Preet Kaur Gill - My Weekly Update - 13 June
- Preet Kaur Gill MP
- Jun 13
- 9 min read
Spending Review
With Chancellor Rachel Reeves
This week, the Chancellor delivered her Spending Review, setting out how we will invest in your security, health and economy so you and your family are better off.
The first job of this Government was to stabilise the British economy and the public finances. Now, we move into a new chapter to deliver on the promise of change.
The Chancellor’s Spending Review is a vote of confidence in our region.
Last week, I joined the Chancellor on a visit to Birmingham, where she announced £2.4 billion of funding for our local transport infrastructure. This will fund the metro extension, connecting the City Centre to the new sports quarter in Bordesley, and then out to Solihull.
The Chancellor has also confirmed that the Government is backing the Midlands Rail Hub, which will will enable a 50% increase in the number of Cross-City Services, providing 100 extra trains in and out of Birmingham every day. Five Ways and University station in my constituency are set to benefit, which will support the growing demand for travel to the University of Birmingham, the new life sciences park and Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
Bus users are to be protected from price hikes thanks to the Chancellor extending the £3 fare cap until 2027.
I’m proud that the Government is investing £39 billion over the next decade in a new Affordable Homes Plan – the biggest cash injection into social and affordable housing in a generation. This will make a real difference in Birmingham, where 26,000 people are currently on the housing register.
The Chancellor also announced a record cash investment in the NHS, because this Spending Review is about prioritising your health. We are investing an extra £29bn per year for the day to day running of the NHS, and increasing the NHS technology budget by 50%. This investment will enable us to deliver more appointments, build new hospitals and new equipment to provide more efficient, productive and high-quality care.
Schools will also receive an extra £4.5bn a year in this week's spending review, taking the funding for each pupil in England to its highest-ever level.
We are investing to keep our country safe, with a £20bn increase in defence spending and a £2bn uplift for our security and intelligence agencies across the spending review period. Defence spending will now rise to 2.6% of GDP by April 2027. This is the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War.
At the Budget last year, we announced £150m to establish the new Border Security Command. Now, funding for the Border Security Command will rise by an additional £280m per year by the end of spending review period.
We will end the costly use of hotels to house asylum seekers in this Parliament; and cut the asylum backlog to save the taxpayer £1bn a year.
You can read the Chancellor’s full speech here.
I asked the Chancellor if she agreed with me that this investment will be transformational to deliver a decade of renewal and growth. Watch my intervention below.
I spoke to BBC Politics Midlands about the benefits of the Spending Review for our region. You can watch that here.
Sizewell C
As part of the Spending the Review, Government is investing £14.2 billion to build Sizewell C nuclear plant, ending years of delay and uncertainty.
This investment will go towards creating 10,000 jobs, including 1,500 apprenticeships, and support thousands more jobs across the UK.
The equivalent of around six million of today’s homes will be powered with clean homegrown energy from Sizewell C. The investment in clean, homegrown power brings an to an end to decades of dithering and delay, with the government backing the builders in the drive for energy security and kick-starting economic growth.
Read more here.
Nuclear Reactors
A mock up of Rolls-Royce's SMR
Rolls-Royce SMR has won the competition for a new small modular reactor in Britain.
As part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy to revive Britain’s industrial heartlands, the government is pledging over £2.5 billion for the overall small modular reactor programme – with this project potentially supporting up to 3,000 new skilled jobs and powering the equivalent of around 3 million homes with clean, secure homegrown energy.
The biggest nuclear rollout for a generation will support the clean power mission – boosting energy security and protecting families’ finances.
Read more here.
Hydrogen
The Government has confirmed over £500 million for hydrogen infrastructure today, creating thousands of clean energy jobs in Britain’s industrial heartlands.
The Spending Review has allocated landmark new funding to create the UK’s first regional hydrogen transport and storage network, connecting hydrogen producers with vital end users, including power stations and industry for the first time. This major infrastructure boost will create jobs in regions such as Merseyside, Teesside and the Humber, as well as in the supply chain. This will ensure communities across the country benefit from Labour’s plan while reducing reliance on volatile international fossil fuel markets. Read more here.
Air India Crash
Keir Starmer's message after the Air India crash
I am deeply devastated by the tragic crash of Air India Flight AI171 en route from Ahmedabad to London. The scale of this loss is almost unimaginable - 241 lives lost, including 53 British nationals, many with deep roots in our vibrant British Indian community. My thoughts and heartfelt prayers are with every family mourning loved ones today.
If you have been affected by this incident, you can contact the dedicated FCDO helpline on 0207 008 5000. I would also encourage you to get in touch with my office by emailing preet.gill.mp@parliament.uk or calling 0121 392 8426.
Israel-Palestine
Speaking in the Chamber
The UK Government along with Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway have announced sanctions and other measures targeting Israeli Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Settler violence is incited by extremist rhetoric which calls for Palestinians to be driven from their homes, encourages violence and human rights abuses and fundamentally rejects the two-state solution.
We are committed to the two-state solution, which is the only way to guarantee security and dignity for Israelis and Palestinians and ensure long term stability in the region. We are taking action against these individuals who are undermining Israel’s own security and its standing in the world. You can read the full joint statement from the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway here.
Winter Fuel
The Government has listened and announced that 9 million pensioners will now automatically receive Winter Fuel Payments this winter.
Pensioners with an income of, or below, £35,000 a year will be eligible to receive the payment. This will mean no lower or middle-income pensioners will miss out. You can read more here.
NHS
Outside Queen Elizabeth Hospital
It’s brilliant news that thanks to our Labour government, nearly 250,000 people have been taken off NHS waiting lists since July.
Across the country, NHS waiting lists have fallen to their lowest level in two years. Since July, we've delivered 3.6 million extra appointments. We are increasing appointments, providing more doctors and delivering on our promise to get the NHS back on its feet.
The Government has also announced that sickle cell patients will get better treatment after a £9 million funding boost. This is part of a plan to transform apheresis services - a specialised set of treatments which remove harmful components from a patient's blood - by funding more specialist treatment centres, as well as expanding access to cutting-edge technology. Read more here.
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
This week, I voted in favour of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.
Our Labour government is serious about building homes, upgrading infrastructure, and cutting red tape to deliver faster. This is how we build a fairer, greener Britain.
Vagrancy Act
Helping out at a food bank
The Government has confirmed it will repeal the outdated Vagrancy Act to ensure rough sleeping is no longer a criminal offence. Instead, the Government will concentrate its efforts on getting to the root causes of homelessness, backed by major funding.
The Government has boosted funding for homelessness services by an extra £233 million this financial year, bringing total investment for 2025-26 to nearly £1 billion. This support will prevent more families from entering temporary accommodation and tackle rough sleeping head-on. You can read more here.
Gibraltar
The UK, alongside the Government of Gibraltar, has reached a political agreement with the EU which will protect British sovereignty, UK military autonomy and secure Gibraltar’s economic future.
The government inherited a situation which left Gibraltar’s economy and way of life under threat. Gibraltar was not included in the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement negotiated by the previous UK government following Brexit.
Approximately 15,000 people – over half of Gibraltar’s workforce – cross the land border between Spain and Gibraltar every day. Without a new agreement, the EU’s incoming system of entry and exit controls would have introduced a ‘hard border’ under which every individual passport was checked.
Today’s agreement provides a practical solution to avoid the need for onerous checks and long delays at the border which would have proved ruinous for Gibraltar’s economy – costing hundreds of millions a year and placing pressure on the UK taxpayer for fiscal support, underlining the government’s commitment to economic stability. Read more here.
Southport
The Government has pledged £5 million to transform public space in memory of Bebe King, Elsie Stancombe and Alice Aguiar. The funding will contribute to the renovation of Southport’s Town Hall Gardens, which became a beacon of support and solidarity in Southport last year.
The strength of everyone in Southport has been beyond words. This investment will help create a safe community space for connection, reflection, and renewal – a lasting symbol of hope, guided by the strength of the families and wider community. Read more here.
Frontline Workers
Emergency workers are to be better protected from violence and racial abuse when visiting homes as the government introduces new laws to support frontline staff.
The new measures, tabled today as amendments to the government’s landmark Crime and Policing Bill, will close an existing loophole that allows people to get away with racial and religious abuse towards police, fire and ambulance workers making house calls. You can read more here.
Skills
The Prime Minister has launched a new skills programme that will give young people across the country the tools needed to get the AI-powered jobs of the future.
At the heart of the skills drive, and as part of the upcoming modern Industrial Strategy, is a new £187 million government “TechFirst” programme to bring digital skills and AI learning into classrooms and communities and train up people of all ages and backgrounds for the tech careers of the future.
This is about breaking down barriers, driving innovation, and giving every young person the chance of a good, well-paid job and a bright future. Read more here.
At the start of tech week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivered a speech on how technology can create a better future. Read more here.
Darlington Nurses
This week, we've seen a vital win for Darlington nurses, following a landmark court ruling and intervention from Wes Streeting asking the hospital to implement it. Clarity in Equality Act that ‘sex’ means biological sex is crucial for protecting women’s single-sex spaces. You can read more here.
Local News
Funding for SMEs
Creative freelancers and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across the West Midlands can now apply for up to £10,000 of funding to develop innovative ideas through collaborative Research and Development (R&D).
The deadline for applications is Monday, 4 August. Find out more or register an interest on the CreaTech Frontiers website, here.
Street Surgery
It was great to talk to the residents of Gordon Road about the issues that matter most to them.
I am out all year round speaking to my constituents, not just at election time.
Job vacancy
I'm looking for an enthusiastic and talented communications and campaigns officer to join my team! If you're interested, find out more and apply here.
Here’s seven things Labour’s Plan for Change has delivered last week:
🥣 Free school meals for more than half a million more children in families on Universal Credit, lifting 100,000 children out of poverty and putting £500 back in the pockets of parents who need it.
🚌 £15.6 billion bus, tram and train infrastructure investment across our regions. This public transport boost will power cities, towns and communities forward, opening up new access to jobs and opportunities alongside more investment in Britain’s renewal.
🌊 Bonus payments banned with immediate effect for bosses at water companies that don’t meet high standards.
🪖Strategic Defence Review making Britain secure at home and safe abroad by ensuring HM Armed Forces have the right equipment they need, whilst boosting 30,000 highly skilled jobs across the country.
🏠£1.5bn additional funding to repair and renew military housing, helping improve lives for armed forces personnel and their families.
⚖️ Launched pilot scheme to give survivors of rape and serious sexual assault the right to have cases reviewed, as part of our mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.
☀️ New build homes to have solar panels by default, saving people hundreds of pounds off their energy bills.
Best wishes,
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Preet Kaur Gill MP
Member of Parliament for Birmingham Edgbaston, covering Bartley Green, Edgbaston, Harborne, North Edgbaston and Quinton
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