Stuart Anderson MP has praised the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget, which he says delivers the investment needed to secure our recovery from COVID-19 and unlock Britain’s potential. The Budget delivers the results of the Spending Review, which sets government spending priorities for the next three years and to which Stuart made a formal submission in September. He called on the Chancellor to put children, young people, and families at the heart of the Government’s plans for investment. Stuart has now welcomed the results of the Review, which includes £20 million for the City Learning Quarter.
Earlier in the year, Stuart supported the city’s bid for £20 million from the Levelling Up Fund to deliver on this shovel-ready project. This month, Stuart then joined Skills Minister Alex Burghart MP at the City of Wolverhampton College to discuss the ambitious plans to create a City Learning Quarter that will bring together the College’s Metro One Campus, Adult Education Service, and Central Library to benefit 45,000 learners, support 750 jobs and create around 7,500 apprenticeships. Stuart is delighted that the Government has backed this innovative proposal with investment from the Levelling Up Fund.
Stuart has also welcomed other measures in the Budget which deliver on the five key areas he set out in his submission: to create a safer and cleaner Wolverhampton which champions the health and wellbeing of local people, protects our natural environment, and promotes economic opportunities for a better, brighter future for our young people. This includes £5.9 billion to reduce NHS backlogs; £2 billion to regenerate brownfield sites and create new community spaces, including a £9 million to create new urban ‘pocket parks’; £6.9 billion to improve local transport links; £3 billion skills investment; and £2.6 billion for more school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities. Stuart has also endorsed the Government’s decision to increase the National Living Wage to £9.50 an hour.
On the Budget, Stuart Anderson MP said: “Wolverhampton has been left behind for too many decades and I am determined to see this changed so that we can create a better, brighter future for everyone in our community. This Budget delivers on many of my key asks, with critical investment to secure our recovery from COVID-19 and unlock Britain’s potential. This funding will reach into some of the most deprived areas of our city and level up opportunities right across the board. It builds on the record sums of funding that our city has secured since 2019 - now standing at more than £975 million.”
On the City Learning Quarter, Stuart said: “I was delighted to back our city’s bid for funding from the Levelling Up Fund. I am thrilled that the Government has now backed our ambitious plans to build a new, Integrated City Learning Quarter with £20 million funding. Over a 10-year period, around 45,000 people will benefit from learning there. This will transform the prospects of young people in our city.”
