Political opinion: Off the Fence with Dame Caroline Dinenage, MP for Gosport
The Government has a lot of ground to make up with its Jobs Tax biting.
Big ticket announcements dominated last week’s Spending Review by the Chancellor, but as ever, the devil will be in the detail as to how this will impact residents across our region - and crucially how taxpayers will be expected to foot the bill.
With the impact of last year’s disastrous Autumn Budget ringing in her ears, the Chancellor certainly has some ground to make up.
Unemployment is up 0.5%, inflation up 1.3% and our national debt up 0.7%. The Employer National Insurance rises, known by some as the ‘Jobs Tax’, which came into effect in April, is already damaging some of the sectors that employ so many local residents. There are growing fears that taxes will have to rise to pay for social care, which has also been hit.
One area the Government has said they want to see more progress is on military housing so last week I met with the Chair of the Ministry of Defence’s Military Housing Review to share local experiences. I wasn’t the bearer of great news - military families are fed up with slow repairs, damp and mouldy conditions, and bodge-jobs.
The last Government spent £400 million to start bringing the military estate up to a decent level, but there is still so much to do - with 69 homes in the Gosport constituency alone sitting empty because they are unfit for human habitation. The Government says they will set aside £1.5 billion to address the challenge, but it remains to be seen when this will start to filter through to make a meaningful difference to our service families and military personnel.
At least the Government had the sense to perform a U-Turn on their previous ill judged decision to take away Winter Fuel Payments from some of our most vulnerable elderly residents. This move caused so much anxiety last winter. I was contacted by a number of residents on low incomes, who sat just outside of the eligibility criteria, who were desperately worried about how they would heat their homes. It was no surprise at all that 100,000 more pensioners attended A&E over this Winter than the previous year.
And finally, another welcome U-turn from the Government, who have now decided that there will be a national inquiry into the horrific grooming gangs scandal after all. Previously MPs like me who had called for one were branded ‘far right’, yet faced with a vote on the issue in Parliament this week, the PM has now changed his mind!