GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update no.295
We have nearly made it! This is my last newsletter of 2024 but before I sign off a final busy week ahead, including the devolution white paper out today which may decide the future of Surrey, Waverley and Guildford councils. 2024 has been a rollercoaster involving delivering a budget, running a marathon and fighting a nail-biting election. I am immensely proud to have been re-elected as your MP even if disappointed at what Labour is doing to the economy. But at least I have more time for things like buying Christmas trees.. Thank you to my many supporters and helpers who make my local campaigning possible. I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas with family and friends and my very best to you for 2025.
WHAT’S GOING ON IN WESTMINSTER
ENGLISH DEVOLUTION Housing Secretary Angela Rayner revealed today her plans for further devolution in England. This includes plans to merge councils in areas with two tiers of local authorities. Personally I am a big fan of mayoral authorities; a structure in place which may give more influence to strategically decide planning permissions and infrastructure to go alongside it. Reportedly, Surrey is set to be one of the first counties to undergo these changes. When I was chancellor I actually gave more devolved power to Surrey but I am intrigued about how these changes will impact Godalming and Ash. It would be very unfair if the new structures meant we ended up bailing out Woking which is mired in debt. I have written to Angela Rayner today with some very specific questions on that point.
BABY MASS GRAVES A below the radar but very sad story revealed by LBC last week said that at least 89,000 still born babies have been buried in mass graves across England, a practice that continued until the 1980s. When I was Health Secretary, I was horrified when I realised that stillbirths were being treated less seriously than neonatal deaths. My successor Victoria Atkins put in place plans so that instead of a birth certificate parents can get a Certificate of Loss. Currently, the NHS only investigates a baby death if it occurs during labour or after birth - we should be expanding the scope of these investigations to include stillbirths. You can read more about LBC’s investigation and see my interview with Andrew Marr on the topic here.
LOOKING FORWARD Last Tuesday, I participated in Mishal Husain’s finalBBC Radio 4 Today Debate. Mishal is a great - albeit lethal - interviewer who interviewed me many times so it was a great honour to be at one of her last appearances, focused on what the world will look like in 2025. We discussed Ukraine, where I asked the German Ambassador what the EU would do if Trump demanded it spent 3% of GDP on defence. He seemed to suggest 2.5% was a fairer ask but given the US spends 3.4% I rather doubt that. The tricky call for Keir Starmer will be whether to offer British troops (alongside French and German ones) to safeguard Ukraine’s defacto borders: doing so is a big step but not doing so would mean any western security guarantees for Ukraine would be worthless (remember the UK and the US signed the Budapest Memorandum guaranteeing Ukrainian security before). During the debate, I hope we can avoid a major war next year which might sound gloomy but frankly there is a lot to worry about. Too many people I meet keep saying ‘is this back to the 1930s?’
WHAT’S GOING ON LOCALLY
CRAZY HOUSING TARGETS UP EVEN MORE The long awaited NPPF was released on Friday which tells us how many houses the government wants us to build locally. Back in September the draft NPPF increased the Waverley target from 710 to 1,374 houses - but now following consultation the new number has been revised...even higher! This means Waverley’s annual delivery target is now a ridiculous 1,481 homes and Guildford’s has also increased by over 100% from 562 to 1,170 homes. Both represent some of the highest increases in the southeast. We would take it more seriously if it applied to areas like London where there is huge housing need - but targets in Labour strongholds have gone down. Over 80% of Waverley is covered by National Landscape (AONB) or the Green Belt so the most likely outcome will be that the council is unable to deliver its target and planning decisions end up being decided centrally by inspectors - who are likely, in the end, to approve building speculatively but at broadly current levels. A bad reform simply not thought through.
BIG PLANS AT GOSDEN HOUSE SCHOOL Thank you for the warm welcomefrom new Headteacher Becki Smale and Governors David Burr and Stephen Oldfield. This wonderful school caters for children with mild learning difficulties up to age 16 but needs help with funding to maintain an expensive old building. Great to see pupils in action baking gingerbread and growing (and selling) their own produce in the garden. Becki and the team are working hard to pull together funding for a new kitchen and cafe project which will teach catering skills - what a fantastic initiative. But the Gosden school site itself is huge and costs a fortune with upkeep and heating so I will speak to Leader of Surrey Tim Oliver to understand what the long-term plans for the site are.
TAURUS WINES Wine merchant Rupert Pritchett owns the excellent Taurus Wines at Whipley Manor Farm where I enjoyed a quick tour round the store (for research purposes of course). But it was sobering for him to walk me through the increased costs from Rachel Reeves' budget which are now impacting his trade to the tune of £thousands each week. NI and business rates increase are compounded by minimum wage rises impacting Rupert's suppliers - plus he is losing trade from customers tightening their belts from the trickle down impact of the upcoming VAT on school fees. Time for another glass! Head down to see Rupert and the team over the holidays…
HISTORICAL WHITEWASH - quite literally this time at St Andrew’s church in Grafham where historically important Victorian wall paintings were covered over in the 1950’s. It is the mission of the Friend’s of St Andrew’s to restore the interior of this church by renowned architect Henry Woodyer - and fix subsidence issues while they are at it. A big job and lots of fundraising ahead but thank you to Stuart White and the team for showing me around. You have my support.
GODALMING REPAIR CAFE has been operating for more than 2 years very successfully. To date they have dealt with over 1000 broken domestic items and fixed more than 80% of them…and all for free. So head down to the Borough Hall in Godalming on the 4th Saturday morning of each month (except December) between 10 and 12.30pm. Well done to Ian Coult and the Repair Cafe team.
JOIN ME Want to get more involved with my brilliant election-winning team locally? Email me at [email protected] to help support our work in our community.
AND FINALLY ... For a little light relief please see the winners of this year’s Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. My favourite is the white tailed eagle ruffling its feathers!
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