More Funding Needed For Our Public Services

I am disappointed that the Queen’s Speech had no commitments for new legislation or policy to improve our education system. Ministers have previously said that they would introduce a school’s level funding formula “as soon as possible”, yet they have not brought forward the necessary legislation.

While I welcome any additional funding for schools, I am concerned by research published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies that the investment announced by the Government will not undo the cuts to school budgets since 2010. Capital funding for education has been cut by almost 45% since 2010 and will continue to fall next year. For higher education, the Government has announced less than £200 million for increasing the base rate, which represents little more than a real-terms freeze.

I believe the Government should give our schools the investment they need, fully reverse the cuts to school budgets since 2010, and invest in further education so that a genuinely high-quality technical education route is available to all those who want to pursue it. More widely, I support scrapping tuition fees for university education and the reintroduction of maintenance grants to support students from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds.

On policing, the Government has announced plans to recruit new police officers and introduce new protections to ensure they are able to fully conduct their duties. I support proposals for specific protections for all emergency service workers. However, I remain concerned that billions of pounds have been cut in funding to the police since 2010, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of police officers from our streets and rising levels of violent crime. I am not convinced that the Government’s plans to recruit police officers will restore the numbers that have been lost.

More widely, the Queen’s Speech confirmed the continuation of the Domestic Abuse Bill. This Bill, which was introduced in the previous parliamentary session, includes many welcome proposals to better protect victims of domestic abuse and their children, and ensure that offenders are brought to justice. However, Ministers have so far refused to guarantee any increase in funding as part of the Bill. I will press Ministers to outline what funding it will provide for the police, NHS and social workers, improvements in training, and women’s support groups and refuges.