Letter from Parliament - Tony Lloyd MP

Tony Lloyd MP

This week I have raised a lot of questions in Parliament and attended several meetings ranging from housing and prisons to pubs and human rights.

When the government took over in 2010, 54% of people under the age of 45 owned their own home. This has now dropped to just 44% because more and more young people are denied the chance of owning their own home. The government has got to do something about it so I spoke with the Secretary of State for Housing.

I raised the issue of needing more alternatives to prison for women offenders with the Justice Minister for Prisons. Lots of women offenders are given short sentences that make no difference to their lives, but many of them have children who can then be taken into care. Not only does this cost more, it is also not good to separate the children from their mothers.

Here in Greater Manchester, we have set up women’s centres to help and work on the underlying issues as to why people offend. These have better rates than the short prison sentences.

The Home Secretary followed up on the horrific Manchester Arena attack and we have to look at the role social media companies are playing. They have a responsibility to work with the police and MI5, so dangerous propaganda must be taken down and prevented from being shown. At the moment, they are not playing their proper role in that.

I also raised the need for superfast broadband for businesses and home to be connected as soon as possible, and I also had a meeting with a charity about fuel poverty and the opportunities to give people smartmeters to help them manage their fuel uses whilst saving money.

There has been an ongoing debate over Palestine and Israel. Earlier this week, Donald Trump faced criticism when he said Jerusalem was the capital of Israel. The daily penalties that Palestinians face on a daily basis in their lives are unacceptable. This would be unacceptable elsewhere, and it’s not a reasonable response to the West Bank.

I am also involved with land value capture. When planning permission is granted, the value of land increases. In Rochdale, the local council deal with this but the benefit goes to the developer not the public. If it did, it would help with roads, schools, transport and health so we have got to look at how we can get the value of that.

We have seen an awful lot of pubs and bars close in recent times. It is a viable industry that does matter and here in Rochdale, we have seen a lot of new bars open. We have to make sure they have the trade without an unfair burden, which is why I am part of the Party group on pubs and bars.

There was a meeting with Amnesty International at Parliament for the annual international human rights campaign which highlights barbaric practices like female genital mutilation. It is always important to recognise human rights and the need for them.

I spoke with the rail regulator who oversees how the trains lines and networks are managed. We have to make sure that Rochdale services improve. When things go wrong, they go spectacularly wrong. Just recently I had to catch three trains and the first one was late. Luckily, I was able to travel to the second station and catch my other trains, but if I had waited, I would have missed all three. When things like this happen, there is never any answer to who is at fault and it should not be like that.

I also had a national meeting about private and social landlords like Rochdale Boroughwide Housing and the need for voices to be heard locally. You only have to look at the awful tragedy at Grenfell Tower to see residents were not listened to when they asked for a safety audit. Whilst no-one can say it would not have happened, if they had got it then the tragic event may not have happened.

Over the weekend, I am visiting the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh with the Rochdale Council of Mosques to see the situation for myself. It is a human outrage that we have simply got to pay attention to.