Delivering in Government: your weekly round up of good news Labour stories

It was a busy week for the Labour government.

While much of Westminster’s attention was on the Iran crisis and its knock-on effects on domestic energy prices, individual departments were hard at work fixing the country’s underlying problems.

Here are the seven most exciting breakthroughs and announcements this week that you can use, whether you’re on the doorstep, sparring on social media, or debating in the pub.

1. Biggest NHS satisfaction improvement since 1998

The NHS has recorded its biggest fall in public dissatisfaction in almost three decades.

The King’s Fund and Nuffield Trust’s British Social Attitudes survey shows dissatisfaction dropped 8 percentage points, the first rise in satisfaction since the pandemic. Waiting lists are the lowest in three years, A&E four-hour performance is the best in four years, and ambulance response times are the fastest in five.

From April, an NHS Intensive Recovery programme will deploy high-performing teams into the worst-performing trusts in England to bring standards up for patients in those areas.

2. Building seven new towns

Labour is naming seven locations for a new generation of new towns, each set to deliver at least 10,000 homes.

The locations span England, from Tempsford in Bedfordshire to Leeds South Bank. Every town must hit at least 40% affordable housing, with at least half of those at social rent.

In addition, the National Housing Bank launches on 1 April, backed by up to £16 billion to support delivery of over 500,000 new homes. It aims to unlock more than £53 billion in private investment.

3. Opening hundreds of nurseries in childcare cold spots

Labour is opening 331 new or expanded school nurseries from September in areas with the worst childcare shortages.

The expansion creates over 6,000 new places, on top of 6,000 already delivered from the first phase.

School-based nurseries currently make up 35% of childcare provision in the poorest areas but only 16% in the least deprived, which is why this expansion targets them directly. Combined with 30 hours of funded childcare, families can save up to £8,000 a year.

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4. Forcing large firms to pay small suppliers on time

Labour is forcing large companies to pay small suppliers within 60 days.

All commercial contracts will carry mandatory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, so a £10,000 invoice paid 60 days late automatically triggers over £293 in interest and compensation. These are the strongest late payment laws in the G7.

Late payments currently cost the UK economy £11 billion a year and shut down 38 businesses every day.

5. Seizing Russian tankers

Labour has authorised UK armed forces to board and seize Russian shadow fleet tankers passing through British waters.

The fleet of more than 500 vessels carry an estimated 75% of Russia’s crude oil exports. They fly false flags and disable their transponders to evade Western sanctions.

Closing UK waters forces them onto longer, more expensive routes around the north of Scotland.

6. Requiring ethnicity and disability pay reporting

Labour is requiring every employer with 250 or more staff to publish their ethnicity and disability pay gaps.

Firms will report 6 key metrics using the same framework as gender pay gap reporting, giving employees the data to hold employers to account.

Large employers have published gender pay gaps since 2017 but faced no equivalent obligation on race or disability until now. Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Mixed White and Black Caribbean employees face the largest ethnic pay gaps of any group.

7. Investing £27 billion in England’s roads

Labour has committed to upgrade England’s motorways and major A-roads over the next five years, in one of the largest ever road investment plans.

The new strategy covers resurfacing deteriorating carriageways, safety upgrades on the most dangerous routes, and capacity improvements on key economic corridors.

That’s on top of the £7.3 billion already pledged for local authorities to fix potholes and invest in long-term measures to maintain local roads.

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