Talking Politics column with Josh Fenton-Glynn MP: A budget for Calder Valley
The breathless news hysteria around a budget can often feel like it's detached from our lives in Calder Valley. But a budget that prioritises making it easier to get by – whether you're a small business or a struggling family – is what we needed, and it's what we got. While other budgets have looked worse just a few days after it’s delivered, this one looks better the more I find out about it.
After years in which living standards have gone backwards, especially in the North, people want to know that things are finally moving in the right direction. For me, that's the test of any budget, whether Calder Valley feels this budget.
One of the biggest pressures facing households is the cost of energy. Across Calderdale, thousands of families continue to struggle with fuel poverty. That's why I welcome the £100 Household Energy Payment, with almost nine in ten households in Calderdale expected to be eligible. When budgets are stretched, support like this matters.
The expansion of the Warm Home Discount matters too, the number of people eligible for the discount has almost doubled. Millions more households will now receive an additional £150 off their energy bills this winter.
It often costs more to have less money (the so-called poverty premium) and that too is something that this budget seeks to address. That is why removing energy standing charges will make it cheaper for those who use less energy. And that money isn't going into a billionaire’s Cayman Island account, it’s being spent in local communities, in our shops.
Calder Valley is full of people with the drive and ambition to build a small business. This budget is doing more for many of them too. From our high street businesses where the rateable value at which businesses don't pay rates has gone up from £12,000 to £18,000, meaning that more than half of all businesses in these sectors will pay no business rates at all. To support for local breweries that create skilled jobs, and changes to government procurement rules meaning that small firms within UK supply chains will be favoured. There were nearly 100 measures in this budget and between them they will support the mosaic of businesses that make our communities thrive.
Calder Valley is already a brilliant place to live and work but it also has enormous potential just waiting to be utilised. This budget won't solve every challenge overnight, but it is a step towards an economy that backs community, supports local businesses to grow, and gives people more reason to be optimistic about the future.