Luke Akehurst: A skilled Budget delivering stability and prosperity

Managing the spending of taxpayers’ money with care and foresight requires sound financial stewardship. It is not just about balancing a spreadsheet; it is about ensuring that positive developments today do not compromise stability and prosperity tomorrow.

With this Budget, the Chancellor built confidence in our economy, protected our public services, and, through doubling the fiscal headroom – the reserves for unforeseen economic changes and emergencies – to £21.7bn, ensured that we can respond to challenges without burdening future generations with spiralling debt.

The last government left us with rocketing debt, uncontrolled inflation, and left the markets with no confidence in their ability to control the public purse. We must remember that just three years ago, Liz Truss chose a world of fantasy economics instead of facing the difficult decisions in the real world we are in. People up and down the country paid the price in their mortgage rates and continue to even to this day.

I applaud the Chancellor’s firm commitment that under Labour’s watch, this will never again be allowed to happen.

I welcome her decision on righting the injustice of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme, meaning the 222 local retired workers on this pension scheme in my constituency, and thousands more across the North East, will receive a 41 per cent increase in their pensions.

I also welcome the abolition of the two-child benefit cap. This policy, designed by the Conservative Party, condemned hundreds of thousands of children to growing up in poverty. In North Durham, more than one child in every 10 was left poorer because of the policy. It should be celebrated that, by abolishing the two-child limit, the Chancellor has implemented what the IFS, a leading independent thinktank, describes as the most cost-effective way for the Government to deliver on its mission of lifting children out of poverty, benefitting around 2,200 children just in North Durham.

I want to recognise just how much the Chancellor has delivered:

• The Pride in Place scheme, putting £20m into regenerating Stanley South and other similar neighbourhoods in the region, reversing 14 years of being left behind and its social and economic problems ignored by the Tories.

• £39bn towards building the affordable homes we so desperately need.

• The state pension increasing by £575 a year.

• The National Minimum Wage increase delivering up to £900 more a year for workers on the lowest pay.

• Freezing fuel duty.

• A £150 reduction in energy bills.

• Five cuts to interest rates since Labour took office, bringing down mortgages and borrowing costs.

• An increase in the Standard Allowance of Universal Credit by £295.

• Free school meals expanded to over half a million more children, and breakfast clubs in 2,000 more schools by the end of next financial year.

• Prescription charges frozen.

• Rail fares frozen for the first time in 30 years.

• Extending the bus fare cap.

• More money into apprenticeships for young people.

• The £150 Warm Homes Discount on energy bills expanded.

• 30 hours of free childcare, saving families up to £7,500 per year, per child.

• Record funding for our NHS, facilitating 5 million additional appointments in our first year in office.

These are just some of the redistributive things that our government have been able to deliver, targeting the people and communities who most need help, not despite but because of our firm commitment to balancing the books.