Louise Haigh MP: speeches

Speeches

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  I will ensure that the hon. Lady’s concerns are heard by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and I can confirm that the Communities Secretary will determine next steps on local government reform by the end of October 2026.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  I am extremely grateful for my hon. Friend’s enthusiasm for that settlement for Lancashire. He is absolutely right that it is the way to deliver power and resources for his community and unlock its potential. I am sure that you agree, Mr Speaker. No. 10 North will be extremely busy, given the number of requests that are pouring in, but I will make sure that my hon. Friend is top of the queue.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  I will take that point away. We have already made significant progress in our review on closing or merging arm’s length bodies, including NHS England and the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments. We know that we need to go further, and we will close or merge those where that is justified as part of our plans to rewire Whitehall. I will write to the right hon. Gentleman on the issue he raises.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  I again send my thoughts and sympathies to those affected by the wildfire in the hon. Lady’s constituency. The Prime Minister set out funding over the summer specifically for farmers in relation to resilience. We have awarded £100 million to the fire service and will co-ordinate a wildfire summit on where we need to go further, more details of which will be announced in the near future.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. The reforms that have been proposed through the devolution blueprint and Cabinet statement are designed to address exactly that issue. For too long, devolution has been two-tier, allowing certain areas of the country to steam ahead while others have not been given the powers and resources that they deserve. Devon and Cornwall will be incentivised with potential powers and resources, including the overnight visitor levy. The hon. Gentleman will have heard the Prime Minister mention his trip to Cornwall and engagement with the authorities there, including Devon. I appreciate that it is a long journey to Manchester—it is quite an irritating trip even from Sheffield, to be honest—but I hope that he will engage with No. 10 North on this important issue so that we can deliver for his constituents.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes an important point. I encourage him to raise it with the Leader of the House so that we have proper time in the Chamber to debate the issue.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend raises an incredibly important point, which goes exactly to the issue that I raised about ensuring that non-elected bodies that are not accountable to politicians are not given free rein to make decisions. I will, of course, take away that issue.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Lady, and I can confirm that my motto of moving fast and fixing things is still firmly in place. She is absolutely right that in order to deliver devolution effectively and deliver the growth and improved public services that we need, resource and revenue are needed. We have committed to allowing strategic authorities to take a share of income tax and business rates, so that they are incentivised to grow their economies, and can take their fair share to reinvest in those economies. On digital sovereignty, my right hon. Friend the Minister for Artificial Intelligence is looking at that, through his taskforce. It is one of the important workstreams that he is considering with colleagues across Government. I am sure that he will update the House in due course. As the hon. Lady says, we will debate the elections Bill this afternoon. She and I absolutely share a commitment to stopping big money, and foreign money in particular, interfering in our politics. I will work with colleagues across Government through the defending democracy taskforce, chaired by my right hon. Friend the Security Minister, to look at what further steps we can take beyond the Bill. Finally, on preparedness, my predecessor announced in July that we will deliver a campaign to raise awareness of the simple steps that households can take to keep themselves safe during everyday emergencies, like extreme weather. We will announce more information and begin that campaign later this year.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  Mr Speaker, I am loving all the common ground that we are finding with Opposition Members today. I completely agree that we need to look at outsourcing across Government. The previous Administration already took significant steps to reduce spend on consultancy and began the work on the largest wave of insourcing in a generation, as promised in our manifesto. I have worked with the hon. Gentleman in the past, and he has witnessed my energy up close. He can be assured of my continued commitment to this agenda.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Gentleman is right that traditionally the model of moving people or roles out of London has meant duplication in the centre. That is exactly what we are attempting to fix. We want new senior roles across the country. I pay tribute to the former Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Richmond and Northallerton (Rishi Sunak), who created the Darlington campus. That campus is a proper model of delivery, with senior policy making and civil servants in Darlington, based around the Treasury there. It has helped to deliver and change decision making, and that is exactly what No. 10 North is attempting to do.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend has put it incredibly poetically—better than I ever could. He is absolutely right that the machinery of government and the culture across Whitehall need to be challenged. The Prime Minister has been clear that this Government will bring about an end to local and regional government coming to Whitehall with a begging bowl. Whitehall and the Government as a whole have been told in no uncertain terms that they will now be required to justify why policies are not devolved, rather than the other way around.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right to champion that important development. I would be delighted to facilitate a meeting for him in No. 10 North.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  The Prime Minister has been clear that we do not want to impose anything centrally on areas that do not want to combine areas. I am sure that we can facilitate a meeting or discussion in No. 10 North to ensure that we get the right authority, powers and resources for the hon. Gentleman’s area.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  It was a great pleasure to visit my hon. Friend and announce our procurement reforms at Griffon Marine in her constituency. The Prime Minister has been repeatedly clear that more public control of our water industry is not just desired but absolutely necessary. The current system, with the poor infrastructure, investment, higher water bills and the kind of sewage, leakage and poor quality that she described, can continue no longer. We will set out our plans for reform shortly.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  It is an excellent question and something that my hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet (Dan Tomlinson), who sits in the Treasury as well as the Cabinet Office, has been working on through No. 10 North. We are planning a brand of civil service reform that will move civil servants from the centre to regional and local government in order to share expertise, and we will provide them with the AI and data expertise that we have at the centre in order to do exactly that.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  The Mayor of London has been involved in continued talks through No. 10 North on the devolution settlement. We will continue to consider what further powers and resources London deserves.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  May I be absolutely clear that the service levels for the civil service pension scheme following the move to Capita have been completely unacceptable? Our immediate priority is to stabilise the service and give current and former civil servants the service they deserve. We are using all our commercial levers, including withholding payments, to hold Capita to account for its failure, and we will continue to do so until service levels are fully restored. The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster Central (Sally Jameson), will shortly update the House on further progress.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  We will reduce the size of the central civil service, shift power and resources out of Whitehall and speed up decision making.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s support for the fire service. The £100 million has already been allocated, so that will have been done under the existing funding formula. Future allocations will be determined at the Budget.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  A significant programme of civil service reform is under way, led by the Cabinet Secretary. That programme has already begun reforming the civil service recruitment system to ensure that it hires and promotes truly brilliant people. It is reviewing the talent strategy to develop and grow talent right across the civil service and the whole UK, and is launching capability reviews to assess departmental delivery. It is identifying areas for improvement and building on the successful transformation already under way through the Places for Growth programme. However, I absolutely agree that we need to go further.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman raises an extremely interesting point, and I appreciate its importance. I will take away the wider point and establish what work needs to be done to ensure that properly dealing with neurodiversity is embedded across the whole of Government.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Gentleman raises a number of really important and interesting issues that will be considered as we look to greater public control of our energy system. Local and community control is central to the Prime Minister’s vision for public control, and that “madness”, as the right hon. Gentleman described it, is something that will drive our energy reforms.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree with the right hon. Gentleman. The Prime Minister has been clear repeatedly that we stand against Scottish independence and against an independence referendum. We will continue to make the case for the Union. That responsibility will be held very highly, importantly and closely by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Intergovernmental Relations and European Relations.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Member. He is right that we have to learn to live with the new normal we have experienced over the summer. Cobra is the right team within the Department to co-ordinate activity across Government. We have worked closely with the Environment Agency, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Met Office and others in response to the extreme heat we have seen and to prepare for future summers.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rewiring the State · Hansard source

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  Health is absolutely part of the devolution agenda. We are already pursuing a number of reforms, including the abolition of NHS England, to ensure that decisions can be made democratically at the centre of Government and then pushed locally, and to ensure that they are resourced where possible. I will take away the hon. Gentleman’s specific issue and raise it with the Health Secretary.