Budget 2024: MP Emma Reynolds explains what budget means for Wycombe and gives hospital update

The Labour MP for Wycombe Emma Reynolds has explained what the Autumn budget means for her constituency and also provided an update on Wycombe Hospital.

The pensions minister spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service on Thursday, following the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ budget statement in the House of Commons.

Asked how the budget would impact people’s finances in Wycombe, Ms Reynolds said: “The budget made some difficult decisions on tax to restore economic stability.

“But essentially, the budget was about investment in Britain’s future, investment in public services.”

The MP claimed the people of Wycombe would benefit from the rise in the National Living Wage from £11.44 to £12.21 an hour.

The government claimed the rise of 6.7 per cent, which will come into force from April 2025, would increase the pay of over three million workers.

Ms Reynolds said: “One of things I am most concerned about in Wycombe is the sheer number of people relying in the food bank and food hub.

“We would like to see that reduced over time. This is about trying to make those people better off.”

The MP also defended some of the ‘difficult decisions’ the government made on tax, including increases to capital gains and inheritance tax and raising employers’ national insurance contributions by 1.2 per cent to 15 per cent from spring.

Many small businesses would be protected, Ms Reynolds argued, due to the chancellor increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500.

She said: “For example, if a small business employs four full-time employees on the National Living Wage, they won’t pay any National Insurance contributions.”

The MP said this means one million small businesses across the country, including in Wycombe, would not be negatively affected by the change in National Insurance contributions for employers.

She added: “But obviously some will and that was a difficult choice that we had to make give the £22 billion black hole we inherited but also the state of the public finances.”

Labour’s first budget in 14 years and the fact it was the first to be delivered by a female chancellor were welcomed by Downley parish councillor Khalil Ahmed.

But the former Labour Party member, who ran against Ms Reynolds in the general election, wrote to the MP in an open letter on Thursday and expressed ‘concerns’ over the budget and its ‘implications’ for Wycombe.

He noted the loss of the town’s A&E, maternity, and paediatric services, and Wycombe Hospital’s ‘mounting debts’, and asked whether the budget would help ‘restore crucial facilities’ to prevent residents from having to travel as far as Stoke Mandeville for treatment.

Ms Reynolds confirmed she met with Neil Macdonald, the Chief Executive of Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust last week to discuss how services at the hospital could be retained, although claimed it was ‘not in her power’ to decide this.

The MP said she was ‘working very closely’ with the health boss, describing their meeting as positive, and saying it was her ‘priority’ to retain services at the hospital, especially those in the tower.

Ms Reynolds was also asked about the £1.5 billion funding for surgical hubs, which was announced in the budget.

After the budget announcement, the Trust said it ‘hoped’ to get some of the money, following Wycombe Hospital being accredited as an elective surgical hub in January of this year.

Wycombe’s former MP Steve Baker – who Ms Reynolds ousted in the general election – also said this week Wycombe should ‘expect a new surgical hub’.

Asked whether Wycombe would benefit from this pot of money, Ms Reynolds said: “I will be pushing for that, but I can’t give you an answer now.”