Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about bailouts for industry in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the need to build back better.

I appreciate the issues you raise. I believe we need an urgent summer Budget focused above all on jobs – getting people back to work, protecting existing employment and creating new roles. At the same time, I agree that financial support to save companies should safeguard the interests of workers and the public and ensure that we build back better. The help the Government is reportedly considering providing to industry must be linked to supporting employment, adhering to environmental requirements and delivering
long-term value for money by preventing short-term dividend payments, share buybacks and poor tax practice.

As we recover from the crisis we cannot return to business as usual. We are continuing to live through a global climate and environment emergency, with fewer than ten years left to avoid the worst impacts of catastrophic climate change. As the Committee on Climate Change has stated, reducing greenhouse gas
emissions should be integral to any recovery package and measures to achieve this goal will provide clear economic, social and environmental benefits. I therefore support calls for the UK to implement the most ambitious green recovery programme in the world.

We also entered the coronavirus crisis with too many families in precarious financial situations – one quarter of families had less than £100 in savings, for example. So, in addition to making key changes to social security benefits, the Government must tackle the broken labour market and low pay that weakened the financial resilience of so many families in the years before the pandemic.

Finally, as we start to exit the coronavirus crisis, we need to face up to the challenge of rebuilding our public services. A decade of public spending cuts has left us with a desperate need for proper funding for services such as social care and our NHS. For the future resilience of our society, we must learn the lessons from recent years about the impact of starving our public services of resources.

Thank you once again for contacting me on this issue. I can assure you that I will press the Government at every opportunity to ensure that a better future is possible after this crisis.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP