Our Man in Westminster – Local Progress Must Go Further and Faster

Last month, several of my Labour colleagues from Kent and I met with the Prime Minister’s Chief Secretary, Darren Jones MP, to discuss a number of key concerns affecting communities in Kent, including adult social care, potholes and general road maintenance, and other matters of ongoing concern.

The Government has allocated a high amount of funding for Kent, such as £274,036,000 to fix potholes, £78.2 million for local buses over the next three years, and £20 million more for social care grants. Under the provisional local government funding settlement, Kent County Council is set to receive £569.7 million during 2026/2027—an increase of £51.2 million. Despite this substantial increase in funding, progress in Kent has not been moving quickly enough, and I am pleased that the Labour Government in Westminster is working with communities to ensure that change can go further and faster to deliver the outcomes people need.

I know from my discussions with local healthcare leaders how much the delay in discharging patients, caused by gaps in our adult social care services, is contributing to the problems at the William Harvey Hospital. By resolving these challenges in adult social care, we could help people live independently and move out of hospital wards, which would help solve the problems of corridor care. As Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Adult Social Care, I have had positive talks with Ministers from the Department for Health and Social Care over an ongoing period; however, it was encouraging to be able to sit around the table with several other Kent Labour MPs and a Minister who works directly with the Prime Minister to discuss the concern collectively as a group of MPs from the county.

Housing has also been a major issue in Kent, and across the wider South East. The homelessness figures are incredibly alarming in our region, and the only way to fix this is to build more homes. However, it is necessary that these new homes come with the required infrastructure. This is why I welcomed the Planning Inspectorate’s decision to reject the application by Hodson Developments not to pay for necessary infrastructure such as footpaths and cycle paths, local buses, or to widen the A28 at the Chilmington Green Estate.

Growth is driven locally, but without the necessary infrastructure or public services in place, the economy and business are stifled. If buses are not connected to rural communities, large sections of the population are both isolated from work and restricted from accessing local shops, reducing a potential contribution to the local economy. I have raised the concern of rural connectivity on the floor of the House of Commons, with the Prime Minister’s Chief Secretary, and most recently with Stagecoach Buses, and I hope that we will begin to see progress soon.

I will keep pushing and working with Ministers to ensure that services will deliver for Ashford, Hawkinge, and the Villages.