Mail Weekly Column: 12 February 2024
On Monday I visited the Australian High Commission to meet the High Commissioner Stephen Smith and Vice Admiral Jonathan Mead to discuss AUKUS. Alongside my predecessor, Lord Walney, we discussed increasing parliamentary support for this vital project and how we can better work together to help Barrow succeed and what lessons Australia can learn as they build up a shipyard of their own.
On Wednesday, Team Barrow held a really fruitful meeting with the Cabinet Secretary and representatives from Treasury and the Levelling Up Department. Sponsored by the Prime Minister, Team Barrow brings us together with senior leaders from Government to ensure that we have everything required to deliver Dreadnought and SSN-AUKUS, and that the wider community feels the benefit.
This was the group’s third meeting, enabling us ahead of the Budget to ensure that local and national views on next steps are aligned, with a clear emphasis on housing, transport, health and supporting people into work. I’m very grateful to the Cabinet Secretary for his continued support, and to W&F Council and BAE for their engagement.
With local employment in mind, I raised a question in the Commons about the sterling work being done by the local DWP team at the Jobcentre, and also the national team who are supporting as part of Team Barrow, to help a good portion of the nearly 4,000 people who could be working but aren’t in Furness back into the job market. Given how tight the labour market in Furness is, this would be a real benefit to local SMEs. This work, joining together DWP and the Department for Education, is essential and I’m very glad that the Employment Minister has agreed to visit to see the enterprise for herself.
This dovetails with two meetings I attended later. On Friday I sat down with the Chief Executive of the Hospital Trust for an update on progress. In addition we covered my specific questions on investment in the hospital, the Team Barrow initiative, and freeing up capacity by using local social care providers.
I also met our Director of Public Health to discuss issues relevant to Furness. One was Barrow’s 10,000+ smokers and the impact on our healthcare provision. It was really good to get her perspective, especially given the legislation we will soon be considering on creating a smoke free generation and restricting vapes that clearly target children (which I support). We must be honest with ourselves that Furness faces several challenges with an ageing population, too many smokers and high rates of obesity. Given the opportunities arising from Team Barrow, it is vital that use these to help people in the community to become healthier. I look forward to sitting down shortly to discuss this with the Secretary of State.
I was also delighted to hear from Education Minister Baroness Barran that Sacred Heart Primary has been prioritised for the School Rebuilding Programme. Mrs Beach and her team have done an incredible job in the most difficult of circumstances - supported by the local community and schools - providing education and pastoral care across multiple sites since their building was effectively closed. I’m incredibly grateful to them and very much hope that this marks the beginning of a whole new chapter.
Finally, my working week ended with a surgery in my office on Friday and then street surgeries on Saturday morning. As ever the topics raised in my office and on the doorstep were many and varied. If you would like to speak to me about something, or book a surgery slot, please do email me: simon.fell.mp@parliament.uk or call 01229 314 220.
