As the MP for Stockport, I am pleased that the Chancellor has delivered a Budget that will put money back into people’s pockets, support local businesses and invest in the future of our communities. Labour’s Autumn Budget sets out measures to help households with the cost of living, support businesses facing financial pressures and deliver investment for the long term.
Support with the cost of living
Helping families with the cost of living must remain a priority. That is why I welcome the Government’s £2.6 billion Energy Bills Breathing Space scheme, which will provide a £100 payment to eligible households in England in council tax bands A to D this winter.
In Stockport, around 46,650 households are set to benefit from this payment, providing welcome support at a time when household budgets remain under pressure.
The Government is also extending the 0% VAT rate on electricity until July 2027, and councils will receive a £100 million boost to help support households facing the greatest need. These measures will help ease some of the financial pressure facing families and ensure additional assistance is available to those who need it most.
I also welcome the extension of the 5p fuel duty cut until July 2027, helping motorists with the cost of travelling to work, taking children to school and carrying out everyday journeys.
Backing Stockport’s businesses
Local businesses are essential to Stockport’s economy and they need a tax system that recognises the pressures they face and gives them greater certainty to plan for the future.
The Budget includes a £1 billion business rates package to support retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. A real-terms freeze in business rates for these sectors in 2027/28 and 2028/29 is estimated to benefit around 713 businesses in Stockport.
The Government is also increasing the Small Business Rates Relief thresholds for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. Across the North West, around 55% of businesses in these sectors will pay no business rates at all as a result of the changes.
These measures are particularly important for the independent businesses that help bring Stockport’s town centre to life. I want to see Stockport’s businesses given the support they need to thrive, create good jobs and contribute to the long-term prosperity of our town.
Fair funding for Stockport and more affordable homes
I welcome the additional funding being provided to Stockport through the Labour Government’s local government finance settlement.
Stockport will receive £356.3 million in Core Spending Power in 2026/27, with funding set to increase by £50 million, an increase of 15.6%, between 2024/25 and 2028/29.
I also welcome reforms to the local government funding system, which will better reflect the needs of communities. Under the new approach, nine in ten councils are expected to receive funding that broadly reflects their assessed needs, compared with around a third under the previous system. By 2028/29, the most deprived areas will receive 45% more funding per head than the least deprived.
These are important steps towards a fairer settlement, but years of underinvestment under the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats cannot be reversed overnight.
For five long, hard years, the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition delivered austerity, cut funding to local councils and privatised public assets. This created challenges that local government is still working to overcome, but I am pleased that the Labour Government is taking a different approach.
Stockport is facing a housing crisis. Nearly 10,000 families in Stockport are on the waiting list for social housing. Behind that figure are families living in overcrowded conditions and residents struggling to find a secure, affordable home.
I therefore welcome the additional £1.5 billion for the Social and Affordable Homes Programme announced in the Budget, which will support the delivery of 10,000 more social rent homes and bring total investment in the programme to more than £40 billion.
I will continue to make the case for the investment Stockport needs to provide genuinely affordable and social housing, and high quality public services.
Fairer taxation and council tax reform
This Labour Government is taking steps to make council tax fairer, but I believe there is a much bigger conversation that needs to be had about the future of the system itself.
Since first being elected in 2019, I have consistently campaigned for a council tax system that is fair, proportionate and rooted in dignity. Through parliamentary speeches, Written Parliamentary Questions and direct engagement with Stockport Council, I have challenged a system that too often punishes those who are struggling financially while doing little to improve collection rates.
I was pleased to see Stockport Council adopt the Citizens Advice Council Tax Protocol in 2024 following sustained campaigning from myself, residents, Citizens Advice Stockport, Debt Justice and others. This was an important step towards ensuring that people facing financial hardship are treated fairly and offered support before enforcement action is pursued. I also welcome the Labour Government's reforms to council tax collection, including giving households greater flexibility to spread payments over 12 months, improving access to support and limiting excessive enforcement costs.
However, while these changes are welcome, they do not address the fundamental problem that council tax remains one of the most regressive, outdated and unfair taxes in Britain. The system is still based on property valuations carried out in 1991, despite enormous changes in house prices, wealth and living standards over the last three decades. As a result, many families in modest homes pay a higher proportion of their property value than those living in much more expensive properties.
That is why I support the campaign by Tax Justice UK and Fairer Share to replace council tax with a Proportional Property Tax. Under this approach, properties would be taxed as a fixed percentage of their value, with valuations updated regularly to ensure the system remains fair and reflects modern realities.
Council tax provides essential funding for local services, and I will continue to campaign for greater investment in Stockport. But if we are serious about building a tax system that is fair and transparent, we should be willing to consider fundamental reform.
Investing in our community assets
Investment must also mean protecting the community facilities that already serve our residents. I want to see the Government providing funding to restore existing assets and improve access to swimming and fitness facilities across Stockport.
Grand Central swimming pool is an important local asset and home to Stockport Metro Swimming Club, which has produced 14 Olympians and four Olympic medallists. Its ageing facilities need investment to ensure it can continue supporting swimmers and developing future talent.
The Reddish Baths and Library site is particularly concerning. The baths have been closed since 2005, despite strong local support for restoring the site. In my survey of residents, nearly 1,000 people responded, with 86% identifying swimming or fitness facilities as one of their top priorities.
With Stockport facing a water-space deficit of almost 1,000 square metres, restoring Reddish Baths could help address the shortage while bringing a historic building back into community use. We must recognise the value of restoring existing community assets alongside investment in new infrastructure.
Fairness in financial services
Stockport has a proud cooperative heritage, and I am pleased that Vernon Building Society, established in 1924, continues to serve members and communities in my constituency.
Building societies play an important role in helping people save and access mortgages, including first-time buyers. However, as I have highlighted with the Government, we must also ensure that these member-owned institutions remain accountable to the people who own them.
I am calling on the Chancellor to consider reforming the Building Societies Act 1986 to strengthen member accountability and ensure that governance arrangements keep pace with the sector’s importance.
Better access to fertility and cancer care
I also continue to highlight the need for sustained investment in our NHS and fair access to treatment.
As Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer, I believe the priority following publication of the National Cancer Plan must be delivery. Around 3.5 million people in the UK are living with cancer, a figure expected to rise to 5.4 million by 2040. The Government must ensure the NHS and its partners have the resources and capacity to turn the Plan’s commitments into meaningful improvements for patients and their families.
I have concerns about inequality in access to NHS funded IVF treatment and I have been consistently raising this with the Government. NHS Greater Manchester has reduced NHS-funded provision to one full cycle, despite NICE guidance recommending up to three cycles for eligible patients. This decision was taken despite 74% of consultation respondents opposing the change. This consultation cost around £4000 of public money and its findings have been largely ignored.
Access to fertility treatment should not depend on where someone lives or what they can afford. If we expect Integrated Care Boards to deliver treatment in line with national clinical guidance, they must have the funding and resources to do so. I will continue to press for an end to the postcode lottery in NHS-funded IVF provision.
Ensuring data centres benefit local communities
Finally, I welcome the Government’s new Data Centre Covenant, particularly its focus on ensuring that data centre developments meet clear expectations on energy costs, community benefits, environmental standards, employment and security.
The Kao data centre is being built in Reddish, and I know that local residents have concerns about its impact. I share the view that developments of this scale must demonstrate how they will contribute to the communities in which they are built.
The Covenant sets out important principles, including ensuring developments pay their fair share of energy costs, meet high environmental standards and create good jobs, apprenticeships and training opportunities. I will be seeking clarity on how these expectations will apply to the Kao development, because residents deserve transparency about its impact and the benefits it will bring to Reddish.
Delivering for Stockport
This Budget provides welcome support for households and businesses while setting out investment in housing, growth and public services. However, the work does not end here. We must ensure that funding reaches the communities that need it, that public services have the resources to deliver and that local residents see tangible improvements in their everyday lives.
I will continue to make the case in Westminster for investment in Stockport, and I will continue to press Stockport Council to ensure that all parts of our town receive their fair share of funding.