Emma Reynolds MP: speeches

75 published records · newest first.

Speeches

8 Sept 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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We are improving funding for local government as a result of the spending review, and I would be happy to meet the hon. Gentleman to discuss that further. It is also obviously a question for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
8 Sept 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that I am working extremely closely with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland who, as he will know, is in discussions with all the parties in the Northern Ireland Executive. We need to make sure that a budget is set for Northern Ireland so that the Executive can continue to deliver vital local public services.
8 Sept 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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I thank the hon. Lady for raising this important issue. I would be very happy to meet her.
8 Sept 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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I reassure my hon. Friend that I am working extremely closely with the Health Secretary and discussing overall levels of NHS spending—of course, the Department has the biggest budget across the Departments. The NHS is performing well, but I will take back the specifics that she mentioned.
8 Sept 2026 · Public Sector Productivity · Hansard source
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Public sector productivity is improving, with the NHS delivering 3.5% productivity growth in 2025-26, beating its 2% target. The Government will continue to drive public sector efficiency so that taxpayers’ money delivers the best possible public services. In addition, we are investing in AI adoption across the public sector to help realise the overall target of £14 billion of efficiencies by 2028-29, as agreed at the last spending review.
8 Sept 2026 · Public Sector Productivity · Hansard source
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I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that we are focused on driving public sector productivity to reach the efficiency targets I talked about. We are holding each Department to account on that. As I said earlier, we are seeing great progress in the NHS, which is making a huge contribution to our productivity gains as a Government.
8 Sept 2026 · Public Sector Productivity · Hansard source
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I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. Driving public sector productivity is extremely important in two ways: first, because we get better value for money for taxpayers for the tax that people are putting in, including taxpayers in our own constituencies; and secondly, as she says, we are driving efficiencies, faster service delivery and using AI in the NHS to really drive improvements in care, as well as delivering more bang for buck.
8 Sept 2026 · Public Sector Productivity · Hansard source
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We in the Treasury Front-Bench team are wondering when the third book in the trilogy will come along and what it might be called. We have a guess for the title of the next book. I thank him for his advice in his books and in his recent Financial Times article. On train drivers and their pay, I am proud to be part of a Government who have avoided strikes that impact on public spending.
8 Sept 2026 · Regional Funding · Hansard source
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I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question, but I disagree with his assessment. As I said to my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Alex McIntyre), there are opportunities for areas that do not opt to have a mayor, but set up as foundation strategic authorities to gain the benefit of retaining more business rates and of greater powers over skills, transport and housing.
8 Sept 2026 · Regional Funding · Hansard source
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I thank the right hon. Gentleman, in whose footsteps I am again following by taking on another job that he did in government. As a former Environment Secretary, living in a rural area of Buckinghamshire myself and representing a semi-rural seat, I reassure him that this Government of course care about driving growth in rural areas. There is great potential there, which is why we are supporting our farmers through a £2.7 billion a year sustainable farming budget, and we are also improving connectivity in rural areas.
8 Sept 2026 · Regional Funding · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is a doughty champion for his area. As he said, the Prime Minister has been engaging with Cornwall—including, importantly, with its six MPs, including my hon. Friend—on a devolution agreement. This will support the Cornish economy through stronger statutory powers on transport and housing, and the ability to introduce an overnight visitor levy, which can be invested in projects that drive growth in the region. As he will know, the Government are already investing in Cornwall’s high potential sectors with the £30 million Kernow industrial growth fund.
8 Sept 2026 · Regional Funding · Hansard source
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The Government will support good growth in every postcode, including in Cornwall and Gloucester. We have already established No. 10 North to work in partnership with local leaders, businesses and communities, and at the Budget next month we will publish plans for further fiscal devolution, including greater retention of business rates revenue for local councils and strategic authorities.
8 Sept 2026 · Regional Funding · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is a great champion for his constituency. The Cabinet statement on devolution set out the Government’s ambitions to accelerate devolution across the country by establishing a strategic authority for every area in England that wants one by the end of 2028. All strategic authorities, including those without a mayor, will benefit from greater powers over skills, transport and housing.
7 Sept 2026 · Economic Growth · Hansard source
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I agree with my hon. Friend that it is simply not acceptable that we live in a country where children are in poverty. The last Government plunged 900,000 children into child poverty. We are proud to be the Labour Government who lifted the two-child limit and lifted 450,000 children out of poverty.
7 Sept 2026 · Economic Growth · Hansard source
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I am glad to know that some of what I say is music to my hon. Friend’s ears. I can reassure her that that will be for mayoral strategic authorities to take forward. She is in a part of the country that has had great success in taking forward devolution and using those powers to drive economic growth. I am sure that her area will thrive under this Government, too.
7 Sept 2026 · Economic Growth · Hansard source
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I can absolutely give my hon. Friend that reassurance. The Government are intent on driving good growth and job creation opportunities across the country—in the north, the south, the midlands and every other part, too.
7 Sept 2026 · Economic Growth · Hansard source
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We are working with the mayor on that issue. Our colleagues will get back to you on that.
7 Sept 2026 · Economic Growth · Hansard source
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We have to get local government reorganisation right, so I make no apology for the Secretary of State coming to the House to update colleagues—for a couple of hours; it was a very long statement. I know that lots of Members from across the House have strong views on the issue, but it is important that the Government get this right.
7 Sept 2026 · Economic Growth · Hansard source
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I share my hon. Friend’s impatience. I want to get things done, and so does the Chancellor. The Attorney General will provide guidance to Ministers, so that we can make quicker decisions. She will advise on where we need consultation and where we do not. My hon. Friend is absolutely right to be impatient for change; I am too.
7 Sept 2026 · Economic Growth · Hansard source
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I can reassure the right hon. Gentleman that when I was Environment Secretary I visited the port of Belfast and saw the kinds of checks that were going on there. The sanitary and phytosanitary agreement that we are negotiating with the EU will help to reduce that friction.
7 Sept 2026 · Economic Growth · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is right to talk about the trade deficit. When I was at the G20 in North Carolina last week, there was a discussion about global trade imbalances, and that is something that we are considering putting on the agenda for our G20 presidency.
7 Sept 2026 · Economic Growth · Hansard source
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Being from Wolverhampton, I agree with my hon. Friend that the midlands is a very important part of the country. He is a really powerful advocate for his area, and he will know that we have put forward a ceramics support package to ensure that his area, and others in the region, thrive.
7 Sept 2026 · Economic Growth · Hansard source
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It is a great pleasure to be opposite the hon. Gentleman again, as we were earlier in this Parliament. I will address his points, but I say kindly to him that I would rather be continuity Labour than continuity Liz Truss. The hon. Gentleman was right to mention Jaguar Land Rover. It is a concerning time for the workforce, and the Business Secretary is working closely with the chief executive and the leader of the trade union Unite, bringing them together tomorrow to discuss the situation. Jaguar Land Rover has made clear that it faces competitive global headwinds, but we have done a lot to support the automotive industry, and Jaguar Land Rover in particular, given the loan guarantee that we provided last year in the wake of its cyber-attack. The Business Secretary and the Government are also providing help to the automotive sector to bear down on the cost of energy. I think the hon. Gentleman said that he agreed with me in some areas, which is always good to hear. We can agree that there is nothing progressive about spending so much money on servicing our debt. As a Government we are committed to fiscal discipline and the fiscal rules because we want to bring down the cost of Government borrowing, but we are not immune to the global instability that means that the cost of borrowing is also increasing for every other G7 country. However, we have the fastest growth in the G7, and we are cutting our deficit faster than any other G7 country; business confidence and investment are up; productivity is up; interest rates have been cut six times since the election; and consumer confidence is up. While the hon. Gentleman talks down our economy, me, the Chancellor and the whole ministerial team will be talking up the British economy. The hon. Gentleman asked a serious question about the northern scale-up fund. The British Business Bank will make those decisions independently of Government, as should always be the case. He is right to ask for reassurance about that, and I have provided it. We are a Government that are serious about devolving power to every part of the country. We will have more to say about that at the Budget and will set out a fiscal devolution road map as well. The hon. Gentleman accused me nicely of talking smartly about the thicket of consultation, saying that I had some common sense, and I thank him for that. He has been in Government too, in the Treasury, and I fondly remember our meetings together back then. It is good that there is agreement across the Chamber that we need to ensure that those sorts of things do not gum up the system, that Ministers are able to take decisions, and that we are able to get infrastructure built in this country. I respectfully disagree with the hon. Gentleman on the Green Book discount rate. We say proudly that we are reducing the discount rate to 3%, because there have been times in the past when the Treasury has stood in the way of good regional infrastructure projects that have a long-term benefit. I am proud that we are ensuring that those projects get a fairer hearing. The hon. Gentleman will know that we have made changes to tax to support unicorns in last year’s Budget, and we are opening up opportunities to public procurement. I think he mentioned pudding at the end—parfait, I think it was—and although I am a big fan of pudding myself, I will not respond to that. On the serious question of the Alan Milburn review, I cannot give the hon. Gentleman a timeline, but I will repeat what I said in my statement: it is our moral duty as a Government to ensure that we have more young people back in the labour market. That is why we have already introduced the youth guarantee, so that young people who have been out of work for longer than 18 months will get a paid placement by the Government, as well as introducing a grant for businesses that take on unemployed young people. It is a very serious issue, and one that we will address.
7 Sept 2026 · Economic Growth · Hansard source
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I thank my hon. Friend for his question and his work on this agenda. I reassure him that, as the Chancellor set out this morning in his growth speech, we will work across Departments to ensure that we open up public procurement to smaller and start-up businesses, so that they stay here, rather than go elsewhere when they scale up?
7 Sept 2026 · Economic Growth · Hansard source
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The Government are on the side of young people—both young graduates and those who pursue technical education. As the Prime Minister set out in his first two weeks in power, we want to ensure parity between technical education and university education, and to drive good growth in every postcode, including in my hon. Friend’s constituency.

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