Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education Settings

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Mohammad Yasin

Monday 4th September 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)]

In 2016, the Levelling Up Secretary admitted that his 2010 ditching of Labour’s Building Schools for the Future programme was one of his worst mistakes. In 2011, a High Court judge said that the cancellation of the programme amounted to an abuse of power. Despite years of warnings, the Government have done very little to ensure that our public buildings are safe. Is the Secretary of State ashamed of this record, and will she apologise to taxpayers, who want to know why they have to pay so much for so little?

[Gillian Keegan]

Absolutely not, and I would just like to point out to the hon. Gentleman that the Priority School Building programme schools were one third cheaper per square metre than those built under Building Schools for the Future, and that is a fact from the National Audit Office in 2017.

Adult Social Care

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Mohammad Yasin

Wednesday 1st December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

I know my hon. Friend’s views on that system, because we have discussed it many times. There are two things that I think he will welcome in the White Paper. The first is the focus on people being supported to stay in their own home or in supported housing for as long as possible. The second is personal budgets, which we will be exploring for people after they have been metered towards the cap. There is some use of personal budgets today, but we will be exploring what greater use of them we can put in place.

[Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)]

With 100,000 vacancies in the social care sector, the Future Social Care Coalition has made it clear that failure to act immediately on care workers’ wages will have devastating consequences for the NHS, for the elderly and for other people who are in desperate need of care. Will the Government listen to the sector’s warning that the current and forthcoming hourly rates for care staff are insufficient to retain or recruit staff?

[Gillian Keegan]

As I said, we have put in place £162.5 million-worth of funding and it has only just gone into councils’ bank accounts. We expect councils will use the funding to retain and grow the workforce.

Earlier I mentioned the all-party parliamentary group on social care, which I set up four years ago with the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Louise Haigh). At that time the vacancy rate was 122,000, even greater than it is today. We have 1.54 million people working in care, and the need grows by 1% to 2% every year because of changing demographics.