Has the Government delivered for The Northern Echo a year on?

A year today (July 4) Labour swept to victory in the General Election winning all but one seat in the region.

Ahead of polling day we called on the now-PM Sir Keir Starmer to back our manifesto, to step up and tackle some of the most pressing issues in our region.

They were: To save Hitachi, Tackle knife crime, Reduce child poverty, Launch a public enquiry into the Tees, Esk and Wear Valley Mental Health Trust, Solve the crisis in dental services, Support pupils impacted by the RAAC crisis.

The Prime Minister said he would “deliver for the Echo on day one” as he posed with our manifesto front page. 

Rachel Reeves added: “I hope the next Labour Government can make you proud.”

A year on we look back at whether those demands have been answered.

A Government spokesperson said: “We have provided security and stability for hundreds of jobs at Hitachi’s Newton Aycliffe site and are determined to tackle knife crime and youth violence which has left too many families in the Northeast grieving.

“At the last election a year ago, we promised two million extra appointments in the NHS in the first year of this government and now have delivered four million extra appointments. That’s a promise made and a promise delivered.

“We know it won’t happen overnight, but through our Plan for Change, will deliver security and change for the Northern Echo’s readers”.

Step in and secure the future of Hitachi

The rail manufacturer first raised concerns about its looming “production gap” in March 2024 that if not filled, could threaten its future.

Senior politicians including Sir Keir backed our Keep Hitachi on Track campaign, which also formed one of our manifesto demands.

The PM announced a landmark deal worth £500m in December to help secure the factory’s future.

The Northern Echo’s Keep Hitachi On Track campaign (Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

In April of 2025, a £300m contract to build dozens of “cutting-edge” battery hybrid train cars for Grand Central in 2028 was also secured.

Hitachi’s future appears more certain but Conservative MP for Stockton West, Matt Vickers, warned other manufacturing jobs across the region remain under threat.

He said: “Starmer vowed to implement The Northern Echo’s manifesto from day one, yet here we are: jobs across the region remain under threat — from industrial giants like Sabic and Ensus to growing uncertainty across our manufacturing base”.

Take fast action on knife crime

Connor Brown, Jack Woodley, Gordon Gault, Tomasz Oleszak and Holly Newton – just some of the young people who have fallen victim to knife crime in our region in recent years.

The Northern Echo’s Knife Crime Taskforce has been lobbying the Government to make knife crime education a part of the national curriculum and reduce the accessibility of knives. Our taskforce demands also formed part of our manifesto.

(Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

Tanya Brown, whose son Connor was stabbed to death in 2019, was initially full of praise for the Prime Minister, but has since said she feels “let down” by him.

She told the Echo: “I felt like he was going to be committed after meeting him and I really felt that he understood it from our perspective and he promised he would do everything he could to tackle knife crime.

“I understand he has a lot of other things to do as well and it’s not an easy job, but he made that promise to tackle knife crime. He made it a priority, but it does not feel like a priority anymore. I don’t feel like knife crime is being taken as seriously as it should be”.

Tanya Brown was critical of Sir Keir Starmer, saying she feels tackling knife crime does not feel like a priority anymore (Image: SARAH CALEDCOTT) She added: “We need actions not words. I understand things take time and don’t happen overnight, but it feels like nothing has actually been done”.

Reduce child poverty

Three-in-ten children, 170,000, across the North East were living in poverty last year, according to the most recent report from Household Below Average Income.

The North East Child Poverty Commission has said the Government has made a “really important and welcome commitment” to publish a national child poverty strategy, but stressed “nobody gets a second chance at childhood” and urged the Government to scrap the two-child limit in Universal Credit.

Beth Farhat, Chair of the commission, said: “We’ve already had some significant downpayments on that plan – with the planned expansion of free school meals to all families receiving Universal Credit, the early rollout of breakfast clubs in some schools, and longer-term funding for locally-delivered crisis support for families in immediate hardship.

“The national strategy has to be genuinely bold and ambitious, and must recognise that the single most transformative lever for reducing and preventing child poverty, both now and longer-term, is investment in our social security safety net.

“That includes scrapping the two-child limit in Universal Credit, without which there is no prospect of the Government making a dent in our unacceptably high child poverty figures – both nationally and here in the North East”.

Mary Kelly Foy, Labour MP for the City of Durham, admitted there is work to be done on reducing child poverty, but said: “We are expecting the Child Poverty Taskforce announce the national strategy very soon”.

End dental deserts and tackle lengthy waiting lists

The state of dentistry was previously described as “hanging by a thread” and a “dental desert” with a lack of available appointments.

(Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the Government had “prioritised” dentistry as an industry to focus on, and deliver 700,000 more urgent dentistry appointments.

“We also need to reform the NHS dentistry contract,” he said. “Everyone understands that it is going to take time to rebuild NHS dentistry.”

But the British Dental Association (BDA) stressed urgency is required.

BDA Chair Eddie Crouch said: “We can’t make this service fit for the future while a failed contract remains in place. Ministers have made the right diagnosis here, but we can’t wait a decade for them to write the prescription”.

Launch a public inquiry into the Tees, Esk and Wear Valley Mental Health Trust

In May 2024, we asked the previous Government to step in and look into the Tees, Esk and Wear Valley Mental Health trust – which in recent years has been hit with scandal and scrutiny.

Families of patients who lost their lives while under the care of the trust, after a “catalogue of failures”, wrote an open letter to then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a desperate plea to hold a public inquiry.

Over a year later, despite meeting families campaigning for a public inquiry, the current Government is yet to launch one. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said earlier this year he would make a decision by the end of March, but families are still waiting for an answer. The Echo understands it is still under consideration.

The City of Durham MP said: “I am still pressing the Government on the need to finally commit to a public inquiry into the Tees, Esk and Wear Valley Trust. It’s welcome that the Secretary of State met with some of the families affected by their failings, and I hope we will hear back on this very soon.

Commit to exam mitigations for RAAC-hit County Durham school

School pupils up and down the country saw their education disrupted when crumbling reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) from September 2023. 

We called for immediate help for those students affected but exam mitigation was not forthcoming.