Tony Lloyd MP Letter from Parliament

Week commencing 12 November 2018.

I was delighted to be invited to Manchester University on Monday 12 November to attend their event celebrating 70 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This Declaration underpins people’s rights all over the world.

The event was attended by United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kate Gilmore, along with a group of academics and my colleague, Debbie Abrahams MP. We discussed work on the “On Cohesion” publication, which examined questions of social cohesion, violent extremism, youth engagement and counter-terrorism in Manchester. The publication was launched in June this year and has been well received amongst policy makers and stakeholders across the country. We also spoke about our reflections on the work undertaken in the city region since the bombing of Manchester Arena in 2017. It is vital that we do not take cohesion for granted. If people feel dispossessed, disengaged or there is sense of feeling left out, we know that leads to suicide or the kind of behaviour like that of the Arena bomber. The messages from Kate Gilmore and the academics lend support to the work that is being undertaken within the city region and our communities.

The use of “Stop and Search” by the police has always been a controversial issue and it was the topic of a meeting in parliament last week. It is an important power for police officers to have, in order to keep our streets safe, however there is an unhappy truth that working class and ethnic minority young men are more likely to be stopped and searched. Senior police authorities worked hard to reduce this trend when I was Greater Manchester’s Police and Crime Commissioner. What is important is to ensure that searches are undertaken politely and professionally, and with an explanation. No one likes to be stopped and searched but this goes some way to ensure that police officers can continue with the vital work to get knives off our streets.

Again, as for the past few weeks, Brexit has been the leading issue in parliament. Last week I met with Northern Ireland’s political parties to discuss the implications for them, and I also discussed the issues on TV and radio, to explain Labour’s position on the bad deal Theresa May is trying to win us round to.

To mark World Antibiotic Awareness Week, I attended a meeting hosted by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical. Antimicrobial Resistance is a global public health threat. Without urgent action globally, 10 million people a year are projected to die from antibiotic-resistant infections by 2050. This is because antibiotics are used by humans too regularly, but they are also thrown into our oceans by groups like fish farmers in Asia, for example. This weakens our capacity to treat disease. We’ve got to take the urgent action to reduce their use.

I also attended a meeting to lend my support to the Liverpool Manchester Corridor Rail Pledge. This business and union backed pledge calls for strategic investment in the North West, to lead to transformative growth, allowing the region to create more job opportunities, increase productivity and fulfil its potential to make a stronger contribution to UK plc. It has been backed by rail industry leaders and a number of local business and union groups, including the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, and the TUC.

I am also supporting a campaign against current Freehold Property Management Charges. What we are seeing is a problem where homeowners are struggling to afford expensive management charges on newly built homes, being titled the ‘new build tax’.

Anyone buying a new home expects the process to be expensive - from paying conveyancing fees and navigating the mortgage application process and organising the move itself. Once you have moved in, you’d think the expensive bit is finally over and you can start to enjoy your new home. However, this is no longer the case. Estate fees, service charges, management charges, rent charges, or maintenance fees, are now a common feature of many private housing developments. They are included in the small print of transfer deeds on many freehold properties and many residents don’t know they exist until a bill arrives.

While estates do need to be maintained, the fees demanded of homeowners are completely disproportionate to the services provided. Consequently, people are finding themselves trapped on a poorly maintained estate with escalating yearly fees - with no way to hold those responsible to account. Many people in Rochdale have been affected by this practice and it must stop, which is the aim of a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament.

I was delighted to be invited to Falinge Park High School where I met with students and talked to them about my role as an MP and the current challenges in government. It was great to see such engaged and disciplined students with a huge willingness to learn. Many thanks to all the students and teachers who welcomed me to the school.

I then met with Richard Ronksley, Principal of Rochdale Sixth Form College. It is fantastic that such a highly regarded college, recognised as one of the best in the country, is in our town, so it was great to discuss the prospects for the college and its students with Mr Ronksley.

At the weekend I campaigned in Pendle about the introduction of Universal Credit to this area and the impact it was going to have on its residents. The government must promise reforms on the system, due to the awful repercussions it is inflicting on families, particularly working families who are finding themselves up to £200 down each month. This chaotic and unfair system requires urgent changes as soon as possible.

On Saturday evening I was pleased to host a dinner to raise funds for the Mayor's Charity Appeal, with guest speaker, Nazir Afzal OBE, the new chairman of Hopwood Hall College and former Chief Prosecutor for North West England. Nazir spoke powerfully about the need of the law to protect the most vulnerable in our society, highlighting the horrifying statistic that two women per week die due to domestic abuse. The dinner was a success raising over £2,500 for some well-deserving charities, including our local hospice.

On Sunday I visited St Edmund's Church to see the newly created Roll of Honour unveiled by the Bishop of Manchester, David Walker. This was a very special service where new research had been done to find and record the names of those gave their lives in WW1 in that part of Rochdale. It is fitting at this centenary their deeds at last are recognised.