Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Lyn Brown Excerpts
Tuesday 9th March 2021

(3 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lyn Brown Portrait Ms Lyn Brown (West Ham) (Lab) [V]
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I have only got three minutes, so I have ditched most of my speech. I am going to talk about how this Budget frankly ain’t going to work for the children or people of West Ham.

Newham Council surveyed schools a month ago and found that 5,000 Newham children still do not have a laptop and around 2,000 are still without broadband. The Government have got through a whole year without delivering the basic resources needed by the children in Newham in this pandemic. Lack of access is a consequence of poverty and inequality, and it has increased terribly over the past 10 years. In Newham, more than half our children are living in poverty.

Most children lost 5% of their normal lifetime in school during the pandemic and they could not learn properly without digital resources. We need to recognise that inequality is not going away simply because schools have reopened. These children still need IT and access to broadband just to ensure a more level playing field for the rest of their education. In Newham, our schools do an amazing job seeking to ensure that all our children achieve their potential, but these children and teachers must have the resources they need to repair the damage of inequality and this pandemic. There must surely be a true guarantee, finally, that every young person who needs digital access to their education will actually get it.

Let me quickly talk about the damage that is being done to families. Unemployment in Newham has increased 240% since the start of the pandemic. There are an estimated 19,500 people furloughed in West Ham alone. I am afraid that huge numbers of those excluded from support over the past year are still going to be left without the income they deserve. The Government seem determined to cut vital social security support in October in one of the most expensive cities in the world just when many more constituents may be forced into unemployment and as furlough and other support schemes end. It is unreasonable, it is unfair.

This pandemic has not gone away, yet the Budget has not fixed statutory sick pay. We cannot ensure that no one will lose out from doing the right thing and self-isolating when sick. Instead of fixing it, sick pay is going to be cut in real terms from next month. We need to ensure our economic recovery can take place as safely, as fairly and as quickly as possible, but I just do not think this Budget is going to do that for the people Newham—and I don’t think it was intended to.