Weekly Update - 9 October

Dear John I hope you've had a good week. Here's what I've been up to over this past week.

This Week the Government Announced...

Ending the 8am scramble

The government has taken a big step towards ending the 8am scramble for GP appointments. The government now requires all GP practices in England to let you request GP appointments online from 8am-6:30pm, Monday to Friday. This will help free up practice phone lines for those who need them most, and make it more convenient to access appointments. Many GPs already offer this service, with one surgery already cutting waits from 14 to 3 days and 95% of patients being seen within one week. The government are taking the best of the NHS and rolling it out across the country. We know that when patients can't get through on the phone, 6.6% end up in A&E, which is worse for them and more expensive for the taxpayer. By fixing the front door of the NHS, these reforms will help to ease pressures on other parts of the health service.

Fixing the homebuying process - saving first-time buyers hundreds of pounds

This week, the government announced proposals to speed up the long-drawn out and costly process of buying a home by four weeks, saving people money and unnecessary stress, alongside wider reforms to rewire a chaotic system which has become a barrier to homeownership. The plans will see sellers and estate agents required to provide buyers with vital information about a property upfront, including the condition of the home, leasehold costs, and chains of people waiting to move. This will help end nasty surprises which result in last-minute collapses and give greater confidence to first-time buyers making one of life’s most important decisions. Binding contracts could also be introduced to stop people walking away from agreements after buyers painstakingly spend months in negotiations. This will help halve the number of failed transactions, so precious time and money don’t go to waste, as well as avoid heartbreak and stress for hard-working people looking for the perfect home. Under these plans, hundreds of thousands of first-time buyers are set to save £710 on average when buying a home, along with vital time and energy, thanks to the biggest shakeup to the homebuying system in this country’s history.

2,300 more teachers than last year and funding to recruit even more

I am delighted that the government is making significant progress on its promise to recruit and retain 6,500 additional teachers by the next election. We have recruited 2,300 more teachers in our secondaries and special schools compared to last year. In the West Midlands, that 282 more teachers in secondaries and 151 in special schools. But the government will not stop there. They have announced new incentives to support more aspiring teachers into the profession. Bursaries and scholarships worth up to £31,000 will be offered to train talented people to teach in subjects including chemistry, maths, physics, and computing - helping to boost outcomes for young people in Birmingham. Getting more exceptional teachers in front of every classroom with a passion to inspire the next generation will drive high standards in schools, so no child is left behind. Recent data shows that more than one in ten maths lessons in the last year was taught by a non-specialist teacher, whilst only 72.2 per cent of physics lessons were taught by a teacher with a relevant post A-level qualification. The funding announced this week will make sure that children and young people have high-quality, specialist teachers in these key shortage subjects. Read more here.

Consultation on further measures to tackle late payments

Our community is full of brilliant local business and hardworking entrepreneurs, but too often they are spending their time chasing payments instead of growing their business. Every year 14,000 of businesses go under because customers, often far larger businesses, do not pay for goods or services promptly. At any given time, an estimated £26 billion is owed in late payments. It's a disgrace, it's choking local businesses, and it's got to stop. I want to see tough new laws to ensure fast payment of invoices and penalties for persistent late payers. I need the help of local businesses to prove that this is problem that needs this bold action. I urge any local businessperson who has suffered from late payments to make your voice heard and contribute to the government's consultation on late payments. You have until 23rd October to share your views with the consultation here.

Local News

Challenging Robert Jenrick's comments

I spoke to Times Radio this week to challenge Robert Jenrick's disgraceful comments about Handsworth. Jenrick's government spent 14 years abandoning and ignoring our region, and now he has the cheek to turn up for an hour to make a video for social media. Listen to my interview below.

Production starting at Jaguar Land Rover

This week, JLR announced that they are restarting production and have agreed a new financing solution, speeding up payments to suppliers. This good news follows the government's £1.5bn of support to help suppliers. The phased restart of JLR’s manufacturing operations began at the Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre (EPMC), where the company builds engines, and its Battery Assembly Centre (BAC), both in the West Midlands, UK, on Wednesday 8 October 2025. JLR colleagues will also begin to return on Wednesday to the company's stamping operations in Castle Bromwich, Halewood and Solihull, UK, and other key areas of its Solihull vehicle production plant, such as its body shop, paint shop and its Logistics Operations Centre (LOC), which feeds parts to JLR's global manufacturing sites. This activity will be closely followed by vehicle manufacturing in Nitra, Slovakia, and restart of the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport (MLA) production lines in the Solihull facility this week. Separately, JLR is now fast-tracking a new financing scheme that will provide qualifying JLR suppliers with cash-up-front during the production restart phase. Since the cyber incident, JLR has introduced solutions to support its suppliers, including establishing a dedicated supplier help desk and implementing a manual payment system to settle outstanding invoices, and this week re-establishing automated supplier payment systems. With the new scheme, qualifying JLR suppliers will be paid much faster than under their standard payment terms, aiding their cashflow in the near term. Following an initial phase with qualifying JLR suppliers critical to the restart of production, the scheme will be expanded, including to some non-production suppliers. Working with a banking partner, this short-term financing scheme means qualifying JLR suppliers will receive a majority prepayment shortly after the point of order and a final true-up payment on receipt of invoice. JLR’s typical supplier payment terms are 60-days post invoice, so this scheme accelerates payments by as much as 120 days. JLR will reimburse the financing costs for those JLR suppliers who use the scheme during the restart phase, as the company returns to full production. If you are a supplier who is affected by this issue, please get in touch.

Hagley Road Rapid Transit Consultation

For the past year, I have chaired the Hagley Road Corridor Board, working to deliver rapid transit on the Hagley Road. This week, Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) have launched the Hagley Road Phase 1 Multi-Modal Travel scheme consultation. Hagley Road Phase 1 is a TfWM multi-modal travel scheme that offers improvements for walkers, wheelers, cyclists, bus and tram users. Their proposed interventions along Hagley Road extend from the Five Ways roundabout to the junction with Portland Road and include: Extended bus lanes east and westbound Fully segregated cycleway between Five Ways and Portland Road Six new or improved pedestrian/cyclist crossings New loading bays at Monument Road Traffic signal upgrades Opportunities for new tree planting Integrating with other travel schemes – such as Cross City Bus and Midland Metro - will improve connections on Hagley Road and across our region, providing more regular, reliable and predictable journey times. I encourage residents to submit comments to the consultation here, the consultation closes on 2nd November.

Two Years on from October 7th

Two years ago, Hamas committed the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, an act of unimaginable terror and loss. We remember the victims, stand in solidarity with their families, and reaffirm our call for the safe release of all hostages. Read the Prime Minister's statement here.

Meeting University Hospitals Birmingham leadership

On Tuesday, I met with Dame Yve Buckland and Jonathan Brotherton, Chair and Chief Executive of University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) respectively. We discussed the recent Care Quality Commission reports into UHB and how the trust can turn around its current ranking of 127th out of 134 trusts in the country. The trust provided me with an update on improvements already being made include the lowest vacancy rate for some years. This is good news for patients. I will continue to work with the trust on behalf of residents.

Harborne Scouts Visit

I had a wonderful time with the Harborne Scouts this week. We talked about what an MP does and why young people should take an interest in politics, especially as the government moves to introduce votes at 16. Thank you to the amazing scout leaders who volunteer their time to teach our young people new skills and give them the best start in life.

Free October half-term bus travel for parents

Richard Parker, the Mayor of the West Midlands, is offering parents free bus rides to help cut the cost of keeping children busy this half-term. Parents and carers can apply for a Swift travel card pre-loaded with free bus travel between Monday, October 27 and Sunday, November 2 as part of the region’s ongoing campaign to get more people to try buses. Those who take up the free deal will also be offered a 25% discount on a further week’s free travel. The offer is part of a £20 million passenger incentive programme, funded by Government through the Bus Service Improvement Plan, to encourage more people to use the bus. The offer is available for new and lapsed bus users travelling with a child. Applications will be open from Monday, October 6 through the TfWM website.

Here's 10 things the government delivered last week that you might have missed:

🩺 Announced NHS Online so we can deliver 8.5 million extra appointments 🏡 We will build the next generation of new towns to make the dream of home ownership a reality 👨🎓 Introducing targeted means-tested university maintenance grants 🪜 A new higher skills target - for two-thirds of young people to go to university, further education or take on a gold standard apprenticeship. 👩⚕️ Fair pay agreements in social care 📚 The government will ensure every primary school has a library 🚗 Backed Jaguar Land Rover with a £1.5 billion loan guarantee 🔆 We are expanding Great British Energy’s scheme to install solar panels in schools and hospitals to cut energy bills and put more money into frontline services 👷♂️ We will abolish long-term youth unemployment, with a guaranteed work placement for young people who have been out of a job or education for 18 months. 👤 We will roll out Digital ID to make Britain safer, fairer, and more secure As always, if you have an issue you'd like to discuss, please contact my office at 0121 392 8426 or [email protected], or through my website.

With warm regards,

Preet Kaur Gill MP Member of Parliament for Birmingham Edgbaston, covering Bartley Green, Edgbaston, Harborne, North Edgbaston and Quinton Promoted by David Evans on behalf of the Labour Party, 20 Rushworth Street, London SE1 0SS

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