Dear John,

This weekend the new energy price cap comes into effect, meaning rises of £700 in energy costs for the average household. This risks plunging thousands of families in Birmingham into hardship, and I and my team are on hand to help in any way we can with constituents finding it tough.
 
We shouldn’t let anyone tell us that there was nothing that could be done. Last week at the Spring Statement Rishi Sunak made a political choice to raise taxes on working people while shielding oil and gas companies from a windfall tax that could have paid for help on household bills.
 
I wrote to the Chancellor to urge him to halt the rise in National Insurance, scrap VAT on household energy bills, saving everyone £200 on average off their bills, and expand the Warm Homes Discount to help nine million households who will be hardest hit by price rises. Thousands of people across Birmingham are calling for help with the cost of living, and he proved once again he is not on their side.

The 1st April also means the start of the government’s new policy to charge members of the public to take a Lateral Flow Test, ending free Covid testing in the UK. This comes just as we learn that the UK reached the highest infection rates ever recorded, with one in 13 people infected with Covid last week. This is a serious concern for the thousands of vulnerable people who are still trying to avoid contact with the deadly virus.
 
Labour has warned that ending free testing now is the wrong decision at the wrong time. This week I have spoken to constituents who will now have to pay to see their loved ones in care homes, just as the cost of living crisis bites.
 
For people with dementia who need care especially, contact with family and friends is so important to prevent decline in their conditions. For the 11,960 people living with dementia in Birmingham, free access to Covid testing for family and friends has been a lifeline. 
 
I urge the government to not make families pay to see their loved ones.

I was delighted to learn that after a lot of hard work, Lordswood Boys’ School in Harborne has recently been rated as ‘Good’ by Ofsted. This follows changes that have been put in place by the school’s senior leadership over recent years.

In 2014, the school was rated ‘Inadequate’. However, following a dramatic transition and the hard work over several years by staff including Head Teacher Lee Williams, its latest Ofsted inspection report rated Lordswood Boys’ as ‘Good’. 

The report outlined that “pupils enjoy attending Lordswood Boys’ School and receive a good quality of education”. It also states that “All staff have a shared desire to improve the school and pupils understand that education can open up opportunities for them to become positive and productive members of society.” 

I would like to thank all the staff and teachers for putting in so much effort to make sure children in Edgbaston constituency receive the start in life they deserve. Great work!

The decision by P&O Ferries to sack 800 British workers without notice over Zoom, frogmarch them out of their place of work and replace them within days with foreign labour being paid as little as £1.80 an hour was abhorrent. This is an abysmal practice which we must not only condemn in the strongest possible terms but ensure it never happens again.
 
This week I was shocked to discover therefore that the UK’s development finance institution CDC Group is using UK funds to invest $720 million in the parent company of P&O Ferries, Dubai-owned ports operator DP World.

I wrote to the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to ask what is going on and if she will suspend further investments until British workers get their jobs back.

Since I was first elected in 2017, I have been campaigning along with local residents for more Police officers and designated sergeants. I’m thrilled that we have been successful and now Quinton will have a new sergeant, separate to Bartley Green. This means each ward will have their own Police Team.

Now, I’m working closely with the Police, to lead a project that will decide where in each ward of our constituency our Police should be based. However, I need your help in making this decision. It’s so important our Police have a visible presence and are accessible to the communities they serve. That’s why I’m carrying out a constituency-wide consultation.