Dr Rosena Allin-Khan

This Budget contains much that people across Tooting, Balham and Earlsfield will truly welcome. In the months beforehand, people in our communities gave me clear criteria for a Budget—one that recognises the poly-crisis we are in by giving them breathing space in the cost of living crisis and easing the burdens of the cost of business too. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor has delivered that and more. Local people have told me that they welcome the £100 household energy payment and the business rates package, which means that retail, hospitality and leisure properties in Tooting will see their business rates either frozen in real terms, reduced or cut to zero. That is over 70,000 additional high street businesses taken out of business rates altogether. This Budget rightly recognises that high streets are the heartbeat of our local communities and the foundation of our collective identity, as I have seen locally with our bustling town centres. The Prime Minister has made good growth in every postcode the north star of his Government. He is talking about postcodes across our capital—not just SW1 but E13; not just N1 but SW17. We have a vibrant array of neighbourhoods, each with its distinctive history, character, community and unique personality. Despite everything its opponents throw at us online, that is what makes London the best city in the world. People from all around the world, from the US to Russia, are trying to divide our communities and break our cohesiveness—the thing that makes us proud to be British—and we will never, ever let them achieve that. But we know that there is more to do, particularly on London’s failing housing market. That is why the Government are rightly taking action through the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 and their commitment to work with our mayor and councils to deliver more council homes. As temperatures drop, the immediate priority must be to truly end rough sleeping. When people see their fellow citizens sleeping rough, it offends their sense of a fair society. When I am doing my shifts in St George’s hospital and I see people who are homeless coming through our doors, it breaks my heart—it breaks the heart of every nurse, doctor, receptionist and healthcare worker who has to look after them. We have the most incredible homelessness inclusion team at St George’s, but it is a scourge on modern British society that people are sleeping rough. It is a public health emergency and a moral catastrophe. Tweaking will never be enough, and the Prime Minister and Chancellor’s commitment to double spending on ending rough sleeping to almost £900 million is a signal of this Government’s values of compassion, dignity and decency. That is the difference a Labour Government make. Every day, the country and our capital are turning around the trajectory of industrial decline and putting fresh hope in every heart.