Rachel Taylor MP: speeches

Speeches

• 20 Jan 2025 · Crewe Railway Station · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend often shares that wait at Euston station, waiting for the screen to turn from blue to green when getting on the train to Crewe, which also stops at Atherstone in my constituency. My constituents in North Warwickshire and Bedworth have had to bear the brunt of the works digging the tunnel through from Birmingham to link HS2 to the north. Does he agree that linking the HS2 network all the way to Crewe is essential for opening up economic prosperity to that area? That will make the heartache worth while for my constituents.

• 20 Jan 2025 · Crewe Railway Station · Hansard source

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• 20 Jan 2025 · Crewe Railway Station · Hansard source

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  Does the Minister agree that decisiveness is the key to delivering rail services at a reasonable cost, rather than the continual escalation in cost that was a symptom of HS2 under the previous Government? Does she also agree that in looking at connectivity between London and Manchester and increasing capacity all the way along the west coast main line, the time to act is now, because there simply are not enough trains to carry the passengers who need to travel in those directions?

• 13 Jan 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T8. Under the last Government, my constituents had completely lost faith that foreign national offenders with no right to remain in this country would be swiftly removed. I am glad that, since the last election, our new Labour Government have enforced the return of over 2,500 foreign criminals, including serious and violent offenders—a 23% increase since last year. Can the Minister reassure my constituents that this Government will not be taking their foot off the gas and will continue taking strong action?

• 9 Jan 2025 · Public Transport Accessibility · Hansard source

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  Two of my friends, Ruth and Janet, are wheelchair users—one of them as a result of an accident just outside this place 25 years ago. They cannot travel together on our buses, as there is only ever one wheelchair space. They often book assistance at train stations, only for it not to turn up, leaving them stranded. Their handling on planes has led to not only bruising and pain, but loss of dignity and sometimes missed flights when assistance does not come in time. They are now reluctant to go on holiday if it means flying. Will the Secretary of State meet them and set up consultations with disabled passengers up and down the country, so that our public transport can meet their needs in every region? Will she require local authorities taking over bus services to consult disabled passengers and set minimum standards for delivery?

• 9 Jan 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  I want to thank all my colleagues for their valuable and powerful accounts, in particular my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington), who has worked so hard on this issue, and my hon. Friend the Member for Rochdale (Paul Waugh), who has done a great deal to assist in community cohesion. Violence against women and girls is undeniably difficult to speak about, especially as so many of us have suffered and will know friends and family who have been affected. Before I begin, I would like to express my solidarity with the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips), who has received further vile and misogynistic attacks this week. I hope members of the official Opposition are brave enough to do the same and call out these vitriolic attacks for what they are. My hon. Friend has always shone brightly as a beacon for all victims of violent and sexual abuse. As my hon. Friend the Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen) said, it feels like nothing has changed since the 1980s, when I went to university in Leeds in the wake of the Yorkshire ripper. Women’s behaviour is still dictated by fear of rape and violent attack. Violence against women and girls is a national emergency, not the inevitability that previous Governments have treated it as. We are sick and tired of seeing women and girls facing the same threats of violence and abuse, generation after generation. Recent generations have faced the new threat of image-based abuse. My colleagues and I on the Women and Equalities Committee investigated image-based abuse and produced a report, which recommended that the Government take action to protect victims. I am pleased that the Government will introduce three new offences to combat image-based abuse. These are steps in the right direction—steps that will protect more women from revenge porn and will hopefully lead more victims to feel confident in reporting perpetrators. We can go through statistic after statistic, but I want to speak about the experience of one of my constituents, who was brave enough to share her story with me and asked me to share it with the House. Olivia, in her words, was love-bombed before her abuse started. Her abuser emotionally manipulated her and then strangled her and left acid in her car. She did everything that we ask of victims. She called the police. She reported everything at the time and had witnesses who spoke to the police, but she was too scared to tell them about all the abuse that was happening. Then her perpetrator made her believe that he was the victim and convinced her to drop the charges and continue their relationship. They went away on holiday. There, the abuse continued, and she had to get the police involved abroad. She decided to end the relationship shortly after, but it did not end there. Her abuser harassed, stalked and threatened her at her own home and in public. Again, she did everything right. She called the police on every occasion to report it. When he was finally arrested, no further action was taken because there was not enough evidence to convict him. When she first reported him, she was told that he would be convicted and charged for non-fatal strangulation, but he still walks the streets, and it is her who must live in fear of what could happen next. We must confront the uncomfortable reality that even when victims of violence report domestic abuse to the police, they do not get the help they need. I asked Olivia whether there was anything she would like me to share, and she asked me to tell the House that “when a girl or woman approaches the police, faster action needs to be taken as the perpetrators can very quickly get back into our heads and feel that we are the problem and women are more likely to drop the case, there should be more support from the police when victims ask for cases to be dropped”. We know that domestic abuse is much more than physical abuse. Coercive control leaves victims helpless and unable to escape their abusers, like Olivia says. It is time we made sure that our first responders, police and ambulance crews know what coercive control looks like. We must make sure that teachers teach their students about coercive control, and that cases of coercive control are spotted and taken seriously by the police before it is too late, as was the case with another of my constituents, who sadly lost her daughter. The Government’s new ministerial board on tackling violence against women and girls will bring together Ministers from the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Education, the Department for Transport, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and many more Departments, to ensure that for the first time we have a truly cross-Government approach to violence against women and girls. I urge them to ensure that tackling coercive control is at the centre of that approach. This cross-Government approach and the introduction of domestic abuse specialists into 999 control rooms as part of Raneem’s law give me hope in the fight against gendered violence. We have a long way to go, but I am proud to be part of a Government who are committed to tackling misogyny, halving violence against women and girls and taking action now to make that a reality in every corner of our society.

• 9 Jan 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend, who is my colleague on the Women and Equalities Committee, for everything he does to set an example to young men. Does he agree that we should call upon all our male colleagues to do the same in their constituencies?

• 7 Jan 2025 · Road Safety · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for bringing forward this debate, which is hugely important. I am pleased to see my hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Jodie Gosling) here, as we share on the edge of our constituencies one of the most dangerous road junctions in the country, between the end of Woodford Lane and the A5 in Mancetter. Our communities know that dangerous accidents happen there on a far too regular basis, with fatalities and serious injuries requiring attendance from air ambulances as well as other crews. Does my hon. Friend agree that our communities know best about needing to implement preventive strategies for road safety rather than waiting for yet more lives to be lost before we actually do something about it?

• 19 Dec 2024 · Freight Crime · Hansard source

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  Mr Speaker, I wish you and your team a very merry Christmas, and I thank you in particular for all your support over the last six months. I very much welcome my hon. Friend the Solicitor General to her position, and I know she will be a powerful voice for justice in the Government. As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on freight and logistics, I have been listening to businesses across the country, including many in my North Warwickshire and Bedworth constituency. They have told me that freight crime has reached unacceptable levels and is damaging their businesses and their drivers’ welfare, yet organised gangs stealing goods from freight vehicles is classed as the same as someone breaking into a car and stealing a phone from the passenger seat. What does the Solicitor General plan to do to ensure that freight theft is prosecuted as the serious crime it is?

• 19 Dec 2024 · Freight Crime · Hansard source

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  8. What steps she is taking to increase prosecution rates of freight crime.

• 16 Dec 2024 · Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  Does the right hon. Member think it is acceptable that 90-year-old residents in Fillongley in my constituency go out in their wellington boots at night to deal with flooding in their village because her Government did not invest in local solutions for the last 14 years?

• 12 Dec 2024 · LGBT Veterans: Etherton Review · Hansard source

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  I draw the House’s attention to my declaration in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I am humbled by the testimonies that have been shared by my friends on both sides of the Chamber, but I was particularly moved by my hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury (Julia Buckley). The testimonies that have been shared show us how ashamed we should be that our country treated so many people so badly for so long. Make no mistake: we have had LGBT people in our armed services for as long as we have had armed services, and I am proud to call many of them my close friends. They have shared their harrowing stories with me, but what always shines through is their loyalty to their service and their country. Today’s debate makes me proud to be a Labour MP. I remember the Labour Government lifting the ban on LGBT soldiers in 2000. I celebrated that with my friends. Labour argued for the Etherton review, and I thank Lord Etherton for his work. Now, as a Labour MP, I welcome the recommendations. I will fight for every LGBT veteran to get the compensation that they deserve. The historical treatment of our veterans was a moral stain on our nation. It was wrong on every single level. We will never know how many good men and women were too afraid ever to apply to serve their country, or too afraid ever to come out to this day. So many LGBT soldiers had their hopes and aspirations cut short despite their commitment to serve our country. They were left feeling ashamed, demoralised and humiliated when they should have been proud, like I am, to be a member of the LGBT community. We cannot undo the damage of the past, but we can ensure that those who were affected receive what they are owed. I pay tribute to all the veterans with us today, and to Fighting With Pride, which has supported LGBT veterans for years and pushed Governments to do better. I also pay tribute to Kelly Holmes, whose recent personal account was difficult to hear but typical of so many women I have spoken to. I encourage every LGBT veteran to apply to have their rank restored so that they can feel pride again in the service they gave to our country. It is time to renew the nation’s contract with all those who have served, and delivering Lord Etherton’s recommendations is just a small part of that. I hope that today is another historic landmark in the fight for equality for LGBT people in this country. I will support any veterans to get the compensation they deserve to restore their dignity and pride for their service for our country.

• 11 Dec 2024 · Finance Bill · Hansard source

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  I am slightly perplexed as to why the Opposition continue to disagree with this policy, which is almost a replica of one they introduced a few years ago, for exactly the same reason. Why do they continue to oppose it? They fail to understand that landlords did not stop buying properties to rent out and rich people did not stop buying holiday homes just because they had to pay a little more in a one-off tax.

• 11 Dec 2024 · Finance Bill · Hansard source

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  Increasing rates of stamp duty land tax for second properties to 5% more than those buying their home will free up housing stock for first-time buyers, and hopefully stop prices continuing to skyrocket. Before I came to this place, I was a property solicitor in a high street firm in my constituency. Part of the reason I loved that job was that I got to be part of so many brilliant projects that transformed communities, but I was always so happy when I helped first-time buyers who would come through my door, proud that they had saved up and were able to buy their first home. They would tell me their plans for the future. We would overcome mountains of paperwork. I love being part of the moment when they got the keys to their first home, and they were finally homeowners. I got to know my clients well. Each new homeowner would talk to me about how they would become part of their local community—supporting the local football club, or working at local businesses, hospitals and schools. They were planning to have kids who would go to local schools and shops in the town centre. But the longer I worked in that role, the fewer first-time buyers came into my office. Becoming a homeowner became out of reach for most young people. There are already half a million fewer young homeowners than in 2010. Millions are stuck in expensive, poor quality and insecure rented housing. The average cost of a home is over 10 times the average income of my constituents. The Conservative party left a legacy of the most acute housing emergency in living memory. This Government could have ignored it and let more people miss out on becoming homeowners, but they decided to act and boost the supply of affordable homes. In addition, this policy will free up more housing stock for first-time buyers. For those who can afford the luxury of a second home, it will bring much-needed income into the Treasury in the form of an increased one-off tax—stamp duty land tax—that will help to pay for the much-needed improvements in health and education that this Government promised to deliver. The status quo is unacceptable. Our housing market is not a fair market, and I am glad that this policy will help to remedy that. It will ensure that those buying properties as investments pay a fair level of tax at the start, so I urge all Members to vote for this important change.

• 11 Dec 2024 · Finance Bill · Hansard source

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  I declare that I am a landlord, and I happily paid the 3% stamp duty that I was required to pay, introduced by the Conservatives when they were in government. For too long the dream of homeownership has been unachievable for young people in my constituency. Properties are snapped up by landlords, and that is even more acutely felt in our coastal towns, where so many properties are locked up for large parts of the year and used as holiday homes, sometimes for only a few weeks.

• 11 Dec 2024 · Puberty-suppressing Hormones · Hansard source

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  Today will be a difficult day for trans young people, not because of the Secretary of State’s statement, but because of how our media might choose to portray what has been announced in the House. I welcome the remarks of the shadow Secretary of State, and I hope that we can take things forward together. I know that one of my constituents will be upset, but will reflect on this with his mum, who has been supporting him. He was referred by his GP for gender dysphoria when he was in year 8. He has still not been seen by a specialist, and he is now in his first year doing his A-levels. He has had to endure going through periods, and suffering at school with the embarrassment of that. He decided to stop eating and was diagnosed with anorexia because that was the only way that he felt he could stop his periods and stop his breasts growing. Those are the kinds of things that trans young people go through day in, day out. Three and a half years later, it is not good enough that he has still not been seen by a medical professional. He is in the west midlands, which is one of the areas where we are not yet announcing that specialist services will be extended. I welcome the gravity with which the Secretary of State has dealt with this matter. In particular, he responded to me when I asked him to meet trans young people, which he has done. I hope that we can move forward together and improve the mental health of all our young people. We must take this issue seriously and work together, rather than make this into a culture war.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Freight Crime · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. That is why I would like to reiterate my invitation to the Minister to visit Corley services in my constituency, so that he can hear at first hand about how freight drivers feel and the security issues that they are facing. Freight crime often involves criminals slashing a lorry’s curtains to gain access to its goods or siphoning fuel from tanks while drivers are parked to commit fuel theft. Cyber criminals are now cloning the websites of legitimate hauliers and tricking sellers into letting them drive away with valuables. Yet, in law, freight thefts are treated with the same seriousness as someone smashing a car window and stealing a phone from the passenger seat. That must change; we need a co-ordinated policing and enforcement strategy. I have highlighted the impact of freight crime on the economy, but it is crucial that we understand what freight crime does to an industry that is made up mainly of SMEs. To understand that impact, it is crucial to hear from representatives of the industry, as I have. Dave Hands is the managing director of LTS Global Solutions, and he introduced me to this industry when I was standing for election. Since March, his company alone has experienced six fuel theft incidents. Each theft has a significant impact on his operation and customers. LTS loses a day of deliveries, and then must replace the stolen fuel, pay a call-out fee to repair the vehicle, and supply fuel to get the vehicle to the nearest garage. Dave says that in a sector that operates on a 2% to 4% net profit margin, such incidents not only cause LTS to lose money but put their customer relations at risk. Rhys Hackling is the managing director of Direct Connect Logistics. In January 2022, he had a truck attacked by thieves who stole pallets of batteries. The company lost all the revenue from the truck for three days while the inquiry went on and the truck was repaired. Even worse, Rhys says that Direct Connect Logistics has lost drivers due to the damage to their mental wellbeing, as the cutting of the lorry curtain is a direct attack on them. The RHA detailed to me how curtain slashing can take place even when a vehicle is in transit. Freight criminals will pull up behind or to the side of the cab, slash the curtains, steal goods and put other drivers on the road in danger. Rhys says that many of his drivers remain committed but they do not sleep properly at night due to the threat of being targeted. Hollie Middleton is a transport manager from WOW Logistics and Warehousing—one of the country’s handful of female-run logistics companies.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Freight Crime · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for raising that important point, which I will come to later. Hollie, who I was talking about, echoes Rhys’s sentiments and says that she feels disheartened when she works hard but cannot sleep in case something happens. In one particularly shocking incident, two men scouted Hollie’s building and then attempted to steal some boxes. When she told them to get off the estate, they threatened her and told her they would beat her up. The industry struggles with encouraging women to become drivers, and I am sure the Minister will agree that freight crime poses a particular issue to female-led businesses such as WOW. Does he recognise that the sector is struggling with retention because of freight crime, which prevents economic growth? I will highlight two points in the report that the House deserves a response to. The first is that we must increase support and resources for law enforcement, and the second is that we must launch a national freight crime awareness campaign, especially as freight crime is about to hit its busiest season. The report has made it clear that police do not have the resources to properly tackle freight crime. Police services, drivers, the RHA and the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service all recognise that there is not currently a national strategy to deal with freight crime, nor the resources and training for police to tackle the crime properly. Police officers have made it clear that they would like to invest in stopping crime and catching criminals, and I know that one of the Government’s five missions is to take back our streets. Sadly, the freight workers I have spoken to say that it feels futile to report incidents because they know that there is not much that the police can do. If this Government are to take back our streets, they must ensure that crimes committed on our roads, in lay-bys and at service stations are prosecuted. Does the Minister agree that preventive infrastructural measures are a key element in reducing freight crime? A national shortage of safe lorry parking forces many drivers to park overnight at unlit, unpopulated and vulnerable roadside lay-bys. Will he commit to rectifying that by reforming the national planning policy framework to consider the needs of hauliers? Will he recognise that there must be a deterrent to prevent criminals from engaging in freight crime, and provision to reassure disheartened freight workers that they should report freight crimes? Freight crime cannot be reduced without improvement in enforcement, but crucially, the police lack a national strategy to deal with the issue. We are talking about organised criminal gangs operating out of West Yorkshire and Coventry, whose operation spans several counties, yet the police lack a strategy to combat the crime. Furthermore, NaVCIS is under-supported and underfunded. It has a clear mission to bring industry and policing together to disrupt criminals and reduce crime, but it does not receive any funds from central Government or the police service for any of its areas of business. Instead, the national freight crime desk is supported by four sponsors from the freight industry and 62 members, who pay an annual subscription for freight crime data. NaVCIS currently has one full-time service police officer on secondment, a part-time analyst and a part-time data inputter. That places it in a financially precarious position and does not facilitate co-operation between NaVCIS and UK policing. It is clearly not enough to tackle organised crime on a national scale. Developing a cross-county and national strategy is vital. There must be greater sharing of information between NaVCIS, businesses and police forces. NaVCIS has identified that 38 criminal hotspots, and the main arterial roads close to the biggest ports, see the vast majority of freight crime. A well-executed, targeted approach in those locations could result in a massive reduction in crime for relatively little police resource. Can the Minister commit to providing more resources to tackle crime in those hotspots? Hollie told me that this is the worst time of year, because Christmas deliveries are at an all-time high. It is outrageous that the drivers who deliver Christmas to families across the UK cannot do so without feeling physically at risk. The thousands of instances of freight crime each year endanger the mental health of the road freight industry workforce, but the freight crime epidemic is not known about in the public consciousness. We need greater public awareness, especially to ward people off buying stolen goods through social media pages and websites around Christmas. It is crucial to create a hostile environment for criminals to keep our drivers safe. It is timely to have this debate on 3 December, as many drivers are getting ready for the Christmas period, and this House should be under no illusion that it is lorry drivers—not Father Christmas—who will be delivering Christmas this year. I end by reiterating that freight crime is serious and organised. It is threatening our drivers’ wellbeing and putting hard-working businesses at risk of closure. We must have a serious response from the Government.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Freight Crime · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered the matter of freight crime. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. As the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for road freight and logistics I had heard the concerns of haulage companies in the run up to the Budget. I was delighted to hear that the Government were also listening to the freight and logistics sector and decided not to raise fuel duty for another year. That was a necessary recognition of the importance of the freight industry to our economy, and I thank the Government for building the foundations of a good relationship with the freight and logistics sector, which I hope will continue over this Parliament. When speaking to the Road Haulage Association, their members and other logistics workers, they were primarily concerned about fuel duty and freight crime. Now that we have encouraged growth through the freeze on fuel duty, it is time to take freight crime seriously. For too long, freight crime has been seen as an opportunistic crime, carried out by individuals who fancy their luck stealing some stuff from the back of a lorry. That could not be further from the truth. The Home Office must understand that freight crime has become a serious and organised crime, often involving violence and threats. Tackling freight crime is essential to achieving the Government’s five missions. Road freight moves 89% of all goods, and 98% of all agricultural and food products. In total, the road haulage industry contributes £13.5 billion to the economy, which is 5.6% of the UK’s total GDP. Crucially, freight is an economic multiplier. Every £1 generated by the logistics industry generates £3 elsewhere in the economy.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Freight Crime · Hansard source

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  I agree with the hon. Gentleman that regionally and nationally we need more emphasis on this crime. If the Government are to achieve their mission to kickstart economic growth and take back our streets, they must treat freight crime with the seriousness that it deserves.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Freight Crime · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for his useful intervention, which I agree with. I was proud recently to launch the “Securing Our Supply Chains” report with the APPG and the Road Haulage Association, and I would like to raise its recommendations. The report highlights the clear damage that freight crime is doing to the UK economy. In 2023, there were 5,370 reports of heavy goods vehicle and cargo crime in the UK, and £68.3 million-worth of goods was stolen in freight crime. It is likely that £1 billion has been lost since 2020 due to this serious crime. The report lays bare the stark issues affecting one of Britain’s most vital industries, in which 90% of businesses are small or medium-sized enterprises. It also makes it clear that the police do not feel adequately equipped to tackle freight crime. Such crime is not opportunistic; it is serious organised crime and that is why freight criminals target service stations, which have become freight crime hotspots. The National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service has identified several service stations that are repeatedly targeted by freight criminals, including Corley services on the M6 in my constituency. In 2023 alone, Corley services experienced 76 offences of freight crime. Other crime hotspots include Stafford, which had 138 offences; Thurrock, which had 103 offences; and Warwick services, which experienced 87 offences. It is clear to me, as it should be to all Members present, that that means criminals have organised effectively to target certain service stations repeatedly. Will the Minister commit to working with the Department for Transport to improve service station security for freight drivers?

• 3 Dec 2024 · Home-to-School Transport: Children with SEND · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to continue to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for securing this important debate. We must consider the reliability of transport for SEND pupils. I had casework at the beginning of term involving parents waiting for transport to turn up that never came. Teachers did not know what was happening, and the parents could not get hold of the helpline because it was closed. During those first few days, it is crucial for students to feel settled in. It is great to see other colleagues from my county of Warwickshire here; I am sure that they also experienced those problems in September. My constituency is semi-rural. It is made up of towns and villages, and it can take an hour to drive across it. It is difficult for county councils in constituencies such as mine, where pupils are often closer to schools outside the county. Different parts of my constituency border Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Birmingham, Coventry and Solihull. The problem is that the county council may allocate not the school that is nearest to pupils in terms of travel time, but the school that is nearest in Warwickshire. That means that parents have to argue with and challenge the council if they want their children to go to a school that is suitable for their needs and nearer to travel to. Furthermore, the student must be in school year 11 or below, plunging many teenagers and their families into uncertainty. I commend my hon. Friend for raising this important issue. I remain committed to making sure that pupils in my North Warwickshire and Bedworth constituency have the travel they need to get to the school that they want to go to.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for her statement, which will be welcome news to any victim of stalking. I thank her for her relentless work on the issue, which I know has personally affected her. I also thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry) for all her work on the matter. My local police force will welcome the news in the statement. I will be out with my local police on Monday evening, on a walk with women and girls, with the aim of reducing violence and enabling women to talk about their experiences of violence and stalking. The measures set out by the Minister will be welcome news to everybody in my constituency of North Warwickshire and Bedworth.

• 2 Dec 2024 · Local Growth Funding Allocation · Hansard source

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  17. What steps her Department is taking to allocate local growth funding according to need.

• 2 Dec 2024 · Local Growth Funding Allocation · Hansard source

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  I am very pleased to hear the Minister’s reply. The last Government wasted local authorities’ time and money by making them bid for handouts from central Government. In North Warwickshire, so much time was spent preparing numerous bids for the new swimming pool and leisure centre that our community desperately needed, only for vital funds to go to places without such high levels of need. Under this Labour Government, will the Minister ensure that local authorities receive the fair funding they require to deliver the local services they know their communities need?