Covid 19 & Vaccinations

An additional 466 cases of Covid 19 have been registered in Sutton Coldfield for the week of 16th - 22nd October compared to an updated figure of 474 for the week of 9th - 15th October based on data from Birmingham City Council’s public health division.

In the 7 days up to 22nd October, there were 3,283 cases in Birmingham (equivalent to a case rate of 287.5 cases/100k population), a decrease compared to 3,351 cases (293.5/100k population) the previous week.

Over the 7 days leading up to 22nd October of 23,051 PCR pillar 2 tests 3,153 (13.7%) were positive in Birmingham, slightly lower than the positivity rates for West Midlands and England as a whole.

Birmingham is 14th in the region for pillar 2 PCR tests rates, with 2,019 tests per 100k population. 43,620 LFD pillar 2 tests were also carried out.

The attached image shows the number of first and second vaccines per age group for Sutton Coldfield from data published yesterday.

Walk-in appointments are taking place at a mass vaccination centres across the Birmingham City Council area for those aged 16 and over. Please check the latest availability via: www.birminghamandsolihullcovidvaccine.nhs.uk/walk-in over 16s can also continue to book in advance online as normal including bringing forward your second dose if your appointment is more than 8 weeks from your first vaccine: www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination.

On Friday 22nd October it was announced that the Delta Variant sub-lineage known as Delta A.Y 4.2 (also referred to as Delta Plus) has been categorised as a Variant Under Investigation and the genetic sequencing results has now been reclassified as Variant -21OCT-01. This variant has been detected in 27 countries. There are now over 8,000 cases in the UK and 389 cases in Birmingham.

 

The Budget

On Wednesday the Chancellor delivered the Autumn Budget and Spending Review, setting out our plans to deliver a strong economy as we build back from the pandemic. 

I spoke in the first day of the Budget debate, welcoming transport funding for the West Midlands which will enable work to progress on our town centre regeneration plans. I was also glad to see the Chancellor focus on education and skills which has been a priority for our West Midlands Mayor Andy Street who has supported boot camps and digital retraining. The skills agenda is vital and it was good to see it feature so centrally in the Budget. House building is another priority locally, with demand for new homes increasing so I also welcomed significant Government investment in the building of new homes on brownfield sites. I have uploaded the text and video of my budget response on my website: https://www.andrew-mitchell-mp.co.uk/parliament/andrew-mitchell-speaks-budget-debate

With so many different updates it can be hard to keep track of what has been announced so I have summarised the key regional and national points below.

 

West Midlands

• (Announced ahead of the Budget) The West Midlands has been handed a billion pounds of funding to expand the region’s tram, train, bus and cycle networks and drive a green transport revolution.  Andy Street and the West Midlands Combined Authority secured the money from the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement fund.
• £1.05 billion for Birmingham City Council over five years to transform local transport networks, for schemes such as the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill metro expansion and Sprint Phase 2.
• Over £270 million of local roads maintenance funding between 2022-23 and 2024-25 and over £40 million for smaller transport improvement priorities through the Integrated Transport Block for Local Authorities in the West Midlands not receiving City Region Settlements.
• £196 million for eleven projects through the first tranche of the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund – including £19.9 million to improve the A457 Dudley Road in Birmingham, £16 million to regenerate the Goods Yard in Stoke-on-Trent, and £20 million to develop a City Learning Quarter in Wolverhampton.
• 10 new Community Diagnostic Centres will be built across the Midlands, expanding diagnostic capacity across the country whilst targeting investment at areas of deprivation.
• £400 million of new funding for the British Business Bank’s Midlands Engine Investment Fund.
• The West Midlands will also benefit from: a share of the £2.6 billion UK Shared Prosperity Fund – focused on helping people into jobs and supporting businesses across the UK; £560 million funding for the Youth Investment Fund and National Citizen Service; and £5 billion for Project Gigabit, rolling out gigabit capable broadband for homes and businesses across the UK.

National

• The Universal Credit taper rate will be reduced from 63 per cent to 55 per cent. We are also increasing the Work Allowance by £500; taken together, this is a tax cut for 2 million low-income families worth £2.2 billion next year, or an extra £1,000 in their pockets
• A 6.6 per cent increase in the National Living Wage to £9.50 an hour – giving a £1,000 pay rise to 2 million
• Lifting pay restraints for public sector workers
• A 50 per cent cut in business rates next year for 90 per cent of retail, hospitality and leisure businesses
• Helping pubs by cutting beer duty. We are also introducing a new Draught Relief which will apply a new, lower rate of duty on draught beer and cider – cutting duty by 5 per cent
• Doubling tax reliefs for the creative industries; extending tax relief for museums and galleries to the end of March 2024 and doubling the tax reliefs for orchestras, theatres and museums until April 2024 – a tax cut for culture worth almost £250 million
• Increasing health spending by 3.9 per cent in real terms over this Parliament – an increase of £41 billion.
• Increasing core schools funding by over £4.7 billion – ensuring real terms per pupil funding rises, with £200 million to fund annual Holiday Activities and Food programmes
• Increasing skills funding by 42 per cent in cash terms
• Tripling Special Educational Needs and Disabilities capital provision to £900 million a year
• £300 million for new Family Hubs and the Start for Life programme
• £540 million to complete recruitment of 20,000 extra police officers by 2023, alongside more funding for programmes including Safer Streets Fund and County Lines
• £74 million to replace the Border Force fleet
• £500 million funding to help cut court backlogs, completing our modernising courts programme and delivering additional prison places 
• An additional £200 million annual funding to tackle reoffending
• £1.8 billion to help build homes, with a focus on brownfield development
• £640 million a year to help tackle rough sleeping
• Over £1 billion for specialised disability employment support – to enhance opportunities into and within work
• Over £35 billion for rail infrastructure
• £31 billion for roads– delivering over 60 upgrades and a further pipeline of over 50 local upgrades, including £2.5 billion for roads maintenance across the current Parliament
• Tripling the size of England’s net zero emission bus fleet – and investing over £1 billion more to decarbonise transport
• New funding to halt biodiversity loss
• The creation of new business rates relief to encourage green technologies and improvements to properties
• Investing over £1.4 billion in the British Business Bank to support the Start Up Loans scheme and providing £52.5 million for the Regional Angels Programme, and the Great British Investment Fund
• £205 million for grassroots football, £22 million to refurbish more than 4,500 public tennis courts, funding bids to host the 2030 men’s Football World Cup, Tour de France and Women’s Rugby World Cup and delivering the UEFA Women’s European Championships, as well as 300 new/renovated youth sports facilities
• A freeze in fuel duty for the twelfth consecutive year

 

Royal Sutton Coldfield updates

The Commonwealth Games team has published details of the routes and plans for the triathlon events which will take place within Sutton Park and on local roads to the south of the park, in and around Boldmere High Street on Friday 29th and Sunday 31st July next year. The swim section of the event will take place in Powell’s Pool, starting on a purpose-built pontoon. Athletes will run from the swim course into transition within Sutton Park. The cycling section of the course starts within Sutton Park; athletes will exit the park via Stonehouse Drive and head straight onto Boldmere Road, passing through Boldmere High Street turning right off Boldmere Road at Antrobus Road and looping back around to Jockey Road, before turning back onto Monmouth Drive and past Boldmere Golf Course. The entire route for the running section is located within Sutton Park. There will be parts of the course where it will be completely free for spectators and you won’t need a ticket, however you will require a ticket if you want to watch from, or near, the official start and finish area of the Triathlon and Para Triathlon in Sutton Park. https://www.expressandstar.com/news/local-hubs/birmingham/sutton-coldfield/2021/10/27/course-revealed-as-sutton-park-prepares-for-commonwealth-games/

Huge congratulations to local author Rachel McLean who won the Amazon Kindle Storyteller Awards https://www.thebookseller.com/news/mclean-wins-20k-kindle-storyteller-award-1285707 for her novel “The Corfe Castle Murders”. Her book can be purchased via Kindle or paperback https://amzn.to/3nTrh8v

I would like to thank everyone that attended the Sutton Coldfield launch of my book “Beyond a Fringe: Tales from a reformed Establishment lackey” at our Town Hall last night. While I haven’t won any awards (!) I have received some nice newspaper reviews (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/17/beyond-a-fringe-review-the-rise-and-fall-of-andrew-mitchell ) and I am really grateful to everyone that attended last night to support the publication!

Local community station Switch Radio’s Christmas Crackers won the Gold Award for Best Entertainment Show at the National Community Radio Awards which were held in Coventry last weekend. The judges praised the show for its fantastic premise as well as the station’s place at the heart of the community. Congratulations to Stephen Higgs and the whole team at Switch! https://www.switchradio.co.uk/christmascrackers

 

Westminster news and Parliamentary business

There has been a lot of coverage of recent votes on the Environment Bill and particularly the aspects relating to water pollution and sewage. I have provided an update on my website which I hope explains my position in a bit more detail: https://www.andrew-mitchell-mp.co.uk/news/environment-bill-sewage-discharges

On Monday I spoke in an Urgent Question on the arrest of the Sudanese Prime Minister https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhC3n0Ou9dQ

The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Trafficked Britons in Syria which I co-chair held an evidence session this week which has been covered in the following article: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-syria-camps-detainees-cowards-form-guantanamo. I also held another meeting of the APPG on War crimes which is looking into the presence of alleged Rwandan war criminals in the UK.

On Tuesday the Transport Secretary secured a new nationwide injunction to prevent disruptive climate activists from obstructing traffic and accessing 4,300 miles of motorways and A roads across the entire country – those in breach of the injunction face punishments including imprisonment of up to six months and an unlimited fine.

£65 million will be made available to local authorities in 2021/22 through the Homelessness Prevention Grant to help vulnerable households with rent arrears to reduce the risk of them being evicted and becoming homeless. Birmingham City Council will receive £1,503,672 to support local people at risk of homelessness.

Liam Byrne and I wrote a short piece for the House Magazine this week on the importance of our international development budget: https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/fresh-aid-cuts-would-further-diminish-global-britain-as-a-force-for-good

 

Opportunities and Events

Birmingham City Council, the West Midlands Combined Authority and Job Centre Plus are holding a Jobs Fair on 2nd November at Villa Park, home of Aston Villa Football Club. Advice and support will be available for everyone including recent school leavers, those that have been made redundant and those looking for a new career. There will be the opportunity to meet employers face to face and plenty of support and guidance. https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/bhamjobsfair

The Sport and Recreation Alliance is seeking nominations for their Annual Community Sport and Recreation Awards. Applicants must either be a member of the Sport and Recreation Alliance or be affiliated or work in partnership with a member to be considered for an award. I am keen to support any local applicants so if your group meets the criteria (https://www.sportandrecreation.org.uk/pages/community-sport-and-recreation-awards) please send me an email: andrew.mitchell.mp@parliament.uk

The 2022 Hearts for the Arts Awards are now inviting nominations from across the UK to recognise local authority and cultural trust arts champions as well as creative community projects. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfyBUNMHuWV_9xbh7_5FZ8SoY5a7RznGT9773N5xRkxkxPawA/viewform

Small scale registered charities which help disadvantaged children can apply for grants from £250-£4,000 from the Rank Foundation to support their work. https://rankfoundation.com/pebble-grants/

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