Letter from Parliament - Tony Lloyd

Date published: 17 June 2019

Last month I attended the LGBT+ Flag Raising at the Town Hall. The rainbow flag was raised by the Mayor to mark International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT), which is celebrated on 17 May each year.All forms of hatred are unacceptable in our society so it’s always important to commemorate these significant days. It was particularly poignant this year as less than 2 weeks later we heard of the horrendous attack on a lesbian couple on a bus in London. Instances like this brings home that tolerance isn’t something to take for granted.

I also visited St Andrews Methodist & United Reform Church on Entwistle Road to celebrate the anniversary of the church. Older readers will remember when St Andrew’s Church was part of the local landscape, but the two churches came together in their brand new building as a place of worship and a valued community resource.

Back in Parliament, a meeting was held to discuss the Greater Manchester Clean Air proposals. You may be aware that Transport for Greater Manchester, on behalf of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, are developing a package of measures to tackle air quality issues across all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester, which include a proposal for a Clean Air Zone. The ‘Clean Air Conversation’ is now live and runs until Sunday 30 June. During this period, members of the public and Greater Manchester’s business community are encouraged to view and provide feedback on the proposals. Details of the proposals can be found on the Clean Air GM website and the conversation survey can be found here. Please take a look and put your views forward.

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/127869/consultation-opens-on-clean-air-zone-plan

Northern MPs met to discuss the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ and held a discussion on newly released economic data demonstrating how the North’s regions are performing and it probably doesn’t come as a big surprise that the North is lagging behind London and the South East. The UK’s post-recession productivity performance has been poor. This ‘productivity problem’ is particularly severe in the North of England, and for the smaller businesses that make up over 99% of the northern business population. Boosting the productivity of small businesses in the Northern Powerhouse could add as much as £23 billion per annum to the economy. To give just a few examples of the scale of the problem, fewer than half of northern small businesses say that they saw an increase in their profits last year, while 55% of small businesses say that the cost of doing business has increased in the region. The North urgently requires investment from the Government, particularly for transport and infrastructure, to help the North to catch up.

In Rochdale, I visited Source BioScience who are based at Kingsway Business Park. Source BioScience are an international provider of integrated state of the art laboratory services and products across the UK, Europe and the USA and it’s great that part of their operation is based in Rochdale.

As you’ll be aware, plans have been announced to demolish some of the Seven Sister Tower Blocks in College Bank. Rochdale Borough Housing has set out a strategy for new homes, extra footpaths, cycle lanes and leisure facilities. However, some residents are eager to stay in these flats that they have called home for many years. I therefore met with these local residents to listen to their concerns.

I met with senior members of the North West Fire Brigade Union (FBU) to discuss their worries following proposals to restructure the fire and rescue service across Greater Manchester. Changes like this cause concern that the service will deteriorate and these need to be allayed. Particularly when the Government has already cut funding to fire authorities by 15%, and firefights have attended more incidents overall. The 2-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire is a brutal reminder that we cannot keep people safe on the cheap and our emergency services must be given the money and support they need to provide a dependable service for us all.

In my role as Shadow Secretary to Northern Ireland, I met with the Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister and Head of Government), Leo Varadkar, in Dublin along with Jeremy Corbyn. Our main subject was inevitably, Brexit. In Belfast, I also met members of the Police Service for Northern Ireland and representatives from trade unions at Bombardier. Bombardier is a company which makes small planes and their supply chain spreads across the UK. The Canadian owners are currently trying to sell their Northern Ireland operations, which is bound to cause concern.

The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) launched their Industrial Strategy for the Retail Sector, to tackle the retail crisis and 'save our shops'. Their plans centre around 3 main areas. Firstly, ‘Economy and community’ - changing the economic framework on everything from car parking to rates, rents and reforming the tax system to create a level playing field between online and ‘bricks and mortar’ retailers. Second, ‘People and productivity’ - improving productivity by addressing low pay and insecure work, while giving staff a say in the future of the business they work for and on the introduction of new technology. Third, ‘Retail jobs are proper jobs’ - challenging perceptions about retail work and promoting the idea that retail jobs are ‘proper jobs’. Seeking a greater focus from Government on the retail industry and ensuring shopworkers are valued.

I lent my support to my now colleague, Lisa Forbes, in the Peterborough by-election. The pundits had written off Labour and had backed the Brexit Party, however Lisa managed to successfully secure this seat for Labour, with Nigel Farage’s Brexit party in second place, and the Conservatives trailing behind in third.

I attended an Eid celebration at Kingsway Park High School where people across all communities and faiths came together to enjoy food, dancing and general community support. It was a great event, so well done to all who helped put it together.

Councillor Billy Sheerin was sworn in as the new Mayor of Rochdale for 2019/2020 at the annual Mayor Making Ceremony. Every year the newly elected Mayor also holds a Civic Service. Billy chose for this years’ service to take place at St Johns in the centre of Rochdale, which I must say is one of the most beautiful churches around and a great credit to our town. It was a wonderful service and I would like to send on my best wishes to Billy and his wife Lynn (Mayoress) for the year ahead. 

Finally, I joined the Pentecostal ‘Littleborough Churches Walk Together’ from Dearnley to Littleborough, which was led by Mark Davies, the Bishop of Middleton.