IN HIS first week as Prime Minister, Andy Burnham has taken decisive action to set out the difference the Government he leads will make.
His very first instruction after becoming PM was that the Government would end rough sleeping at the first opportunity. This issue is as important in Scotland as anywhere else in the UK.
The latest Scottish Government statistics for rough sleeping here show that between April and September 2025, nearly 1,500 households included someone who had slept rough the night before approaching their council for help. This figure was up 24 per cent compared to the same six-month period the previous year and up 106 per cent on three years ago.
We must work together to end rough sleeping everywhere.
The PM also made a series of announcements aimed at helping ease cost-of-living pressures and giving people space to breathe. The first of those was the abolition of VAT on domestic electricity bills from October 1, 2026, to March 31, 2027. This decision will save all 30 million households across Britain money on their energy bills this winter.
Mr Burnham also recognised the difficulties facing pubs, social clubs and live music venues by announcing a cut in their business rates. In England, these businesses will receive a 20 per cent cut to their business rates bills from April next year, saving the typical pub an average £1,100 a year.
These businesses are at the heart of their communities and deserve our support. That is why as the MP for Lothian East, I have written to the Deputy First Minister asking if she will commit to giving pubs, social clubs and live music venues in East Lothian and across Scotland the same support by passing these savings, in full, onto them.
These measures are just the beginning. Politics has not been good enough for a long time – we can do better and the Prime Minister’s promise is that we will.
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