Gavin Williamson
Main Page: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)Department Debates - View all Gavin Williamson's debates with the HM Treasury
(3 days, 11 hours ago)
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Rachel Reeves
I appreciate my hon. Friend’s welcome for the £2.1 billion for the West Yorkshire combined authority, which will help pay for mass transit to connect Leeds and Bradford, but also Kirklees and Calderdale. In today’s statement we were able to provide money for free school meals for 500,000 children, lifting 100,000 out of poverty, as well as continuing to roll out breakfast clubs and the warm homes programme, which will help insulate properties and bring down bills for millions of families. In addition, we have increased the national living wage by nearly 7%, and the Employment Rights Bill will ensure that more people have security and dignity at work—all part of our plan for change and lifting children and families out of poverty.
Sir Gavin Williamson (Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge) (Con)
High Speed 2 owns vast swathes of the Staffordshire countryside. In fact, it owns a third of all the properties in the village of Hopton, which is having an enormous impact on residents and causing an enormous blight. Could the Chancellor set out for the House, and for so many residents right across Staffordshire, when we will know whether farmers are going to have their land back and whether villages will be able to return to normal life, with people moving into the empty houses?
Rachel Reeves
I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman has apologised to his constituents for the total mess that the Conservatives made of HS2. We are fixing their mess and getting a grip of the project costs. Frankly, it is astounding for the right hon. Gentleman to raise HS2, given the mess they made of it.