SDLP Foyle MLA Sinead McLaughlin
Said Ms McLaughlin: “People in Derry deserve so much better than this Tory budget, which will do virtually nothing to help the families and individuals across our city who are struggling with the cost-of-living emergency.
“The efforts announced today don’t come close to tackling the challenges faced by the people I represent, who suffer some of the highest levels of deprivation anywhere in the North.
“Of course, some of the measures today are to be cautiously welcomed including the uprating of benefits and the raising of the minimum wage, especially as we were bracing ourselves for worse austerity.
“However, businesses across the North are on their knees, our health service is on the brink of collapse and people are going out to work every day to earn poverty wages which can barely cover the essentials.
“More people than ever before are turning to food banks simply to feed their children and facing the prospect of a grim winter ahead as the UK is plunged into a recession.
“In response, the British government has promised £200 for the 2/3 of households on oil, which won’t go very far at all and £650m announced for Northern Ireland which won’t cover the black hole in our finances.
“It is almost December and we are still no further forward on the delivery of the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme that has already reached customers in England.
“The people I represent deserve better than this.
“They deserve a functioning government that puts a plan in place to tackle poverty in our city and uses every economic lever possible to attract the jobs and investment our city needs.
“They deserve proper investment in childcare, to tackle economic inactivity and allow more parents to contribute to the labour market. They deserve a strategy that addresses the economic imbalance in the North and finally gives Derry its fair share.
“I wouldn’t hold my breath for any Tory government to take the action that is necessary to address the challenges facing the people in our city.
“Everyone here knows that a cost-of-living crisis has affected our city for decades, yet it has gone largely ignored by Westminster.
“The transformational solutions won’t come from across the water, so we shouldn’t have to wait on Westminster.
“We need locally accountable decision makers here, not in London.
“If we had a functioning Assembly and Executive here, we could be holding Ministers to account for the delivery of schemes that will make a difference in Derry.
“Instead, the candidates that the people of Derry elected in May are largely hamstrung in their efforts to alleviate suffering and we still don’t know how we will be governed going forward.
“I am calling on the DUP to re-enter power-sharing and get back to work with the rest of us so we can make the kinds of changes that the people of Derry need and deserve.”
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