Ex-minister accuses Labour of 'abandoning' region

A former Conservative home secretary has claimed the Labour government has "abandoned" the East of England region as it marks the end of its first year in power.

Dame Priti Patel, MP for Witham in Essex, said she backed the government approving the new Sizewell C nuclear plant on the Suffolk coast, but criticised plans to force councils to include more homes in their districts, claiming it was being done without providing the supporting infrastructure needed.

Liberal Democrat MP for South Cambridgeshire Pippa Heylings said: "Labour promised change and it hasn't delivered. It's blindly pushed ahead with some things without listening to people."

Dr Peter Prinsley, Labour MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, said: "It does seem that the change promised is slow, but I believe it is slowly coming."

He said the party inherited a lot of problems from the previous Conservative government and it was "going to take some time to put things right".

Dame Priti, one of the most senior Conservative politicians in the East of England, said: "As an Essex MP, I've been pressing for all sorts of information around the A12, the A120.

"We have this issue at the National Grid and pylons going on [there is a campaign by MPs and residents against plans for new pylons proposed by the National Grid across the region].

"What I'm finding is that Labour have completely ridden roughshod not only over these issues, but they're too busy making big spending and funding commitments elsewhere in the country.

"They've abandoned us in our part of the country, and I just don't find that acceptable at all."

She said she was concerned her local council had seen "housing targets... increased by 100%", without "getting the infrastructure that we need to support new housing".

Dame Priti said those who voted for Reform UK and were disillusioned with the Conservatives were "equally as disillusioned with Labour".

"We have to start recognising those challenges and speak to the needs and the hopes and aspirations of the British people," she said.

Prinsley praised his government's "announcement of the 10-year health plan which has some very bold changes".

"This is a new government with some very determined ministers and I don't think that it would be necessarily expected that they would get everything right immediately," he said.

He added that concerns about the difficulty of getting an NHS dentist was also being worked on.

"We will sort out the dental contract. We're in a mad situation where dentists doing NHS work were losing money," he said.

"We are determined to get dentistry right."

Heyling said she understood the need for more homes, but the government's Planning and Infrastructure Bill was "taking a wrecking ball to nature, and nature-friendly practices alongside house building".

"We don't need to say nature is a blocker to building; we've proved it isn't. It actually adds value," she said.

The union Unison Eastern regional secretary Tim Roberts said it was "dangerous" to see people getting disillusioned with politics as suggested in recent polls.

"Working people are hungry for change, which they voted for a year ago," he said.

By Andrew Sinclair, BBC East political editor

The political map of the region changed dramatically a year ago as many voters, looking for change, turned away from the Conservatives and decided to give Labour a chance. Has it been worth it?

The official statistics suggest that things may be slowly improving but it's very early days.

However it is already clear that the look of the region has started to change dramatically after a year of Labour in government.

Sir Keir Starmer's big pitch at the last election was that it would improve the economy and the NHS.

GDP is growing very slowly, unemployment and inflation have gone up and we learnt this week that living standards have fallen a little.

Hospital waiting lists have started to come down, strikes have been settled and it has become a little easier for people in the region to find an NHS dentist but recruitment is still a major problem.

Labour says it takes time to turn things around.

But other things have moved faster.

Within days of getting into office, the Energy Secretary Ed Miliband approved the Sunnica solar farm on the Suffolk/Cambridgeshire border and made it clear he wanted to see many more similar developments.

Since then more than a dozen major schemes have been proposed on farmland across the region. Recent research by Politics East found the number of solar farms is likely to double over the next few years.

There has been increased investment in offshore wind and the port of Lowestoft, in Suffolk, which will service many of the windfarms.

Ministers from the prime minister down have made it clear they expect to see new lines of pylons carrying the power through the countryside of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.

The Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has brought in house-building targets which will see more than 200,000 homes built across the region over the next five years, including at least one new garden city. She has also speeded up the planning process allowing less time for objectors to make their case.

The Chancellor Rachel Reeves has given her blessing, and money, to East West Rail, Sizewell C, the Lower Thames Crossing between Essex and Kent, and the science and technology powerhouse of Cambridge.

Ministers have actively encouraged Universal Studios to build a massive theme park in Bedfordshire.

The East of England is going to see building on a scale never seen before, which will change the look and feel of the regtion.

It will create thousands of jobs both during construction and, afterwards, it will play a major role in growing the country's economy.

BBC Politics East will be broadcast on Sunday, 6 July at 10:00 BST on BBC One in the East of England, and will be available after broadcast on BBC iPlayer.

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