Political View: My assessment of the new Government's progress so far

Already we are seeing semi hysterical articles from right wing commentators and the Tory press calling Sir Keir and Ms Reeves the worst PM and Chancellor in history. Have they forgotten already about Liz Truss, Kwasi Kwarteng and the disastrous Tory "mini-budget" in 2022?

So let me give my personal assessment of the Government's progress so far and its impact on Peterborough.

On the positive side, Ed Milliband, returning to his previous role as Energy and Climate Secretary, has announced a massive expansion of wind and solar energy generation, aiming to get the National Grid to as near to zero carbon as possible by 2030. Renewable energy is cheap and plentiful, so it will lead to lower energy bills for everyone: but only if the Government also finds a way of ending the ludicrous situation where electricity costs are linked to international gas price. Peterborough's proposed new Local Plan is a big opportunity for us to play our part in this energy revolution: why not have solar panels with battery storage on every new home and commercial building and allocate sites for large scale solar and wind energy generation?

The Government's proposed Buses and Railways Public Ownership bills have the potential to transform how people travel in Peterborough and around the country. The challenge is to ensure that never again in urban Peterborough does anyone feel they have to say that they "need" to have a car. So the proposed £10.2 million for new bus services in Cambridgeshire is welcome but we need to get our fair share of them here in Peterborough. And in the words of the late John Prescott, we will all benefit if we can achieve "a publicly owned and publicly accountable rail network."

The Government's massive investment in the NHS is welcome and in particular the new capital programme to ensure that we get the new hospitals that are desperately needed but which nine years of previous Tory governments often promised but failed to deliver. Reform of GP services and dentistry is promised but we have yet to see how it will be achieved. But a big failure so far is the Government's seeming lack of interest in speedy action to reform Social Care.... so thousands of hospital beds are taken up by elderly people and others who could be much more effectively cared for in the community.

Waiting four months before announcing a budget was probably a mistake and led to stress and worry for many thousands of our citizens. The pensioners' winter fuel allowance debacle, the increased national insurance contributions for employers and the changes to inheritance tax are all things that would have benefited from some prior discussion and consultation with those primarily affected. And ruling out increases to the fairest and most productive taxes (eg Income Tax and VAT) in advance of the General Election was perhaps a mistake.

The increased NI payments for employers could cost jobs in some small businesses, including small social care providers, at a time when we are in the midst of a social care crisis. On Inheritance Tax (IHT), the Government needed to tackle abuse of the system by a small number of very wealthy individuals buying up farm land and dodging tax when they pass it onto their children. The changes to IHT don't happen until April 2026; they will allow a farmer and his/her spouse to pass on £3 million to their children tax free and only pay 20% tax (half the usual rate) on any land or property over that value. HMRC statistics (available at Gov.uk) show that in 2021-22 the number of claims for Agricultural Property Relief of IHT on estates valued at over £2.5 million was only 117. So it seems unlikely that tens of thousands of small family farms will be affected, as has been claimed recently by some commentators and protestors.

As I said in a previous column in the PT, Liberal Democrats in Parliament intend to support the new Labour Government when they do good things but hold them vigorously to account when they fall short of what is needed.

And I am sure our Liberal Democrat councillors will do similarly for the Labour administration on the City Council....but more on that another time!