MP's Voice: A New Government, A New Chance for Newcastle-under-Lyme

In his first column for The Staffordshire Signal, Newcastle-under-Lyme MP Adam Jogee reflects on the new government's first weeks, reindustrialisation, and what real recognition for Staffordshire could finally look like.

As I write a column for the Staffordshire Signal for the very first time, it occurs to me that this is a fitting time to begin a new thing, and a new column feels like a good place to talk about the biggest new thing of all right now: a new government, and a new leader of our United Kingdom. It's worth exploring what that means for communities in the industrial heartlands like ours.

Most importantly, new things mean opportunity; a new approach and a new focus, a chance for change that can be really felt here in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

The opportunity here, for people reading this, is plain to see. Staffordshire is a place of industry and manufacturing, of skills and smarts of graft and pride built up over generations of miners and factory workers, standing alongside the pottery and ceramics that have carried our name, and the skills and talents of our area, around the world.

In his very first speech as Prime Minister, outside Number 10 Downing Street, Andy Burnham, spoke of a Britain that needs "a new political model and a new economic model" and a Britain that needs "reindustrialising." And he has talked, again and again, about towns and regions that have felt "left behind."

Staffordshire, and Newcastle-under-Lyme, know exactly what that feels like. We brim with potential, and yet too often we're told that our best days are behind us, something for the history books.

We can, and will, thrive if the massive potential in areas like ours is recognised and supported.

The recognition that industries like those across North Staffordshire need attention has been pressed to the heart of government time and again, by myself and colleagues in neighbouring constituencies, evidenced by the £120m support package we secured for the ceramics industry, ensuring its future.

Recognising the potential of areas like ours needs to run through how we educate our young people too. Last week, the Prime Minister announced new technical education pathways from the age of 14, so young people can begin building the technical skills tied to the jobs available to them in their areas from GCSE-level. It's a serious, overdue step towards giving technical and academic routes equal standing and equal respect, but more than that, it's a strong recognition that the number of young people not in employment, education or training is one of the biggest challenges facing our country today, and we have not provided clear enough routes for our young people to realise their talents and the potential of their future careers.

Newcastle-under-Lyme is already well placed to benefit from an agenda that boosts the dignity of vocational work through our education system. Newcastle College offers exactly the kind of excellent facilities and opportunities young people need to thrive on a technical path, and the Government has now backed that offer with £6.8 million to expand its campus, on top of £2.7 million already committed to improving and upgrading its facilities. These are levels of investment to match the ambition Newcastle College has for its students, and it is exactly the kind of recognition that the nobility and dignity of skilled work deserves.

The success of this new Prime Minister and new government will be the recognition of the potential of areas like ours, the recognition that we need support to thrive beyond the old assumptions of declining former industrial areas and into reindustrialisation, and the recognition that beyond all other political noise, the number one issue for most people is the cost of living.

In Andy Burnham's first days as Prime Minister of our United Kingdom, I think it would be fair to say each of those challenges has been met. Every indication points to a man, and a government, that recognises our potential, our need for support to thrive and reindustrialise, and the need for support with the cost of living.

The £2 bus fare cap, slashing VAT on household electricity bills, a 20% cut in business rates for pubs, social clubs and live music venues, and serious first steps on the future of social care are all strongly welcome.

New administrations come with new drive, new determination, new direction, and a new kind of language. But that's all only worth as much as the delivery that follows it. The test from here will be whether this recognition of our potential, and this focus on the everyday cost of living, is sustained, and whether those changes are felt tangibly here in Newcastle-under-Lyme. And that is something I will hold our new Prime Minister to at every opportunity I get.