A Budget for Stability and Opportunity

I was in the Chamber this week to hear the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, deliver his first Budget.

This is always one of the great Parliamentary occasions and there was a real excitement in the air to see what the first of this Government's Budgets not to be delivered by Gordon Brown would produce. But I'm more interested in what it means for people in Edmonton. And I feel pleased that this Budget is great news for pensioners, families and children in our area.

Over 9 million pensioner households nationwide and 13,840 households in Edmonton will get extra cash to pay their heating bills this year. Fuel poverty has long been a problem in Edmonton, as elsewhere, and there is an average of 60 excess winter deaths linked to cold homes every year here. Some 7.4 % of households in the constituency live in fuel poverty. This extra payment will make a big difference to the 13,840 people in Edmonton who will receive this payment.

And 14,620 families in this area will gain from the increases in Child Benefit. I really support this measure - it sets out further financial support for children, and will lift 250,000 children nationwide out of poverty.

I welcome the Budget focus on tackling two of the big issues of today - child poverty and climate change. I think these measures will both help to make a real difference to many people’s lives in Edmonton.