers.