Category: Wokingham and West Berkshire Issues

I have been sent a reminder of changes coming in this April.   We want to support people in work, as well as ensure the welfare system works as a safety net for those who need it.

The measures include:

 A further increase in the Personal Allowance to £11,500; an increase of over 70% since 2010. Since the start of this Parliament we have cut income tax for 31m people and taken 1.3m of the lowest paid out of income tax altogether.

 Increasing support for low earners by raising the National Living Wage to £7.50.

 Helping working parents with childcare costs by launching Tax Free Childcare from 28 April – saving working parents up to £2000 per year for each child under the age of 12.

 Increasing income for 3 million households by reducing the Universal Credit  taper rate from 65 per cent to 63 per cent.

 Investing £330m in practical employment support to help disabled people back into work.

 Helping savers with the launch of a new NS&I bond offering a market-leading interest rate of 2.2% and increasing the annual ISA limit to £20,000.

I have been notified of a plan for the possible  closure the Wokingham store, following consultation with staff who will be offered jobs in  neighbouring stores.

I have written back to Marks and Spencer asking why they think they need to close the store, and why they are pessimistic about its future turnover and profitability. I asked if they have found the best mix between food, household and textile products. They need to examine their merchandising and marketing strategy for what should be a successful  and profitable store. They also need to take into account the growth of Wokingham and the surrounding area as new housing goes in.

I will let you know what response I receive.

I lobbied the government against the proposed increase in probate fees. I was pleased to learn yesterday that they are not proceeding with this increase in the present Parliament. I hope they do not reappear in the Manifesto.

Yesterday I lobbied an Education Minister again about the proposed fair funding of schools and Wokingham’s needs. I am also pressing for a suitable pledge in the Conservative Manifesto.

I attended the all Churches in Wokingham Good Friday service at the Methodist Church this morning. I went on with the congregation to see the Passion play in the town centre.

I would like to congratulate all involved in preparing it and performing in it, and all the helpers who provided hot cross buns at the end.

I am seeking to reinstate the additional meeting with the Secretary of State over money for Wokingham and West Berkshire Schools that was cancelled owing to the terrorist incident recently.

I have also been asked to meet the governors of the Holt school, which I am happy to do.  I do need to fit the meetings in with the Parliamentary timetable, which is why I was keen to meet this week or next when Parliament is not in session. I think now they have found a later date. I also offered dates to visit  Forest School who wanted another meeting, but they did not find any of them suitable.

What I am trying to do in conjunction with some other MPs is to get the government to reconsider its new fairer funding scheme to be a bit more generous to the low funded areas like Wokingham and West Berkshire. The government’s intent is correct, but the first plan does not level things up enough. I encourage all those concerned to write in to the Department for Education who are working on this issue.

I am all in favour of providing more seats and more train capacity locally for passengers. I have been pressing for better services.

I have recently been sent the plans for a two platform  station at Green Park, and told of the works to extend the platforms at Wokingham to take longer trains.

The new Green Park stop will be between Reading and Mortimer on the Basingstoke line, near Kirtons Farm Road. The idea is to run a half hourly train service in each direction when it is completed.

If constituents have views on either of these projects please let me know.

I receive a great deal of correspondence from my constituents about poor service from telephone and internet providers. I am aware how much delays in getting repairs done, missed appointments and starting a new service costs in terms of time and money.

I have received the communication below from the Chief Executive of Ofcom. They are consulting on proposals to require phone and broadband providers to pay automatic compensation in these cases. The consultation ends on 5 June and you can access it at: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-1/automatic-compensation

“Ofcom has today set out new proposals to require phone and broadband providers to pay automatic compensation – either a cash payment, or a credit on a bill – to customers who suffer slow repairs, missed appointments or delays to starting new services.

When a customer’s landline or broadband goes wrong, that is frustrating enough without having to fight to get fair compensation from the phone company. So we are proposing new rules to force providers to pay money back to customers automatically, whenever repairs or installations don’t happen on time, or when people wait in for an engineer who doesn’t turn up. This would mean customers are properly compensated, while providers will be incentivised to work harder to improve their service.

Compensation payments would be set by Ofcom, and designed to reflect the degree of harm suffered by consumers. Here is how Ofcom’s automatic compensation scheme would work:

We estimate that our plans would mean up to 2.6 million additional customers could receive up to £185m in new compensation payments each year. Currently, there are 7.2m instances where landline or broadband customers suffer delayed repairs, missed appointments or delays to new installations. Financial compensation from companies, totalling around £16.3m, is currently paid out in 1.1m of these cases.

Around one-third of small and medium-sized enterprises choose residential landline and broadband services and would also benefit from our compensation proposals.

We are consulting until 5th June and plan to publish a statement at the end of the year”.

With best wishes

Helen