Budget Resolutions

Jo Gideon Excerpts

Monday 1st November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jo Gideon (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Con)]

I am delighted to speak in the Budget debate today on the theme of levelling up. In the short time I have, I want to focus on Stoke-on-Trent—or, to quote the Chancellor in his recent speech, the “great city” of Stoke-on-Trent. We have had £56 million of levelling-up funding for Stoke-on-Trent, which represents the biggest Government investment in my home city for 50 years and demonstrates the Government’s commitment to supporting our ambitions as a city.

When I was elected in 2019, I listened to those who said that Stoke-on-Trent had been forgotten and nothing could be done to change that. I made a promise to them that this would change, and I am glad that it has. Stoke-on-Trent is now recognised in Westminster as the litmus test for the Government’s levelling-up agenda. Pre-pandemic, the city was undergoing the most remarkable economic transformation, driven by our excellent location and resurgent manufacturing economy. However, Stoke-on-Trent is still the fifth most deprived city in the UK, so this investment is crucial for boosting local growth. The city needs help with its brownfield sites because of its industrial past. Subsidence has been an issue in Stoke-on-Trent for many years, and it will be for many to come, due to the former North Staffordshire coalfield, with more than 8,000 disused shafts, many ancient workings, and a huge and intricate web of tunnels beneath the city. Water is another issue. It was pumped out of the mines to extract the coal, but now the water level has risen again and is causing erosion and further subsidence. The prospect of harnessing this water and the power of geothermal energy to heat our city is an exciting one that needs Government support.

Transport also plays a huge role in levelling up, so I welcome the £50,000 awarded through the restoring your railway ideas fund for the Stoke to Leek line, to level up opportunity for our local communities. I will continue to make the case for a new station in Etruria to replace the one closed in 2005. Its location, next to our most successful enterprise zone, makes it a wise investment in an area where air pollution makes improved public transport options essential.

Levelling up is also about owning the challenges we face as a city and at community level, and owning the solutions. It is about asking Government for help, but not asking them to deliver everything, so I support trusting the people and investing in our social fabric, to empower communities with the delivery of innovative solutions to problems they understand better than anyone. The shared prosperity fund must be targeted at our community development, rather than capital funding, repurposing existing buildings and investing in youth workers, volunteer leaders, community champions and the multitude of very localised activities that need long-term support to ensure that services are sustainable. Levelling up must address such grassroots challenges, found in every village, town and city throughout our four nations.

The Budget provides the investment needed to power up key sites in Stoke-on-Trent, and nationally it strikes the right balance between fiscal responsibility and backing the UK to continue to recover, grow and prosper. It has my full support.