In advance of Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget, I joined my Liberal Democrat colleagues and called for a rescue package to boost NHS spending, invest in infrastructure, support public health services and roll out free personal care. Thanks to this pressure and focus on health services, I was pleased to see a commitment in the budget to boost day-to-day NHS spending and investment in facilities across both the health and education sectors. However, as I’ve been saying almost non-stop in Parliament - we can't truly save the NHS without investment in social care too - and we only saw small funding boosts to care services.
Of course, with increased spending and investment, comes increases to taxes and I was incredibly disappointed to see the bulk of new taxes being levied from small and medium sized businesses. Winchester has a huge diversity of small and independent businesses. It’s one of the city’s great strengths and a big draw for visitors from across the whole country and beyond. To better understand the challenges for the High Street, I recently joined with Winchester Business Improvement District director Paul Spencer to visit a range of city centre businesses and learn directly from them how they're going to be affected and what impact the Budget will have on their livelihoods, their staff and their prospects for the future.
We also know that this tax rise will affect healthcare providers like GPs, care homes, hospices and social care providers. It seems totally counter-productive to increase health spending with one hand, only to take it away from providers with the other. Instead, we should be directing new taxes at the big banks, oil and gas industries and the hugely profitable tech companies to get our public services working for us again. It’s about time they paid their fair share. The government could have chosen to focus more of the new taxes on them. They chose not to.
After 14 years of Conservatives taking rural communities for granted and betraying farmers with dodgy trade deals, it seems this new government has failed to set things right. The changes to inheritance tax are going to hit so many family-run farms across Winchester and the Meon Valley. I campaigned to stick up for farmers and I'll continue to endeavour to be a true champion for our rural communities.
As the colder months set in, I have of course not forgotten the injustice over Winter Fuel Payments. I've heard from so many people worried about their loved ones this winter, so I'll continue to do what I can to ensure the issue remains on the agenda and we stand a chance of having the decision reversed. Just last week I spoke in Parliament on the issue again and told the government to reinstate the payment.
Finally, it was a great honour for me to attend Winchester’s Remembrance Sunday proceedings. It is so important for us to remember all those people from Winchester who joined many others from across the country, the Commonwealth, and the whole world to stand up and defend our liberty during the two World Wars. We must also never forget all those who fought in more recent conflicts and the veterans who live on. They did their duty, so it is our duty to ensure we take care of them and their families in every way we can.
If you have any problems or issues, please contact me at danny.chambers.mp@parliament.uk. My team and I will do our best to help.
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