Jo Stevens MP: speeches

Speeches

• 21 Jan 2026 · Cost of Living: Wales · Hansard source

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  Energy bills are a significant issue for people across the country. That is why, thanks to this Labour Government, from April this year all households will see an average £150 reduction in costs on their energy bills. Energy suppliers will pass on the savings automatically to households. My hon. Friend will have seen today the launch of our warm homes plan, which is a £15 billion fund. In Wales, it will make grants available for households to replace gas boilers with heat pumps, and it will mean stronger standards for landlords who privately rent homes, so that they are safer, warmer and more affordable to run.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Cost of Living: Wales · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right; this Government are supporting people across Wales and the UK with the cost of living. In comparison with when we came into government, households that take out a new mortgage are saving around £1,400 a year on their mortgage repayments. We have also increased the state pension by 4.8%, which will take effect in April, benefiting 700,000 pensioners across Wales. We have also uprated the universal credit standard allowance by over 6%—the first ever permanent real-terms increase—benefiting 320,000 households in Wales.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Cost of Living: Wales · Hansard source

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  Wages are up, and inward investment is up. Inactivity is down on the year, and unemployment is down on the year. We have also had six cuts in interest rates, meaning that families taking out a new mortgage are £1,400 a year better off than they were under the Tories.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Railways: Funding · Hansard source

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  Heavy rail projects in both countries are classified as England and Wales whether the track is in Wales, England or both. They do not attract Barnett consequentials because heavy rail is reserved. Examples of such projects include Padeswood in north Wales and the regeneration of Cardiff Central station. Surely the hon. Lady knows that the economic corridor between north Wales and the north-west is vital for regional integration and the economic growth of north Wales. The scheme paves the way for more services, more regular services and faster services across north Wales and the north-west.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Railways: Funding · Hansard source

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  The introduction of the £1 bus fare cap for young people, and now a £2 cap on all fares from the Welsh Labour Government, has been great news; it will help everyone with the cost of living. The 100 new bus routes right across Wales, which will be introduced if Welsh Labour are re-elected in May, will further help people take advantage of the new opportunities and jobs that we are creating across Wales. All this has been made possible because there are two Labour Governments working together for Wales. Our record-breaking Budget settlement for the Welsh Government has delivered nearly £6 billion more in spending power, enabling them to invest more in transport and other public services.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Railways: Funding · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member will know very well from my reply to her letter that her assertion is fundamentally wrong, because she is using a combination of operations, maintenance, renewals and enhancement funding to reach the total figure provided under Conservative Governments. The Labour Government have announced nearly £500 million of investment in Welsh rail, specifically and solely in enhancement funding. That money is being front-loaded in this spending review period to deliver new stations and more and faster trains as soon as possible. She should carry on trying desperately to defend her party’s appalling record in government, because all she is doing is reminding everybody about it.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Railways: Funding · Hansard source

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  I hold a range of discussions with Ministers in the Welsh Government, including about our crucial investment in the Welsh rail network. We are investing at least £445 million in Welsh rail to right years of underfunding by previous Tory Governments. That will mean new stations, and more and faster trains on the key lines in north and south Wales and into England to improve cross-border connectivity, create jobs and boost economic growth.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Clean Energy Projects · Hansard source

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  I entirely agree with my hon. Friend that investment in our offshore wind sector is integral to realising our potential as a clean energy superpower, and to creating thousands of high-skilled jobs in Wales and among our Celtic cousins in Cornwall. That is why last week’s auction round was such an historic moment, and why this Labour Government have announced a landmark £1 billion clean energy supply chain fund to deliver offshore wind, with £300 million from Great British Energy, £400 million from the Crown Estate and £300 million from the offshore wind industry.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Clean Energy Projects · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Lady for raising the matter, and I really do feel for people who have found themselves in this situation, including her constituents, through absolutely no fault of their own. She will know that we inherited this scheme from the Conservative Government, and both ECO and the Great British insulation schemes had well-documented problems, which is why we took decisive action to end them. We are urgently working with scheme providers to ensure that customers of Consumer Energy Solutions are supported, and we will provide further updates as soon as possible.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Clean Energy Projects · Hansard source

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  Wales is leading the UK’s clean energy mission and secured two major projects in the UK Government’s contracts for difference scheme last week: Erebus, which is Wales’s first floating offshore wind project in the Celtic sea, and Awel y Môr offshore wind farm, off the coast of north Wales. It is the most successful auction round in European history, and a huge vote of confidence in Wales’s clean energy sector, which will deliver thousands of good jobs.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Clean Energy Projects · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right. This was the most successful auction round in European history, as I have mentioned. Awel y Môr is the first offshore wind project in Wales to win a contract in over a decade, and Erebus will be Wales’s first floating offshore wind farm. These projects will power almost 1 million homes and bring £2.6 billion of investment to Welsh coastal and industrial communities, but as he says, and most importantly, they will create thousands of jobs and bring down bills as we produce more, cheaper clean energy and gain our energy independence.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Clean Energy Projects · Hansard source

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  I would be very happy to have a conversation with the hon. Gentleman about that. We are investing in our green industries because that is how we will bring down bills for everybody, secure our energy supplies for everybody, and create jobs and improve living standards for everybody.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Clean Energy Projects · Hansard source

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  I simply say what I have already said to the right hon. Lady, which is that we inherited these schemes; they had well-documented problems, and that is why we have taken decisive action to end them. She will have seen our announcement today on the warm homes plan and the £15 billion fund to help people across the country.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Clean Energy Projects · Hansard source

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  The Celtic sea is at the frontier of our green energy revolution. The capacity for offshore wind will support over 5,000 new jobs and bring billions of pounds of investment. Erebus is a test and demonstration project and will kick-start the early development of FLOW in Wales, ahead of larger projects being advanced through the Crown Estate’s three FLOW sites in the Celtic sea that have been leased to Equinor, Gwynt Glas and Ocean Winds. I cannot stress enough that this is a once-in-a-century opportunity for Wales, as it is for the south-west. That is why this Labour Government are doing whatever it takes to realise that potential.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Clean Energy Projects · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member obviously does not want energy bills to come down, does not want jobs in mid-Wales and does not want the investment to happen. Labour is the only party committed to our renewable energy revolution. Plaid, the Greens and the Lib Dems all try to block renewable infrastructure, while the SNP rejects the jobs, as we have just heard; and now the Tories and Reform do not want this revolution, but want to scrap net zero altogether.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Clean Energy Projects · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising this issue, particularly as it is Nuclear Week this week. We have announced the new fleet of small modular reactors at Wylfa, which are expected to support 3,000 jobs at peak construction and to power up to 3 million homes, with the capacity for further fleets in the future. I am not sure why the Scottish Government refuse investment in nuclear. Not only do they waste money, but they refuse investment and jobs in their own country.

• 21 Jan 2026 · Clean Energy Projects · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for his question, but can I suggest that he raises that with Defence Ministers? If he would like to contact me afterwards, I am happy to raise that with the Secretary of State for Defence.

• 3 Dec 2025 · Job Creation: Wales · Hansard source

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  I absolutely do not understand why the SNP Government are not willing to see the creation of jobs and opportunities for people in Scotland because of their ideology around new nuclear.

• 3 Dec 2025 · Job Creation: Wales · Hansard source

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  I have been in discussions with Aston Martin, as have Cabinet colleagues. We are doing everything we can to protect the car industry in this country. One of the biggest problems in the car industry arises from the Conservatives’ botched Brexit deal, for which the hon. Lady and her Government were responsible.

• 3 Dec 2025 · Job Creation: Wales · Hansard source

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  I am very pleased to hear about the new jobs created at Buttington Cross, and I should be delighted to join my hon. Friend for a milkshake—strawberry, please. Our landmark May deal with the European Union included a commitment to a comprehensive sanitary and phytosanitary agreement, which we are now actively negotiating, and which will reduce paperwork, delay and costs for Welsh farmers exporting their animals and produce to the EU. This Government are backing our farmers and food manufacturers.

• 3 Dec 2025 · Job Creation: Wales · Hansard source

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  Announcements made over the past month demonstrate that our industrial strategy is working. In November alone, the Government announced investments to create more than 11,000 jobs in Wales, and just this week, the Wales investment summit showcased investments totalling £16 billion, which are expected to bring tens of thousands of jobs to Wales.

• 3 Dec 2025 · Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  From April, a full-time worker on the national living wage will see their annual pay rise by £900, on top of the £1,400 increase that we announced in the previous Budget, and 18 to 20-year-olds working full time on the national minimum wage will get an annual increase of £1,500, which, when added to last year’s increase of £2,500, means £4,000 extra a year. This Labour Government are supporting the lowest-paid workers across the country, with 2.7 million workers in Stoke-on-Trent Central, Cardiff East and every other constituency directly benefiting.

• 3 Dec 2025 · Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  The introduction of the Pride in Place programme has meant good news for Rochdale, as well as for Wales. A total of 14 communities across Wales are each benefiting from £20 million of long-term investment to enable the changes that they want to see in their neighbourhoods. This hyper-local programme will benefit areas that are doubly disadvantaged, having both the highest deprivation levels and the weakest social infrastructure. It is about investing for the long term, and creating safer, stronger and more resilient communities with the facilities and infrastructure that they need to thrive.

• 3 Dec 2025 · Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise the ideology of the nationalists. Nationalists in Scotland turn their back on nuclear jobs for Scots, while nationalists in Wales are desperately trying to hide the cavernous split in their party on whether they support new nuclear. This Labour Government are absolutely clear that we want economic opportunities for all parts of the UK, and we want jobs and skills opportunities—including nuclear skills—for people across the UK. Those parties that are hellbent on breaking our country apart are simply exposing the fact that they are willing to put their ideology before jobs, opportunities and economic benefits for the people and communities of these isles.

• 3 Dec 2025 · Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  Britain outperformed growth forecasts this year. Growth was upgraded from 1% to 1.5%, and we are on course to achieve the second-fastest growth rate among G7 countries. The Bank of England has cut interest rates five times since the election. The positive impact that our UK and Welsh Labour Governments are having is clear from how the Welsh economy is changing. In the last year in Wales, wages have increased faster than inflation, employment has risen, inactivity is down and inward investment is up.