Justin Madders MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, commenting on the publication of Health Education England’s workforce strategy for England to 2027, said:

“The Tories’ mismanagement of the NHS workforce has been a disaster for staff and patients and a sustainable strategy is long overdue.

“Ministers have repeatedly promised to boost staff numbers but have failed to deliver and now Health Education England has confirmed that there are thousands of vacant posts, difficulties in recruitment and a huge rise in turnover for key positions.

“Under this Government we have seen a series of failed policies with historic cuts to training places, the end of the nurses bursary and the self-defeating public sector pay cap which have all contributed to huge gaps in the NHS workforce.

“It is essential that the Government finally gets behind a long-term solution to NHS staffing problems by providing the resources the NHS needs to make this strategy work. Our NHS staff have reached breaking point and need hope that things are going to change.”

Angela
Rayner MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, commenting on the Annual Report of
HMCI 2016/17, said:

“This
report shows that far too many children are not being given the excellent
education that should be their right.

“The fact that under the Tories schools have consistently struggled to improve,
have struggled to recruit staff and had high levels of turnover should come as
a wake-up call to this Government over its failed approach to the teaching
profession.

“While
Ministers continue to act as if their funding of early years education is
sufficient, over 5,000 early years providers have been lost in the last year
alone, as the Government has rolled-out their under-funded 30 hours policy.

“Missing
recruitment targets in five successive years, slashing school budgets by £2.7
billion, and imposing real terms cuts in public sector pay that leave teachers
£5,000 a year worse off will only make things worse in some of our most
challenging schools.

“If the
Government was committed to giving every child the best start in life, they
would do well to start with Labour’s commitment to providing new funding to end
the public sector pay cap, to help schools recruit and ensure every child can
access a great education.”

Ends

Rebecca Long-Bailey MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, commenting on today’s announcement that water bills are set to fall by up to £25 from 2020, said:

‘’Today’s announcement does not go far enough. The water industry is failing the majority of consumers, and only radical action can correct this market.

“In the last ten years, water companies have paid 1,000 times more in dividends to their shareholders than in tax. Some have even paid more in dividends than they have made in profit, running up debt which is passed on to bill payers.

"Labour will fix this broken system and bring the water companies back into public ownership ensuring savings of £100 per year on household bills.’’

John
Healey MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, responding to new statistics on the
replacement of homes sold under the right-to-buy, said:

“These
figures show only one in five council homes sold under the right-to-buy has
been replaced, despite the Conservatives promising one-for-one replacement.

“We
desperately need more genuinely affordable homes, but the Conservatives’
right-to-buy means council homes are being sold off and communities are losing
out. Too often these homes become buy-to-let investments rather than family
homes, with higher rents costing the taxpayer millions more in housing benefit.

“Labour
will invest in the biggest council house building programme in more than 30
years, and to ensure that areas can build and retain council homes for local
people we will suspend the right-to-buy, allowing councils to reinstate it only
if they can prove a plan to replace homes sold one-for-one and like-for-like.”

Ends

Debbie
Abrahams MP, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on the
ONS Labour Market Statistics today, said:

“Today’s
figures are further evidence of Tory economic failure, only a day after
inflation rose to its highest level in over five-and-half years.

“Both
employment and real wages are falling while the price of household essentials
balloons, leaving millions of people worse off than they were in 2010.

“Eight
million people in working households live in poverty, and many will struggle
this Christmas as a direct result of this government’s austerity policies.

“Labour
will protect living standards by introducing a £10 an hour real Living Wage,
scrapping the public sector pay cap and reforming the government’s failing
Universal Credit programme.”

Ends