With the Conservative Party Conference 2017 over there were some exciting announcements which will make a real difference for the residents of Suffolk.
Housing
The Prime Minister announced, ‘a new generation of council houses to help fix our broken housing market’ by increasing the government’s affordable housing budget by £2 billion to more than £9 billion – and allowing homes to be built for social rent.
We will support over 130,000 more families to buy their own home by investing a further £10 billion in the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme.
Review of university funding and student financing
The Prime Minister announced a major review of university funding and student financing – on top of the freezing of maximum fee rates and increasing the amount graduates can earn before they start repaying their fees to £25,000.
A Fairer Deal for Students and Young People
To give a fairer deal for students and young people, we will: scrap the planned rise in fees then freeze them; raise the threshold at which recent graduates start to pay back their student loans to give them more money in their pocket; and look again at student funding and finance.
Energy Cap
The Prime Minister announced that next week we will publish a draft Bill to put a price cap on energy bills
Improving Mental Health and Ending Benefits Reassessments for those Most in Need
As part of our commitment to tackling mental health challenges, we will make sure that work coaches have the training they need to support people with mental health conditions. We are also confirming that those people who have severe lifetime health issues do not need to be reassessed.
25 per cent increase in supply of newly qualified nurses for the NHS, with new apprentice route
A 25 per cent increase in the supply of qualified nurses graduating into the NHS workforce, to ensure our NHS will have the staff it needs into the future. Alongside this, we will deliver a new apprenticeship route into nursing for those who want to earn and learn on the job, rather than qualifying through a traditional university degree. To support our existing hardworking NHS staff we also commit to a new package around flexible working and housing.
We are making improvements to ticketing that will benefit the passenger’s experience on the railway. Our £80 million programme to bring smart ticketing which will enable the use of mobile phones, barcodes and smartcards across almost all of the rail network by the end of next year.
We are increasing the number of job centres that provide Universal Credit and for anyone who needs an advance we’re making sure that they can get one upfront.