‘Just the beginning’ - Emma Lewell-Buck MP welcomes the support for miners in Labours’ Budget
In her fortnightly column in the Shields Gazette, South Shields MP Emma Lewell-Buck has highlighted what Labour’s Budget means for miners across South Tyneside and the wider North East.
In 1994, the then Tory Government decided to give themselves half of the surplus cash from the miner’s fund when British Coal was privatised.
In an agreement with the Mineworkers Pension Scheme trustees, they guaranteed the value of the mineworker’s pension would not decrease in exchange for the Government pocketing the surplus.
But this was not a fair arrangement.
Earlier this year it was reported that more than £4bn had been given to the Government, with £420 million of that in the last three years alone.
Yet miners and their widows were being left destitute on as little as £18 a week.
Labour promised we would transfer these funds back to the miners and their families and two weeks ago in the Budget, our Chancellor delivered on that promise, announcing the transfer of approximately £1.5bn back to the former miners and their families.
They will see the rise in their pensions this month.
This announcement however did not include those miners under the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS) from which the Government took over £3bn.
Alongside other former coalfield MPs, we are consulting with the BCSSS trustees and Ministers.
The Government has indicated that they are open to considering proposals and this is something we will pursue because, regardless of the scheme, an injustice is an injustice.
Our miners were prosecuted and made redundant. They saw the heart ripped out of their communities, and were robbed not just of their pensions, but their retirement and the dignity that they all deserved.
In South Shields we know all too well the legacy of de-industrialisation.
The economic gap between coalfield areas and the rest of the UK has been widening considerably over the last decade. Average earnings for workers in former coalfield areas are 7% below the national average.
There is so much more to do. Areas like ours have suffered inequalities and inequity of funding for too long.
This is something I and our Government are committed to changing.
Righting this injustice is just the beginning.