• Military housing: high time for Govt to “get out of the slow lane” and apply decent homes standard
• Lib Dems on Healey comments: Government “dragging its feet” on reversing Army cuts
• IFS Briefing: Lib Dems say Government ministers will be “bailing water from a sinking boat with a spoon” if they ignore fixing social care
• Welsh Lib Dems Respond to Mark Drakeford National Insurance Bombshell
• Scottish Government rebuked by own watchdog over sewage dumping

Military housing: high time for Govt to “get out of the slow lane” and apply decent homes standard

Responding to the Government’s military housing announcement today [Saturday 31 May], Helen Maguire MP, Liberal Democrat Defence Spokesperson, said:

We’ve been fighting for the Government to get out of the slow lane when it comes to fixing the homes of our military families for years. After years of the Conservatives turning a blind eye, I’m glad to see this Government has finally come to their senses and listened.

Those bravely defending our country deserve proper housing without leaks, mould, floods and freezing temperatures.

But it’s disappointing to see the Government refuse to commit to bring all military homes under the decent homes standard – a change the Lib Dems will continue to champion, so no military family has to suffer in a second-rate home.

Lib Dems on Healey comments: Government “dragging its feet” on reversing Army cuts

Responding to Defence Secretary John Healey confirming that the British Army will not be increased in size this parliament, Liberal Democrat Defence Spokesperson Helen Maguire said:

From lax recruitment goals to slow spending promises, the Government is simply not addressing our defence issues urgently enough. The previous Conservative governments irresponsibly slashed troop numbers, and it’s desperately disappointing to now see Labour dragging its feet on reversing those reckless cuts.

With a war raging on our continent and the twin dangers of an unreliable Trump and an imperialist Putin, we are presented with a once-in-a-generation threat to the UK’s security.

It’s time the Government committed to urgently reversing the Conservatives’ 10,000 troop cut to address that threat.

IFS Briefing: Lib Dems say Government ministers will be “bailing water from a sinking boat with a spoon” if they ignore fixing social care

Responding to the Institute for Fiscal Studies saying that decisions over the NHS and defence will dominate the spending review, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

Ending the crisis in our NHS must be a top priority, but unless they fix social care too, ministers will just be bailing water from a sinking boat with a spoon.

Vital NHS investment risks going to waste if hospitals can’t discharge patients who don’t need to be there and if local authorities don’t have the resources to care for people in their homes and prevent them going to hospital in the first place.

In other areas, before looking at painful cuts to already stretched budgets, from justice to farming, the Government must start taking economic growth seriously and urgently negotiate a new bespoke UK-EU customs union, which can turbo-charge business and unlock billions of pounds for our vital public services.

Welsh Lib Dems Respond to Mark Drakeford National Insurance Bombshell

Responding to the news that higher National Insurance payments for doctors, nurses and teachers have left the Welsh government with a £36m hole in its budget, Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds MS said:

The Welsh Lib Dems have opposed this disastrous jobs tax from day one. Not only is it hammering our small businesses with unemployment in Wales rising, but it is now clear it will leave Wales with a gaping hole in its public finances and our public services worse off.

The fact that the First Minister cannot even convince the UK government that the increased cost to the public sector should be covered by the Treasury shows how little influence Welsh Labour have in London.

The Liberal Democrats will continue to argue for a reversal of the national insurance hike and fair funding for Wales.

Scottish Government rebuked by own watchdog over sewage dumping

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton today said “there are no consequences for sewage dumping in Scotland” after SNP ministers rejected calls from their own independent watchdog to urgently overhaul sewage dumping rules and new analysis drew comparisons with the disgraced Thames Water.

Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) found that Scottish Government guidance on sewage dumping fails to reflect the requirement for this to only occur in exceptional circumstances, set out by the European Court of Justice. However, the Scottish Government has refused to prioritise new guidance, which the ESS says leaves “an unacceptable lack of clarity” and “limits effective implementation and application of the law”.

It comes as new analysis by the Scottish Liberal Democrats exposes how sewage dumping by Scotland’s government-owned water company compares to that of Thames Water – this week fined more than £100m for environmental breaches involving routine sewage dumping.

Ofwat found 30% of Thames Water’s overflows spilled more than 60 times in 2021 and that it could not demonstrate that “these spills resulted from exceptional circumstances, or that it would have been excessively costly to address the spills from these storm overflows”. However, the equivalent figure for the sewage dumping pipes monitored year-round in Scotland is 42%.

Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

While Thames Water is hit with massive fines, there are no consequences for sewage dumping under this SNP Government.

To make matters worse, SNP ministers are even defying their own independent environmental watchdog by failing to crack on and update 30-year-old sewage rules riddled with holes.

To turn the tide on the sewage scandal, Scottish Liberal Democrats have published plans for a Clean Water Act that would bring our sewage network into the 21st century, clamp down on dumping and get to the bottom of this disgusting practice.