Gareth Thomas
MP for Harrow West · Labour (Co-op) · United Kingdom
“Local councils such as Harrow need to invest more in youth facilities that divert young people away from crime. Some of the CCTV projects in my constituency that Harrow council has turned down—in Wealdstone, south Harrow and central Harrow—should get funding.”
“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Pendle and Clitheroe (Jonathan Hinder) on securing the debate and on the way in which he approached the subject. I join him and my hon.”
“I also want to suggest that the Metropolitan police does not get recognition across the whole of the UK for its hugely important work in tackling national and international crime, and that perhaps more recognition of that is required in the funding formula.”
“In particular, in Harrow, we recently saw enforcement teams contracted out to an organisation called Kingdom. The responsibility for that contract was with Harrow council. There was widespread criticism of the way some of the staff employed by Kingdom tried to levy fines on a number of young people in south Harrow, in my constituency.”
“One way we can further support the Metropolitan police is by allowing it to keep more of the proceeds from successful operations, such as recovering stolen funds hidden in bitcoin assets. I congratulate my hon.”
“Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has done a huge amount to try to redirect funding from other parts of his budget to minimise the impact of that cut.”
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“I am happy to join the right hon. Gentleman in again condemning the role that the Liberal Democrats played, but if he was the sane voice in the Government at the time, I hope he will forgive me for being—slightly—even more concerned about what was going on. One of the understated problems resulting from the austerity that Harrow has suffered has been the decline in the quality of vital local services. Children’s services were rated inadequate by Ofsted just last year, and immediate improvement was required in eight areas.”
“Conservative councillors in Harrow promised not to raise council tax but duly did so. I hope the hon. Gentleman will join me in urging the shadow Secretary of State to ask the leader of the council to explain to the people of Harrow why he reneged on his promise. Regeneration should be an opportunity to build more affordable and social housing, and to help tackle the housing crisis that we face in communities like mine. It should surely involve local communities, create opportunities for them to come together, and provide for key local services. Instead, the completion of the redevelopment of the Grange Farm estate has been delayed multiple times—again, a product of the lack of funding and poor leadership locally.”
“It would have freed up council-owned land for much-needed affordable housing and for new workspaces, retail and commercial spaces, as well as a new primary school, a new library, a new park for residents to enjoy and a new town square. However, the civic centre remains closed—derelict and boarded up—and major decisions on regeneration have been delayed or cancelled. No new set of accessible council offices is planned, and no one knows when, or indeed if, new promised housing will go ahead. Instead, local Conservative councillors have spent thousands of pounds doing up their council offices, yet members of the public are not allowed in.”
“A consistent complaint that I have heard from constituents of mine is that they find it very difficult to get to see anyone at the council. They do not know where to go to meet council staff to sort out problems and discuss issues in their neighbourhood. Shortly after the local Conservative party took over running Harrow council, it closed Harrow’s civic centre. It was due to be replaced by a smaller set of council offices in Wealdstone, on what is currently the Peel Road car park. That would have given Harrow residents access to council staff, and helped increase the number of people using businesses on the local high street.”
“I would certainly welcome the news that the Conservative councillors in Harrow responsible for housing were looking at councils that are committed to building more council homes, like those in my hon. Friend’s constituency. The failure to complete the redevelopment means that residents have had to put up with mice, damp and substandard accommodation for too long on the Grange Farm estate. On other regeneration schemes in Wealdstone, plans for affordable housing have been axed, no new council housing that had not already been planned by the previous council has been built, and a primary school that was due to be provided has been axed. Developers are not being held properly to account, and a major opportunity to lift the quality of life in the borough has been missed.”
“In 2015, the Opposition parties decided to abolish the Audit Commission, a body that usefully challenged councils much earlier on, and helped prevent many poor management practices of the sort we regularly see in Harrow from developing and getting out of control.”
“If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I have given way to him once, and I leave him to hope to catch your eye later, Madam Deputy Speaker. The public will get their say on the situation in Harrow in May, but the failures at Harrow council raise other questions. Reversing the decade and more of austerity for local services is clearly a priority, and the settlement that was announced in December makes a good start on that objective. Harrow certainly needs a serious examination of its funding formula, but surely raising the quality of local services needs to be more than just the responsibility of local people.”
“We certainly need more independent oversight of the way in which Conservative councils in outer London are managing their finances. I am completely with my hon. Friend on that score, and the story of what has happened in Hillingdon is almost as bad as the situation we have faced in Harrow over the last four years. The one bright spot has been the increase in finance that the Secretary of State has delivered for Harrow. We need a review of the funding formula for Harrow, but I welcome the settlement we have had, and I look forward to continuing to persuade him of the case for more funding in Harrow.”
“Our country, and Harrow certainly, benefits from the hard-working Romanian community. Many Romanian families would welcome the chance for their children to supplement their normal school exams with a GCSE in Romanian. Given that no exam board currently offers a GCSE in Romanian, may we have a debate on how we can put that right?”
“Multiple constituents of mine in senior roles in engineering, the tech sector and other professional services have written to me with their stories, which underline their personal commitment to the UK and the expectation that Britain—of all countries, with our respect for the rule of law—would honour the implicit promise that we would hold true to that five-year commitment. At the very least, there must be transitional protections for those on the current ILR pathway. I am concerned that too often we shy away from recognising the economic and cultural contribution that those from outside our country make to our communities. They make the UK home. It is not Britain being exploited; we gain from the talent, imagination and hard work that migrants bring to our country.”
“I rise to raise my concerns about plans to require skilled workers, health and social care staff and those fleeing persecution to wait 10 or even 15 years, instead of the current five, to secure indefinite leave to remain. I echo the concerns of many in the Hong Kong community in Harrow, who are concerned about their status and their route to indefinite leave to remain. As they stand, the changes will make it more difficult to attract to the UK the key staff and talent to help grow our economy and run vital public services. Of course, we need to do more to help those born and bred in the UK to access the jobs market and to prevent abuse of the existing immigration system, but to ask those in the UK who are already here to have to wait another five years or longer would be the height of unfairness.”
“I very much agree, and I add that surely we have a responsibility to stand with refugees fleeing appalling conflict, including those from Ukraine, and those fleeing increasingly authoritarian regimes such as those from Hong Kong.”
“Friends in the Home Office are not easy, but I urge them none the less to recognise the particular responsibility we have to those who are already here and are already on the ILR pathway.”
“Forgive me; I have taken one intervention already. Overwhelmingly, migrants from Pakistan, the Caribbean, India, Sri Lanka and across Europe—wherever they are from—have benefited my constituency. Are we sure we want to lose those vital workers from crucial public services, such as the NHS or social care? International students make a positive contribution to our economy and our country, too. I am certainly proud of the many Indian students who were attracted to the UK and who live in my constituency, and I do worry for our universities. The fees of international students helps to fund research. Cutting-edge universities in Britain need to attract international students, so we should not demonise those students who come here, and drive them towards other countries’ universities. I recognise that the choices before my hon.”
“Four year ago, the regeneration of Wealdstone—now entirely in my constituency—was poised to begin. Since then, the Conservative councillors who run Harrow council have cancelled or stalled key decisions, so much-needed affordable housing is nowhere to be seen, council offices are closed to the public, local services have been starved of investment, and Wealdstone High Street is under pressure. Might we have a debate on how to help failing councils lead regeneration initiatives better?”
“As the hon. Gentleman knows, I do not always agree with him, but I very much agree with the case that he is making today and what he is saying. He mentioned the surge in antisemitism in the UK. Would he agree that Ofcom needs to crack down on online hatred—particularly antisemitism, but also Islamophobic tweets? The Jewish community and those of many other faiths are subject to a terrifying amount of online hatred.”
“My right hon. Friend is making an extremely good speech. He will recognise that one way in which we have the backs of current military personnel, as well as of veterans, is by offering, through the Joining Forces partnership, access to a credit union for military personnel. Will he assure me that nothing in the Bill will prevent the further promotion of the benefits of credit union membership to even more military personnel, and will he or a Minister meet me to explore how we might promote the Joining Forces partnership even further?”
“As my right hon. Friend has said, hundreds of thousands of displaced families in Gaza are living in torn tents and roofless homes, being exposed to the rain and freezing temperatures, with further storms due. What further steps will she take to persuade the current Israeli Government to allow in the materials necessary for more robust shelter, particularly—and immediately—for families with young children?”
“Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 27 February, and to be printed (Bill 363).”
“I am grateful for the support of the Federation of Small Businesses, Small Business Britain, Richard Marshall of Pall Mall Barbers, the Building Societies Association, the Association of British Credit Unions, the Co-op party, Responsible Finance and the excellent team at the Finance Innovation Lab. A fair banking Act is a common-sense, proportionate measure that could have transformative benefits for businesses and communities across the UK. I commend the Bill to the House. Question put and agreed to. Ordered, That Gareth Thomas, Dame Meg Hillier, Sarah Champion, Liam Byrne, Sarah Owen, David Burton-Sampson, Lloyd Hatton, Bill Esterson, Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Nick Smith, Anneliese Dodds and John McDonnell present the Bill. Gareth Thomas accordingly presented the Bill.”
“There is currently no mandate for banks to expand access to affordable credit, and no incentive for them to work with credit unions and CDFIs to do so. What the widespread exclusion from credit demonstrates is a major market failure. Current measures are not working and voluntary measures are not enough. The measures in my Bill would end that failure. Talent, and entrepreneurial talent in particular, exists everywhere in the UK. We need to give that talent the chance to flourish, and more affordable sources of credit are key to that. No one in crisis should be forced into punishing levels of debt or worse because the mainstream banking sector has locked them out.”
“That would transform the prospects for thousands of entrepreneurs and financially underserved people in all our communities. There have been some suggestions that the measures in my Bill might overlap with existing laws and regulations, including the recently introduced consumer duty. Unfortunately, that duty applies only to people who are customers, so people who apply to banks and are turned down are excluded from it. Also, no mechanisms or metrics are currently in place, or being proposed, on measuring banks’ performance on expanding access to affordable credit as a whole. Specifically, there is no current framework for benchmarking banks’ actions on providing affordable credit or on working with credit unions and CDFIs.”
“To be fair, there is some investment in CDFIs from Lloyds and J. P. Morgan, but it is striking how many other major banks invest in CDFIs in the US but do not invest similarly here. As a result of US requirements, British banks are already used to working with the disclosure requirements that I envisage introducing through the Bill. The majority of the data needed for the disclosure requirements under the Bill will already be collected by the FCA in, for example, its consumer credit product sales data, so it would not be over-regulation. Following detailed research for the fair banking campaign, conservative estimates suggest that the requirements in the Bill could result in, for example, an increase in the level of annual lending here by CDFIs and credit unions from an estimated £250 million a year up to £3.3 billion a year.”
“A UK fair banking Act would need to focus on small business lending and an individual’s ability to access affordable credit, and less so on mortgage lending, which is a key issue in the US. American fair banking requirements mean that British banks invest in left-behind communities in the US. They invest in and work happily with community banks or community development finance institutions—indeed, British banks are among the largest investors in US CDFIs. They do not lose money and there is often joint lending by CDFIs and banks. In the reports they have to publish they celebrate, for example, their work with women entrepreneurs and with black and ethnic minority businesses. The question for those British banks is why they will not back such requirements here. Why will they not do more with community banks and credit unions in the UK?”
“Banks could improve their ratings by expanding their provision of affordable lending to underserved communities and businesses, and by creating partnerships with community banks or community development finance institutions. I am not interested in bashing Britain’s banks—they are critical to our economic future, and huge sources of wealth and jobs for British people and for all our communities—but I do think they could do more. There are fair banking requirements in other countries, most notably in the US, where most British banks already operate comfortably under them. There are of course differences between the financial services environment in the US and here in the UK.”
“Friends on the Front Bench have put into establishing a financial inclusion strategy. My Bill seeks to build on that good work. We need to go further if the loan sharks are to feel that their opportunities are shrinking, and if we are to see credit unions doubling in size and community banks unlocking more of the business ambition in our country, especially in the most economically deprived areas. A fair banking Act would require the Financial Conduct Authority to analyse the performance of mainstream banks, according to their size, on the provision of equitable access to credit for individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises. It would create a published ratings system that showed which banks were doing well and which less so.”
“Some 12.5 million people have no savings to fall back on in a crisis and almost 2 million have turned to illegal lenders in the past 12 months alone. As the team at the excellent London Mutual credit union pointed out to me when I visited last week, not having fair access to affordable credit can mean that people have to use payday loans, forcing those who can least afford it to put up with higher charges and interest rates—paying a poverty premium. It means it is harder to save, and more costly to buy key things like a fridge or to repair a broken boiler. In short, it is harder to pay for life’s unexpected costs. The financially underserved do not live far away; they are in all our communities. They are among our families, they are our friends, and they are certainly our neighbours. I welcome the work that my right hon. and hon.”
“When in government, senior figures at one bank told me that the typical business client who received personal sit-down financial advice had a trading income of £10 million or more. According to the Federation of Small Businesses, which is concerned about access to the funding its members need and supports this Bill, nearly half of small businesses recently rated the overall availability and affordability of new credit for small businesses as poor. At the same time, millions of people across the UK do not have access to affordable credit when they need it most. More than 20 million adults are now classified as financially underserved—a 50% rise since 2016. One in three adults faces barriers to mainstream credit, often leaving them without safe or affordable options.”
“Since 2010, CWRT has loaned more than £37 million, helping small and medium-sized enterprises overlooked by traditional lenders in their communities to start up, grow and thrive. Thousands of small and medium-sized businesses are sadly locked out of access to affordable credit at the moment, meaning, in short, that they cannot get fair banking. This holds back too many people in too many communities from turning strong ideas for new inventions or new services into more jobs, new high street ventures or just great commercial opportunities. For the entrepreneur who does not have a track record or assets, access to business finance and financial advice is a huge challenge. Indeed, the cost of business finance in the UK is higher than in other comparable countries.”
“Dal Dhillon is a great Coventry entrepreneur who runs Dhillon’s Brewery, Dhillon’s Spire Bar and the Sky Blue Tavern, which, together, are helping to fire up Frank Lampard’s growing army of Coventry fans as they push for the holy grail of premier league promotion. When Dal wanted to expand his businesses, he hit a stumbling block that affects many growing businesses: accessing affordable finance. His application was rejected by a mainstream bank, so Coventry and Warwickshire Reinvestment Trust—a community development finance institution or community bank—stepped in. It is not for profit, accredited by the Financial Conduct Authority, community-focused and takes the time to understand the entrepreneur, their business and their ambitions. In essence, it is a proper community bank.”
“I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require banks to measure and disclose their performance in reducing financial exclusion, including exclusion from affordable credit, and in improving access to finance for small- and medium-sized businesses; to establish a system for rating banks according to that performance; to require banks to cooperate with credit unions and community development finance institutions to address financial exclusion and improve access to finance for small- and medium-sized businesses; and for connected purposes. I declare at the outset that I am a member of the M4Money credit union.”
“According to the UN, Sri Lanka, where many of my constituents are from, is experiencing one of its worst ever flooding disasters as a result of Cyclone Ditwah, which hit two weeks ago. Given that over 600 people have died already and over 2 million have been severely affected, and given the existing levels of hardship in Sri Lanka, may we have a statement on what more Britain could do to help, either directly or through the UN and the multilateral bank system?”
“I commend the steps that my right hon. Friend took to support those on low incomes, both in the Budget and through the recently published financial inclusion strategy, but may I encourage her to go further on the issue of savings, given that a quarter of the people in the UK have little by way of savings and, indeed, one in seven have no savings at all? Will she encourage employers to work with local credit unions to help those who want to save automatically, and to save even a small amount from their pay packets, to do so?”
“More than two thirds of Gaza’s children—700,000—are living in tents, and are at high risk of preventable disease. Growing numbers are suffering malnutrition, diarrhoea and pneumonia. The Trump plan called for a minimum of 600 trucks of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza daily, but nothing like that number is yet getting in, so will my right hon. Friend step up the Government’s efforts to secure sustained access to Gaza for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, and other critical UN humanitarian agencies?”
“With imagination and sustained business encouragement, a better deal to lower trade barriers could be possible. The recent EU-Swiss deal is interesting for the greater flexibility the EU has now shown to a close and serious partner. As we rebuild our country’s relationship with our allies across the channel, it is surely time, within our red lines, to be bolder in our ambitions to strip away the red tape that the Conservatives love about trade with Europe, particularly for goods exports. The needless rules, the different standards and the extra unnecessary checks they introduced in the TCA are making it harder for British businesses to sell into the EU. Mutual recognition of qualifications and easing business mobility restrictions are worth exploring too.”
“Friend the Chancellor, in the run-up to the Budget, rightly drew attention to the impact of Brexit and the dismal trade and co-operation agreement negotiated by the Conservative party. The OBR continues to estimate that the impact of Brexit has been a 4% hit to our GDP, with sustained damage to our tax revenues, to jobs and to family finances. In short, it has been an unparalleled act of economic self-harm, with the TCA easily the worst trade deal ever negotiated. I welcome the steps that the Government are taking towards a sanitary and phytosanitary deal to lower food prices and reduce border delays, and a youth mobility scheme and energy co-operation make obvious sense too. These will benefit growth, but I believe that we should go further and use the 2026 UK-EU summit to agree on the ambition of a more profound reset.”
“The movement is vital for tackling financial exclusion, and for delivering jobs and better opportunities in our country’s most deprived neighbourhoods. The banking industry should partner with, and invest in the growth of, credit unions and community development finance institutions. Many British banks do so already in the US, where it is a requirement; they should do so in their own backyard too. The Government cannot double the size of the co-operative and mutual sector of our economy on their own. Businesses in the sector need to do that themselves, but greater interest, imagination and urgency from the Treasury—which, under the Conservative party, paid only passing attention—in tackling the finance, legislative and capacity challenges that the sector faces will be critical. My right hon.”
“Co-operatives and mutuals are rarely given the attention they merit, yet the opportunities for growth and, crucially, for the locally owned growth they generate are significant. I hope the Treasury will bring forward its own specific call for evidence on how credit unions, mutual insurers and building societies can expand to play their part in growing our economy. The standout issue for co-operatives is their ability to issue capital instruments that do not lead to de-mutualisation. This has been done successfully in Australia, where 600 million Australian dollars has already been raised to grow mutuals, notably in the elderly care sector. There is serious interest from co-operatives here in using similar capital instruments to invest in social care.”
“Not one new council home that had not already been agreed has been built since the Conservatives took over control, making the housing crisis in my constituency much worse. More capital investment in schools in Harrow West is certainly needed. After 14 years of Tory neglect, there are classrooms that cannot be used, windows that cannot be shut, roofs that need fixing and sports facilities that need modernisation. Crucially, more investment is needed in our NHS too. Notably, a new intensive care unit at Northwick Park hospital is needed to ease pressure on the A&E unit and improve the quality of care. I welcome the explicit mention in the Budget of the role of co-operatives in our economy and the publication of the call for evidence on co-operative growth.”
“I commend the skill and courage of my right hon. Friend the Chancellor, who has faced the most difficult inheritance of any post-war Chancellor since Hugh Dalton in 1945. I welcome the cost of living measures, the cut in energy bills and the increase in the minimum wage, and the lifting of the two-child cap is very welcome too. In addition, I commend the work that my hon. and learned Friend the Economic Secretary to the Treasury has begun on tackling financial exclusion. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor has been particularly skilled at increasing capital funding, and I will campaign for more of it to be invested in Harrow, not least in council or co-operative housing. Indeed, the lack of new socially rented housing being built in Harrow by the Conservative-run council is a disgrace.”
“That assistance supports our security needs, and it is vital to the effectiveness of key parts of peacekeeping, global health and the empowerment of those whose prospects are being damaged by poverty, conflict and climate change. I look forward to supporting the Budget in the Division Lobby tomorrow.”
“I understand that the Department for Business and Trade, my former Department, is about to issue a call for evidence on exactly how to negotiate membership of that, and I very much look forward to its happening. If we are to get faster and more significant growth, we have to take the axe to more of the red tape that Boris’s trade deal introduced, so I urge my right hon. Friends to continue to be bolder and more ambitious for a deeper and more profound EU reset agenda. Lastly, I think we should consider in the coming months how to rebuild the fiscal space to fund the development assistance that gives us so much soft power.”
“Schools in Brent and Ealing, which neighbour my constituency in Harrow, are able to offer teachers an extra £1,000 to work in their schools because of the inner London weighting. Given that the cost of living in Harrow is little different from the cost of living in inner London, and given that my schools occasionally lose skilled teachers to schools less than half a mile away because of this now unfair pay differential, may we have a debate on how the School Teachers’ Review Body might improve pay for teachers and support staff in schools in Harrow?”
“Northwick Park hospital is the acute hospital serving my constituents. It benefits from having excellent cancer clinicians. They are determined to go ever further to improve the speed of diagnosis and the quality of support for those diagnosed with cancer, and are developing plans for a cancer centre for the hospital. As part of the roll-out of the national cancer plan, would my hon. Friend be willing to visit and meet those clinicians, and perhaps bring the Secretary of State’s chequebook with her?”
“Medical knowledge was far behind what it is today, and it was a long time yet before I would be born. I gently suggest to the Minister that this is a very serious issue. People with Parkinson’s who cannot afford their prescription sometimes reduce their dose or skip medication, risking hospital admission and irreversible damage to their health. Many people with Parkinson’s already hesitate about taking medication—I think of my father, who had Parkinson’s—because they are worried about the side effects or have difficulty accepting their diagnosis. Having to pay for prescriptions simply creates an extra barrier or a reason not to start medication, but taking that medicine can significantly help with the day-to-day management of symptoms, and can prevent falls and hospital admissions.”
“I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Colne Valley (Paul Davies) for the way he introduced the debate. Given the time, I will focus on the particular challenges that the Parky charter, which I strongly support, addresses. Parkinson’s brings additional financial challenges for people with Parkinson’s and their families. In particular, I want to highlight the prescription charges faced by many people with Parkinson’s. England is the only part of the UK where people with Parkinson’s still pay for their prescriptions because the NHS medical exemption list has barely changed since it was created in 1968. To put that in context, that is the year that the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” was the UK’s biggest-selling single, and it was before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.”
“One way of improving access to banking in rural and, indeed, urban areas would be to increase the reach and role of community banks, or community development finance institutions. Given that CDFIs play a big role in American economic life and are backed to do so by the biggest banks, would it not be good if our biggest banks helped to fund their expansion here as well?”
“After two years of bombardment and siege, Gaza’s healthcare system has been decimated. I am sure the whole House welcomes the ceasefire, fragile as it is, the release of hostages, and that aid is beginning to increase somewhat. Will my right hon. Friend consider the case for a debate on the steps that Britain could take to support the rebuilding of Gaza’s hospitals, so that the most innocent in this awful conflict—children—can at least begin to get the healthcare support they so desperately need?”
“Redwood Housing Co-operative spans five floors of social housing in the iconic OXO Tower on the south bank of the River Thames. Given that Redwood is run by its tenants, charges some of the lowest rents in central London and offers some of the best views, should not every community have a Redwood?”
“My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. I wonder whether she will allow me to register a concern on behalf of those from Hong Kong who live in Harrow, many of whom are making a very significant contribution to our community and are genuinely worried about these proposals.”