Lucy Rigby MP - '2025 in review: Important progress and more to do'

Over the upcoming holiday period, I’ll be doing just that – in between spending some quality time with my family, probably eating more chocolate than I should and almost definitely rushing out to buy a last-minute gift due to something not arriving on time.

Over the last few years, people have been very clear with me that they see improving our local NHS as a priority. The services offered by Northampton General Hospital (NGH) are critical to almost all of us in Northampton, something that I’m reminded of in emails from constituents and when I met with the chief executive in the spring. As a Government, we have prioritised modernising and improving our NHS, including publishing our NHS 10-year-plan to bring the service from analogue to digital, and bring healthcare into the community.

Community Diagnostic Centres, offering tests and scans on evenings and weekends, have been extended in Kings Heath and at NGH; our Dental Rescue Plan has delivered 17,826 extra dentist appointments in Northants, and patients in Northampton will not have to pay more for their prescriptions after prices were frozen by the Government for a second year running.

This is on top of the extra investment being put into health services in Northampton, including the £4 million for urgent repairs at NGH announced in the summer, three new radiology machines to speed up cancer treatments, and funding to modernise surgeries across town. Because of these actions, the national NHS waiting list has been cut by more than 230,000 and an additional five million appointments have been delivered.

There’s much more to do to improve all aspects of care – including social care and mental health support services – and of course continuing to get waiting lists down - but I’m proud of the improvements we have been able to make to local services and I’m looking forward to this being an ongoing focus in 2026.

Some of my favourite moments of this year have been during my visits to schools and speaking with young people. I have loved hearing first-hand their ambition, enthusiasm and hope for the future: whether it was during my Q&As at Northampton School for Girls, discussing democracy and the role of the House of Commons at Cedar Road Primary, or welcoming extremely impressive young entrepreneurs from Northampton College to Parliament.

I am glad this ambition and enthusiasm has been recognised in the Government’s Youth Guarantee announced earlier this month, which will help up to one million young people to get into work through guaranteed job schemes, fully funded apprenticeships for under-25s and dedicated support. Our accompanying National Youth Strategy, the first in 15 years, will build or refurbish 250 youth facilities and launch a network of 50 Young Future Hubs, helping young adults find community and support and stay out of crime.

In May this year, Barry Primary, Spring Lane Primary and Billing Brook School joined the first wave of schools across the country offering free breakfast clubs to set children up to start the day ready to learn. Then in September, we announced our major rollout of 30 hours a week of free childcare, saving families in Northampton an average of £7,500 a year and new Best Start Family Hubs to provide wide-ranging help for families in parenting and early development, including one for West Northants due in March 2026. Finally, the lifting of the two-child benefit cap announced in the Budget means over 5,800 children in Northampton will be lifted out of poverty, alongside 7,000 children who will receive free school meals next year.

I mentioned the ambition and entrepreneurial spirit in our local young people and I’m proud that Northampton remains one of the best places to start a business in the UK. Our small businesses and SMEs make up a large part of our local economy and we have a beautiful mix of old and new skills. Visiting businesses like Springline, one of the last manufacturers of wooden shoe lasts in the country, was a real privilege – the care and craftsmanship that goes into every product was a joy to observe. As was the sense of purpose and innovative design I was lucky enough to witness when I visited Fafunia in Moulton Park.

Northampton’s economy stands to benefit from the £78 billion investment in the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor announced in back in January, bringing in better transport connections, business investment and job opportunities. In addition, this year’s groundbreaking trade deals with the US, India, the EU and South Korea are supporting local industries, from Aston Martin in Brackley to instrument makers in Moulton.

But one thing that I know also impacts some of our local businesses is retail crime, something repeatedly raised with me on my visits to shops along Wellingborough Road and in the town centre. I know from holding community safety meetings alongside our PFCC throughout the year that crime continues to be an area of real concern for all people right across town. I have seen the fly tipping taking place in St James, the dumped e-scooters on paths in Kingsley and the level of antisocial behaviour on our streets – the latter during a night shift I did with the Northants Police response team.

In July, Labour’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee came into force, with a named officer in each neighbourhood answering enquiries within 72 hours, a dedicated Northants Anti-Social Behaviour lead, and regular patrols in the town centre during peak times. The Guarantee also brought with it £1.9 million for 142 new neighbourhood officers on the beat in Northants.

The police were given new powers this year to crush cars, e-scooters or off-road bikes that are used in anti-social behaviour and to bar criminals from pubs, concerts and sports matches. The Online Safety Bill also came into effect in September, protecting our children from harmful content like bullying, hate speech or dangerous online challenges.

One of the Government’s national priorities remains tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG), and I was privileged to hold roundtables with teams from C2C Social Action and Eve this year on how the issue can be addressed locally. Now, the Government has announced our £20 million VAWG strategy, which will focus on prevention and give more tools to the police for the largest crackdown on VAWG in British history.

A final proud achievement was delivering security to the 25% of people in Northampton who rent their home with the Government’s landmark Renter’s Rights Act, which became law in November. This abolishes Section 21 (no-fault) evictions, limits rent rises to once a year, and ensures all homes meet the correct standard for living in, because everyone deserves to feel safe and secure in their own home.

A real highlight of the year for me was our hosting of several matches of the Women’s Rugby World Cup this summer. Not only was it great to see the whole town coming together to enjoy and celebrate the game, whether it was banners on buses or the Women’s Institute yarnbombing miles of our streets, but to also see how busy the town centre and local outlets were from increased visitor numbers. We need to harness this spirit to continue to build on our reputation as a centre of sporting excellence, as well as growing our tourism economy.

2025 also marked 350 years since the Great Fire of Northampton, an inspiring story of how our town came together after destruction to rebuild. There were an impressive number of events to commemorate, including the annual Oak Apple Day celebration in June – complete with pikemen – and a much-lauded light display on our iconic All Saints Church in September. It was also a pleasure – as ever - to join this year’s Diwali parade and see how much the occasion has grown in scale and popularity year-on-year since it began 25 years ago, a huge testament to the work of Neelam and the Indian Hindu Welfare Organisation.

Having grown up in an army family and spent my childhood on various military bases, Remembrance Sunday always means a lot to me and it was an honour to again lay a wreath on behalf of everyone in Northampton North in memory of those who gave their lives for the freedoms we enjoy today.

Overall, 2025 has been a year of important progress and I know there is so much more to do to deliver on Northampton’s priorities. A good number of things that affect daily life – including cracking down on the litter on our streets and dealing with the state of our roads – of course fall at the door of West Northants Council. But I’m clear that the Government has got more to do too and I’m going to be working 8 days a week to deliver on the trust that residents put in me.

Thank you to everyone who I have engaged with this year – residents, charities, businesses large and small – your input and advice is invaluable in our work to make Northampton an even better place to live, work and raise a family. Lastly, I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and here’s to 2026.