Nadia Whittome, MP for Nottingham East, has called for more funding for Nottingham in a speech in Parliament responding to the Budget.
Ms Whittome highlighted that the people of Nottingham now receive over £100 million less each year to fund local services and that due to government cuts to local authorities, the city’s youth services have been cut by more than 90% since 2010.
Ms Whittome asked “When will Nottingham get the money that we need to truly level up? And will the Chancellor answer honestly why his seat, among one of the most affluent in the country, has been prioritised in the levelling up fund – while 38% of children in Nottingham East live in poverty?”2
Ms Whittome also criticised the government’s decision to keep the Universal Credit cut affecting 14,250 households in Nottingham East. Even with changes to the Universal Credit taper rate – the amount a household’s Universal Credit income decreases as their earnings increase – the Resolution Foundation calculated that 75% of families would still be worse off.
Summing up the Budget, Ms Whittome said “This Budget does not deliver the “new age of optimism” that the Chancellor promised. The glass isn’t half full. After 10 years of brutal Tory austerity and government cuts, it’s completely empty.”