WELCOME TO MY WEEKLY UPDATE- NO.261
I hope you managed to have a restful Easter break. Work has not stopped in the Treasury because April is the start of the financial year and therefore the date when lots of budget measures come into place – from the further 2% National Insurance cut to the increase to the state pension and new childcare support. And it is just 10 days till the Marathon - I was out this morning in Hyde Park for my last long run (10 miles) before what runners call ‘tapering down’ ahead of the big day - more on that below…
WHAT’S GOING ON IN WESTMINSTER
NEW FINANCIAL YEAR As I wrote about in last week’s Herald, this month marks the introduction of some of the key budget and autumn statement measures. One of the most widely-felt of these measures is the further 2% cut to National Insurance, on top of the 2% cut that started in January, which together mean that 27 million workers save £900 in tax this year. Many wonder why I chose National Insurance rather than income tax. The answer is that it helps grow the economy, leading to the equivalent of 200,000 more people in work or filling one in five vacancies across the country. Growth is how we pay for things like the triple lock, which means pensioners will also (coincidentally) get a £900 increase in their pension. For the lowest paid, the increase to the National Living Wage to £11.44 starts. Someone working full time has seen their after tax pay go up by 35% since 2010, one of the reasons unemployment - despite the pandemic and energy crisis - has halved. And to help families, there is an increase in the threshold at which child benefit will begin to be withdrawn to £60,000, saving nearly half a million families an average of £1300. The overall picture? Taxes have gone up to pay for the pandemic but I have been able to bring in tax cuts that pay back around half the increases - and if we stick to my plan I hope to bring them down more. Why? Because countries with lower taxes tend to grow faster and in the end it is economic growth that will pay for pensions, the NHS, the armed forces and all the other things we need to fund.
CHILDCARE Just over a year ago I announced the largest ever expansion to childcare in my lifetime, and the extra free hours are beginning to be rolled out this month. We hit our target to have 150,000 more children benefiting from free childcare hours this week, which I know will also make a huge difference to families locally where the cost of living is particularly high. Labour has been flipflopping on whether they will commit to our childcare plans - but given that they will help 60,000 families into work they should get behind them as I say in this video.
GLOBAL SECURITY Last weekend marked the grim 6 month anniversary of the October 7th attacks. It was the most appalling terrorist attack in Israel’s history but little progress has been made with hostages still held by Hamas and numerous civilian casualties. Foreign Secretary David Cameron wrote thoughtfully over the weekend about what needs to happen to break the stalemate - and what the UK is doing to ensure that more aid gets into Palestine. He is now in the US where he is hoping to make progress on that - and persuade Congress to unblock aid to Ukraine. I have always believed the world is safer with a strong America but we should never underestimate the isolationism that has always run through US politics.
LONDON MARATHON With just over a week to go, I am juggling Treasury, constituency and family life - the topic of my Herald column this week - and now running the mini-Marathon the day before with my daughters (luckily only 2.6k). A massive thank you to the wonderful people who have generously donated so far on my Just Giving page towards the new Royal Surrey Cancer and Surgical Innovation Centre - a great cause! And if you haven’t quite managed to do so yet, there is still time to make a donation, however small, via the link here. Don't forget to tick the Gift Aid box if you are a UK taxpayer - it costs you nothing and makes a huge difference.
WHAT’S GOING ON LOCALLY
THAMES WATER MEETING Tomorrow I will be hosting a public meeting with Chris Weston, new CEO of Thames Water, to discuss the water outages, slow compensation payments and sewage spills in Godalming, Milford, Bramley and surrounding areas. We will also be joined by senior representatives from both Ofwat and the Consumer Council for Water. Top of the agenda will be issues with compensation and progress on reducing the power fluctuations which were the initial cause for the major November water outage. Since the major water outage last November my team (and Angela Richardson's) have done our best to represent the 20,000 people impacted. We have dealt with 328 cases directly into my office and many more people have made me aware of issues via social media. The main concerns are about water resilience and compensation, because although nearly £1.3m has been paid, many households have still been missed out or paid the wrong amount. If you are interested in broader issues about the water industry this excellent Telegraph article by Nick Timothy is worth a read.
GOSDEN COMMON PUMPING STATION Residents of Bramley and Shalford continue to deal with constant sewage tankers and noise because of a suspected blocked pipe, which was supposed to have been fixed last year. Although the tankers stationed on the A281 (and temporary traffic lights) have now gone, Thames Water teams are still dealing with a blockage from the rising main sewage pipe leading from the pumping station. Councillor Jane Austin has an update here.
BRAMLEY SPEED CAMERAS Great news from Cllrs Kevin Deanus and (again) Jane Austin this weekend - work to install the columns and cameras has been taking place this week. The team worked hard to get the necessary permits and new columns following a delay caused by finding services in the ground when the installation team dug to install the camera poles. The cameras won't be live immediately as everything needs setting up and connecting properly but this is great news for road safety in Bramley on the A281 so thanks to everyone for their campaigning on this one.
SPEED CAMERAS 2 It was also brilliant to see the new speed cameras recently installed at Newlands Corner on the A25. Surrey County Councillor Bob Hughes has campaigned for improvements in road safety across Surrey for years and this particular stretch is a well-known accident and speeding spot, so it's really great to see speeds will now be limited to 40mph. All of these average speed cameras, together with those I have secured for installation in Chiddingfold and Witley are all a massive step forward for road safety in our area. Very lovely to spend some time at this special spot looking out on our beautiful Surrey Hills National Landscape (AONB) too.
SOUTH EAST AMBULANCE SERVICE Really good update meeting last Friday with Simon Weldon, the new CEO of SECAmb, the ambulance service serving 5 million people in the Southeast– and currently the second-best performing ambulance service in the country. He says that 40% of call outs are not actually necessary and given that each call out costs the NHS £500 a lot of money wasted as a result. SECAmb are therefore working on a big new plan to reduce unnecessary call outs in order to increase the speed they get to the people they do need to get to. This will need a much better triage system which they are now investing in - with the extra investment in NHS technology I announced in the Budget hopefully making a big difference.
CONSTITUENCY CALLS My first call was to a lady from Godalming who lost an enormous amount of money in an authorised push payment scam - something that affects up to 200,000 people annually. I will write to the head of the FCA, the financial regulator, to ask what action they are taking to address this kind of situation and will support her in her action with the Financial Ombudsman. I then spoke to a Haslemere resident about incredibly frustrating problems with the Child Maintenance Service which I will take up.
GOMSHALL Last week it was great to pop in and see Paul Reeves at his fantastic store Coach House Surrey in Gomshall. Paul has been getting no traction on a major issue of repeated flooding of his store (and home) and the A25 next door every time a drainage channel gets blocked. Paul and Councillor Bob Hughes have identified the owner is now Surrey County Council so, together with Paul Beresford MP, I will try to help ensure this issue is fixed before it happens again and floods Gomshall again in the process.
ROADWORKS Surrey County Council have a useful map detailing what is happening with roadworks across the county. Take a look here. Some I thought are particularly worth highlighting are:
- Brighton Road in Godalming is closed close to Busbridge Village Hall until 14th April with a couple of detours.
- The map also details the ongoing closure of Amlets Lane outside Cranleigh which right now is putting additional pressure on Cranleigh High Street.
WAVERLEY BOROUGH COUNCIL BY-ELECTIONS AND PCC ELECTIONS These are coming up on 2nd May and the deadline for registering for postal votes is 17th April. For the Conservatives Gary Hudson is standing in Witley and Milford and Aly Fitch is standing in Farnham Castle – two really strong local candidates. Our excellent Police and Crime Commissioner Lisa Townsend is also up for re-election on the same day. Surrey remains one of the safest places in the country at least partly thanks to her excellent work.
KNOWLE PARK CRANLEIGH Brilliant to see such amazing pictures of Knowle Park in Cranleigh. Thanks to the team of local people working very hard on it.
SOCIAL MEDIA If you would like more regular updates of my work locally and nationally, do follow me on Facebook, X (Twitter), WhatsApp or Instagram.
JOIN ME Want to get more involved locally? Email me at [email protected] to join my growing team supporting our work in our community.
AND FINALLY… One to inspire me during my marathon training – this geezer who has just completed his run across the length of Africa, running the equivalent of more than 385 marathons! Perhaps that will be my next challenge to raise money for the new Cancer Centre at the Royal Surrey. Or perhaps not.
As always, if you know anyone (a friend or neighbour perhaps?) who might like to receive this email, please do forward it on. Anyone can sign up here to receive them and can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the box below or emailing me.
