Built by Dave Cross.
Powered by Perlanet
More children and young people in Portsmouth will be able to achieve and thrive at their local school, as the Labour government allocates the first round of more than £3bn to create inclusive classrooms across the country.
Around £860 million will be allocated to every council in England – the biggest ever single high needs capital allocation – to create more inclusive physical spaces and drive a transformative expansion of Inclusion Bases, so that early specialist support becomes part of the fabric of mainstream schools.
Portsmouth is set to receive a total of almost £2,248,000.
To make sure all children and families in Portsmouth can benefit from truly inclusive schools, Portsmouth City Council will be required to sign a written agreement to prioritise increasing places in mainstream schools.
Signing the agreement, Portsmouth City Council will need to adopt inclusive strategies that support positive outcomes for children, like reducing the number of children with SEND who need to travel long distances to school, and making sure every child who needs a place in an Inclusion Base can access one.
Importantly, councils should also use their allocation to ensure sufficient special school and AP places for children and young people with the most complex needs, reflecting the vital role these settings play in providing support for some of the most vulnerable children.
Where councils choose to spend their funding on special school places, they should set out clear evidence-based rationale for why this would better respond to local need – ensuring investment in places delivers for local families.
This announcement follows the government’s landmark SEND reforms and is a significant step towards ending the postcode lottery of SEND support, so every child has access to a brilliant, inclusive education closer to home in Portsmouth.
Commenting, Stephen Morgan, MP for Portsmouth South, said:
“I’ve been listening and engaging with parents, teachers and school staff on the challenges schools are facing and specifically the need for better support for children with additional needs.
“Labour’s significant investment is going to make this a reality, with over £2,200,000 going to the creation of new specialist school places and teacher training to meet a range of needs.
“Brick by brick, Labour is building an education system where every child in Portsmouth can achieve and thrive.”
Schools Minister, Georgia Gould said:
“Just last month, we set out once-in-a-generation SEND reforms we’re now acting quickly to deliver the changes that make sure more children can thrive at their local school, with their friends.
“Inclusion is a choice, one this government is proud to make, and the funding we’re backing councils with this week will help make it a reality.
“Every school can, and will, have a bespoke environment that children with SEND – and their families – can rely on, ultimately rebuilding trust in the system and transforming outcomes for young people”
The over £2,248,000 comes alongside £500 million per year allocated to nurseries, schools and colleges to help them deliver an improved inclusion offer. New estimates published suggest that the average primary school will receive around £14,000 through the Inclusive Mainstream Fund, on top of their core funding allocations, with the average secondary school receiving around £48,000 in 2026-27.
Inclusion Bases enable pupils to move seamlessly between specialist support and mainstream classes, meeting a wide range of needs and importantly, building confidence and belonging.
The local council’s high needs capital cash boost can also be used to make the school environment inclusive by design through adaptations to improve inclusivity and accessibility, like providing a more comfortable sensory environment by enhancing ventilation, acoustics and lighting.
Following the publication of the schools white paper and Education Estates Strategy, the new funding allocation marks an important step to realising an inclusive education that delivers high standards for all pupils in every setting.
The post City MP champions biggest single funding allocation to deliver more places for children with SEND appeared first on Stephen Morgan MP.
Honour to speak about the late Idwal Davies BEM at the posthumous presentation of his British Empire Medal to his family by the Lord Lieutenant on Saturday.
So sad he passed away before it could be presented, but at least he lived to receive the announcement and our congratulations. Idwal’s family can be immensely proud of this award, in recognition of his enormous contribution to our community, particularly his work with the hospital friends and the veterans and his contribution to local history through his book.
He will be sorely missed, and as the title of his book says gone, but not forgotten.
Jeff Smith MP welcomes a major employment drive to help unlock 200,000 new jobs and apprenticeships for next generation.
A major youth employment drive backed by £1 billion will help create 200,000 jobs for young people, alongside the biggest transformation of apprenticeships in a decade.
It comes as apprenticeships starts amongst young people are down 40 percent in the last decade and almost one million young people are not earning or learning – a rise of 248,000 between 2021-2024.
It is the latest step in the Government’s commitment to ensuring every young person aged 16 24 has the opportunity to earn or learn. These changes are backed by an additional £1bn, taking the total investment into the Youth Guarantee and the additional investment in the Growth and Skills Levy to £2.5 billion over the next three years. This will support almost one million young people and help deliver up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn.
George Freeman intervenes in a debate on the impact of flooding in rural communities to highlight the shear scale of the insurance problem risking serious economic damage to our economy and, as such, is an issue of national importance.
I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. On the point of insurance, I have just come from chairing a meeting with Aviva—a great Norfolk insurer, the biggest insurer of houses in the country. It made the point to me that this is the tip of a major iceberg of uninsureability, unmortgageability and then unsaleability, and that the Treasury should be looking at this as a major problem on the balance sheet of this country. It is a Horizon Post Office-sized scandal in its scale, risking serious economic damage to our economy. Does my hon. Friend agree that that elevates this issue to one of national importance?
I was not aware of just how drastic insurers see the situation, but it does not surprise me, based on what I see in my communities. I know that my hon. Friend has worked consistently on the issue of flooding, so I take him at his word that we need to be looking at that problem more seriously.
The Minister has mentioned Aviva, one of Norfolk’s great companies and the biggest insurer of houses in the country. Has she seen its recent report, in which it calculates that about 4.78 million houses are at serious risk of flooding over the next 10 years? I congratulate her on securing the funding in the autumn, which I think was going to protect 60,000 houses, but does she agree that the Treasury should be thinking very deeply about the scale of this challenge in the context of national resilience?
The hon. Member prompts me to mention the biggest ever, greatest, most fantastic and largest investment in flood defences that this Government have just announced. On a more serious note, yes, Aviva did talk to me about that report, as he would imagine. We had a conversation about it and, without straying too much out of my remit and into planning, I believe that such conversations are ongoing with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
I am getting a huge number of messages from people about potholes across Bassetlaw. Our roads are falling apart and it cannot go on like this.
Many drivers tell me they are worried about damage to their cars. They say they have to swerve to avoid deep holes in the road. People are facing huge bills for car repairs to fix damage to tyres. I have even heard about license plates being ripped from cars by deep potholes in some areas.
Recently, I was contacted by residents who live on Sheffield Road in Blyth. The road there is in a terrible state. Large lorries hit the crater holes at speed, and the impact is so strong that nearby houses shake, day and night. Some residents are struggling to sleep through the night because the vibrations are so bad. Some have even seen cracks appear in their brickwork. That is simply not good enough.
I am pushing for the whole road to be properly resurfaced, not just patched up. I am pleased that this request has now been put forward to the County Council as part of next year’s roads budget. I will keep pressing for it to be approved.
I see the ‘dob jobs’ taking place, but this is a quick fix and not a permanent solution. In some cases, the roads crumble again within weeks. The County Council recently spent £75,000 on flags for lampposts. While I love to see our flag flying, is this really the priority when our roads are in such a bad state?
We have heard plenty of excuses. The councillor in charge of roads has even tried to blame my husband, John Mann, the former MP for Bassetlaw. But I have lived here in Bassetlaw for over 25 years, and I have never known our roads to be in such poor condition. Over the past few months, I have reported over 50 potholes across Bassetlaw. But when I go to report them, I often see that they have been reported many times before, and no action has been taken.
Many people ask me what is being done about it. Here are the facts. Nottinghamshire County Council is in charge of looking after our roads. It runs this service through its company, VIA. The Council has been given an extra £8.3 million from the government to fix roads. This is on top of the £70 million it already has for road repairs. I plan to meet with the County Council very soon, alongside other Nottinghamshire MPs of all parties to discuss the issue.
The Council is saying it plans to buy a special machine called the JCB Pothole Pro. It costs about £200,000 and is meant to repair potholes more quickly. However, I am concerned that the previous Conservative administration looked at this in 2021, and found that the machine did not save money, could damage kerbs, and had problems on narrow roads. Most importantly, it did not fix potholes any faster than normal repair methods.
I will be keeping a close eye on how this money is spent. What matters most is that our roads are maintained and properly repaired. My message is clear, use the money and get on with the job.
The post Potholes are the main concern for Bassetlaw residents appeared first on Jo White MP.
The post December Newsletter appeared first on Mohammad Yasin MP.
It was great to call into Neighbourhood Watch in Pelsall again and catch up with Edwin and Andrew.
We discussed a range of local issues across the Rushall, Shelfield, Pelsall, and Brownhills Neighbourhood Watch area. Our focus was on how we can work together as one community to address these challenges.
It was also fantastic to hear about Project Phoenix – a pilot community-run initiative launched by Walsall Council! This project is dedicated to building a stronger community right across our Borough, and I’m really keen to see the positive impact it will have.
An abridged version of this article ran in The Times on 3rd February 2025
In 2007, in the pages of this newspaper, I argued that Britain should seize the moment and move Heathrow to the Thames Estuary, freeing up the congested west London site for much-needed housing while creating a world-leading transport hub fit for the 21st century. It was an ambitious plan—perhaps too ambitious for a nation that has lost its appetite for grand infrastructure. Seventeen years later, what do we have? The same tired debates, the same dithering, and now, a third runway proposal that represents the absolute minimum of what could be done. It is not a vision; it is a concession to stagnation.
Throughout history, Britain built infrastructure that transformed cities and continents. The Victorians laid thousands of miles of railways across India and Africa. British engineers built the world’s first underground railway in London, the great docks of Hong Kong, and the vast shipping hubs that made global trade possible. Ours was once a nation that saw scale and complexity as challenges to be overcome, not reasons to prevaricate. Today, while China constructs floating airports in Hong Kong and Dalian, we are still arguing over a few extra miles of tarmac at an aging airport hemmed in by suburban sprawl.
The case for expanding Heathrow is undeniable. The airport operates at near capacity, with any disruption causing delays that ripple across the global aviation network. Additional capacity is needed. But the third runway is not a bold leap forward—it is an unimaginative compromise. The design is a relic of a bygone era when Britain was still willing to approve large infrastructure projects but had already begun its slow descent into cautious incrementalism. Surely for a solution we should be looking beyond the immediate horizon, daring to create something transformative.
Compare this to the grand infrastructure ambitions of Asia. Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok, which replaced the legendary but perilous Kai Tak airport in the 1990s, was built on reclaimed land. It was a marvel of engineering (mostly British), completed in just six years. Now, China is taking the concept even further: Dalian is constructing a floating airport, pushing the boundaries of what is possible. This is a country that doesn’t simply accept geographic limitations—it overcomes them. Britain, meanwhile, is paralysed by protest groups, endless consultations, and political hand-wringing.
A floating airport in the Thames Estuary—an idea proposed and swiftly dismissed—would have been a statement of ambition. London could have had its own Chek Lap Kok, a world-class hub unencumbered by the constraints of Heathrow’s location. Instead, we are left with a piecemeal expansion of an outdated site, in a project that will take decades and still leave Britain trailing behind.
The environmental argument against expansion is often cited as a reason for delay, but it is a red herring. Modern aviation is rapidly advancing towards lower emissions and greater efficiency. If the concern is air pollution and carbon footprints, the answer is not to stifle airport expansion but to embrace new technology, support cleaner aviation fuels, and invest in modern air traffic management. Britain should be leading these efforts, not using environmental concerns as an excuse for stagnation.
The economic cost of our hesitation is immense. Aviation is a key driver of trade, tourism, and investment. Heathrow’s constraints mean we lose out to European rivals, with airlines shifting long-haul routes to Paris, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt. The third runway, even if built, will do little to reclaim lost ground. By the time it is operational—assuming it even survives the judicial challenges that will inevitably come—other nations will have long since surpassed us.
What Britain needs is a fundamental shift in mindset. We must stop viewing major infrastructure projects as necessary evils to be endured and start treating them as national priorities. This requires reforming our planning laws, streamlining approval processes, and fostering a political culture that celebrates engineering excellence rather than recoiling from it.
The third runway at Heathrow is not the answer—it is a symptom of our decline. Instead of an afterthought tacked onto an aging airport, we should be considering radical alternatives: offshore airports, high-speed rail integration to regional hubs, and a renewed commitment to infrastructure that places Britain at the forefront of global connectivity. We were once a nation that built the world’s most advanced transport networks, that pioneered engineering breakthroughs others only dreamed of. We can be that nation again—but only if we stop settling for mediocrity and start daring to think bigger.
The world is not waiting for Britain to catch up. While we squabble over a single new runway, China is building entire new airports on water. The contrast is stark, and the lesson is clear: boldness breeds success, hesitation ensures decline. If Britain truly wishes to remain a global player, we must abandon the timid incrementalism of the third runway and embrace the kind of audacity that once made us great.
Kit Malthouse 1st February 2025
Christmas is a very special time. It's when we come together with friends and family to take stock, and give thanks for what we have.
Some years – in the best of times, this is cause for celebration.
Other years – it's more complicated if we're missing loved ones,
affected by illness, or facing money worries, homelessness, or loneliness.
Sometimes – let’s be honest, for many reasons, Christmas can just be about getting through it, and that's ok!
Because regardless of the year that’s been, or the circumstances you find yourself in, Christmas offers everyone a precious gift – hope.
The post Toby Perkins MP supports Chesterfield Hedgehog Rescue and Rehabilitation appeared first on Toby Perkins Labour MP.