Dear John,

This week was another busy week in Parliament. On Monday, I voted against the Elections Bill. At a cost of £120 million, the Government wants to introduce Voter ID. In a test pilot that the Government ran last year, hundreds of people were turned away from polling stations. Those people were not able to return to the polls to cast their votes. While the Conservatives say that this Bill will address voter fraud, they need to clarify how exactly this will improve our democratic system. In the 2019 General Election, only one person was charged and convicted for voter fraud. All this Bill will serve to do is cost the British public £120 million and gag members of our communities who wish to vote but can’t because they don’t have the right form of ID. 
 
The Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill was voted down by Labour in the House of Lords this week. This Bill would have made community protesting illegal and would criminalise and silence those who wish to voice their democratic concerns. The PCSC Bill would target peaceful community protestors like campaigners trying to save their local police station or library. For example, it would have included the Santander Protest, where I stood side by side with residents just months ago to try and save our local banks. To me it comes as absolutely no surprise that the Tories wants to shut down dissent though, because voters don’t like what they’re selling. 
 
On Wednesday, we once again heard from Boris Johnson at Prime Minister’s Questions. Here, the Prime Minister continued to defend the indefensible Downing Street parties. Last week, he said he didn’t realise he was at a party. This week he’s got a new defence, nobody warned him that it was against the rules. The Prime Minister wrote the rules. It’s no wonder the public have stopped believing a word the Prime Minister is saying. 
 
The country deserves so much better than this out of touch, out of control, out of ideas and soon to be out of office Prime Minister. 
 

This week we found out how there were 184, 956 people on the waiting list at University Hospitals Birmingham. 31, 770 people had been waiting for more than a year for an appointment and 2008 people had been waiting more than 2 years. These astounding rates are the worst in England. 
 
The Conservative Government has no plan to deal with the chronic shortage of GPs, doctors, nurses and social care staff, and has not set clear targets to reduce waiting lists and waiting times. As a result, the NHS went into the latest wave of Covid infections with the longest waiting list ever. Hospitals around the country are reporting unsustainable pressure and an inability to provide high quality care.  
 
However, University Hospitals Birmingham, which is also the largest in the country, has had to face additional pressures with the highest number of Covid patients in the country. Pressures on local hospitals are now becoming unsustainable with many recent reports of critical and high alerts being issued.  
 
People across Birmingham are being forced to wait months and even years for treatment, often in pain and discomfort. It is unacceptable and will have appalling consequences for patients.  
Our local health care staff at the University Hospitals Birmingham worked heroically throughout the pandemic, but they are now stretched like never before. Our local hospitals are part of the largest NHS Trust in the country and it’s plain to see how they have been neglected by this Government.  
 
I’ve written to the hospital trust to both raise my concern and offer my support. However, the Government must give us the staff and support so that hospitals can get through this winter. It simply isn’t good enough for waiting times to be this long and for Birmingham to continue to have the highest rates in England. 

This week I am delighted to say has marked three successes with planning applications. In each case, a planning application had been put into Birmingham City Council which the overwhelming majority of residents did not want. In each case, the application was rejected. 
 
In North Edgbaston, proposals were put forward that would have seen 17 supported living units built. The land which had been selected was situated in an area that used to be an orchard and which backs on to more than 100 family homes offering no privacy or security. Over 90 residents objected to the development alongside councillors and myself as the local MP. Given the number of objections and the size and type of development, planning permission was refused. 
 
In Harborne, the owner and developer of a family home in a residential had requested to change its use to 6-bed HMO (House of Multiple Occupation) on Park Hill Road. This would have been a bad trend for Harborne and one which we have seen happen in other communities where HMO residences have swamped local areas. I am extremely pleased to say that this has been averted. I wrote to local residents and logged my own objections. Thanks to the local community, the request was refused by the planning committee. 
 
Finally, residents of the Norfolk Park Estate, consisting of six roads in Edgbaston, wrote to me concerned about a company who was looking to impose a parking scheme that would see residents having to pay huge costs. Many residents were against the application and so I again, joined with them to object. This week we heard that the application was refused meaning the scheme is now on hold and won’t be implemented. 
 
I am really pleased about the success of these three planning applications. If any resident in my constituency has a concern about an application that will be detrimental to the community, I will always support them to ensure our constituency remains a fantastic place to live and work.  
 
If you need my support, please contact me on 0121 392 8426 or [email protected] 

Low-income households across Edgbaston constituency could be eligible to apply for a one-off payment of up to a £150 grant to help with food, energy and other essential costs. Applications are now open. If you need support, please email [email protected]