Under a Labour government, I want Rushcliffe to be a collection of thriving, prosperous and sustainable settlements which are at the heart of powering the next generation, net zero economy. Every Rushcliffe resident should have fair and equal opportunities to access public services and increase their life chances.
My vision focuses on five key pillars which, beneath them, have a range of practical policies and achievable outcomes.
My plan for investment and growth is focused on two key areas: supporting workers' rights, our high streets and small and micro businesses so they can flourish; and making the most of the significant green energy opportunities afforded by Rushcliffe’s geographical location and natural assets.
To achieve this, we need our critical infrastructure to be improved, including by reducing flooding risks and growing our bus network again. And for our communities to be sustainable and prosperous, we need to see our public services strengthened via better access to school places and healthcare; and to empower Rushcliffe residents to have a proper say over housing, infrastructure and rental standards.
There is a lot to do but I am confident that by focusing efforts on these five pillars, I will be able to help the whole of Rushcliffe thrive.
My vision and plan for Rushcliffe
1. Boost Rushcliffe's investment and productivity
Protect workers' rights through banning zero-hour contracts, ending endemic low pay, improving worker safety and ending qualifying periods under Labour's New Deal for Working People
1.
Implement Labour's nine-point plan to support Rushcliffe businesses, pubs and high streets. This includes cutting and eventually scrapping business rates
2.
Support the development of localised supply chains for major industries and investments, creating local jobs for Rushcliffe people. "Buy, make and sell more" in Britain as a whole
3.
Work closely with Rushcliffe Borough Council to secure more money directly for Rushcliffe, given it has only received £3.1m of Levelling Up investment in total across 8 national schemes
4.
End competitive bidding processes which mean some Nottinghamshire areas like Ashfield "win" funding (£92m+) while others - like Rushcliffe - "lose" (£3.1m)
5.
Work with newly-accredited Visit Nottinghamshire to promote the best that Rushcliffe has to offer to visitors and residents, especially its wide range of independent businesses and public houses
6.
Maximise the returns from Rushcliffe's sporting footprint by working in partnership with Notts County Cricket, Nottingham Forest, the National Water Sports Centre and others to evolve their community offer
7.
Make Brexit work by cutting the red tape hampering small businesses and industries across Rushcliffe, especially for its farming community. 6,300 agricultural firms have gone out of business since 2017
8.
2. Bring green energy, jobs and skills to Rushcliffe
Build on Rushcliffe's history of powering the UK to become a home for green alternatives such as hydrogen and geothermal energy. Work with the site owners of Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station to create a leading green energy employment site
1.
Create more high-quality apprenticeships across Rushcliffe and Nottinghamshire by transforming the Apprenticeship Levy scheme to make it more flexible
2.
Promote access to fair and appropriate re-training through Technical Excellence Colleges
3.
Strengthen the partnership with Nottingham College and the city's two universities to ensure good technical skills pathways. Promote strong education and business links in new industries
4.
Bring wider green technology investment into Rushcliffe through Labour's National Wealth Fund, including money for green hydrogen manufacturing (£500m in the East Midlands over the next parliament)
5.
Attract an electric vehicle battery plant to Nottingham / Rushcliffe through Labour’s £1.5bn Battery Power fund
6.
Support the switch-on of Great British Energy, a new publicly-owned clean power generation company to cut energy bills and deliver good jobs - making families up to £1,400 better off a year
7.
Lobby for a policy which requires all parts of the UK to allocate land (0.5%) and set targets for green energy generation to enable a fair, just and sustainable transition which doesn't overwhelm areas with existing National Grid connections
8.
3. Improve Rushcliffe's infrastructure and transport
Work with partners to secure investment for key roads in Rushcliffe via the £1.5bn local transport fund which will be under the control of the new East Midlands CCA Mayor
1.
Work with the new mayor and Notts County Council to create sustainable public transport services, especially in rural Rushcliffe. Seek to reverse cuts (such as the axing of CT4N’s number 22 and 23 services) through the £2.2bn Network North fund to transform local transport
2.
Set-up a Rushcliffe version of Labour's Flood Resilience Taskforce to coordinate flooding preparation and resilience between central government, local authorities, community groups and emergency services
3.
Lobby to reform the funding and processes of the Environment Agency to ensure appropriate capital schemes can be initiated to protect Rushcliffe residents and businesses from flooding. Just 120 extra properties in the East Midlands were better protected in 2023
4.
Stop sewage polluting our rivers and seas by - among other things - putting water companies under special measures, strengthening the regulator (Ofwat) and taking repeated offenders to court
5.
Bring the UK’s railways back into public ownership when contracts expire
6.
Encourage active travel policy adoption (walking, cycling, exercise initiatives) wherever possible to promote positive physical and mental health across Rushcliffe
7.
Ensure that where any new housing is built, public services and local infrastructure - such as school and nursery places, new health centres and GP appointments - are boosted and prioritised
8.
4. Save Rushcliffe's public services
Restore neighbourhood policing and town centre patrols in Rushcliffe through Labour's commitment to employ 13,000 new neighbourhood police and PCSOs
1.
Prevent crime in the first place by improving mental health / addiction support services, including professional support for all secondary schools in Rushcliffe
2.
Reduce appointment waiting times and restore "the family doctor" in Rushcliffe through Labour's commitment to 7,500 more medical school places and 10,000 more nursing and midwifery clinical placements per year
3.
Lobby for an overhaul of social care via a 10-year reform plan. This is especially important for Rushcliffe's ageing population (an increase of 26.3% in people aged 65 years and over in the 2021 census)
4.
Improve education provision locally through Labour's commitment to recruit 6,500 new teachers by ending the charitable status of private schools. Campaign for more school places "on site" in settlements like Ruddington
5.
Remove legislative barriers to local authorities opening new childcare provision. Further address the supply side of childcare, working with the early years and childcare sector to build capacity
6.
Work with Nottinghamshire County Council to extend recycling provision with a new, improved centre for Rushcliffe to replace the centre closed at Langar in 2015
7.
Fight for more powers to be passed directly to local councils and local people to make decisions. Westminster isn't always best placed to decide what happens in Rushcliffe
8.
5. Strengthen Rushcliffe's communities and housing
Cut household energy bills by up to £1400 a year through insulating millions of homes and building cheaper, cleaner power across the country
1.
Tackle the wider rising cost of living after months of government failure. This includes strengthening the minimum wage to ensure it reflects the cost of living
2.
Protect pensioners’ independence by maintaining the triple lock for at least five years
3.
Support national calls to give £1.2bn of mineworkers’ pension funds to ex-miners (recommended by a 2021 BEIS Select Committee report)
4.
Support a significant expansion of Neighbourhood Plans with site allocations to give residents control over growth and infrastructure in Rushcliffe communities (only 9 adopted today vs. over 35 in Bassetlaw)
5.
Focus house building on the regeneration of brownfield land or the grey belt rather than swamping existing locations. Alternatively, lobby for the creation of large brand-new settlements instead, like Stevenage and Milton Keynes in the last century
6.
Focus build effort primarily on more affordable homes and council homes to meet demand, including homes for downsizing (given 65% of properties built in Rushcliffe are 3-bed plus). This will help to stabilise eye-watering mortgage and rent costs
7.
Work with Rushcliffe District Council to clamp down on poor standards in the private-rented sector
8.
Leveraging my deep connections and involvement with local communities, I will seek to actively engage residents in the decision-making process, ensuring their voices are heard and their needs are met
A community-centric approach
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Using my experience delivering large innovative projects, I'll build strong partnerships to bring creative solutions to local challenges, focusing on sustainable, long-term infrastructure development
Innovative planning and problem-solving
I am committed to inclusivity, ensuring that all community groups, including the most vulnerable, have a say in how Rushcliffe develops and grows. This includes rural communities who are too often deprioritised.
Inclusive
engagement
Drawing from my rigorous and methodical approach to work, I will ensure that decisions are data-driven, ensuring effectiveness and accountability in governance.
Evidence-based decisions
How I'll work for Rushcliffe
For me, standing and winning in Rushcliffe isn't the end-goal - I want to be your voice in parliament because I believe there is lots to do and it needs someone with a bold vision and a coherent plan to deliver the best for Rushcliffe and the wider region.
I have developed this plan by reviewing over 240 news stories from Rushcliffe settlements over the past five years. I have used this to understand the issues that link individual settlements across the constituency.
However, I have also used it to understand the key differences between each location. To win votes across the constituency, we need to ensure that residents from all Rushcliffe settlements know that Labour is on their side and that we have answers that speak to their immediate local needs as well as the national problems created by the past 15 years of Tory government. A good MP can and should address both.
So beneath the five pillars, I have identified 8 key areas of focus that I'd hope to progress as an MP. I hope the totality of this view represents the key priorities for you and your neighbours - if not, please get in touch as this plan isn't static and should reflect members' and residents' priorities as well as my own.