It has been a privilege to represent Crawley through arguably the toughest period in the past sixty years and I am proud to have supported a Government that has stepped up to the mark, put aside internal divisions in the national interest and tackled head on the gargantuan challenges that looked set to cripple our country.
Although Great Britain’s continued prosperity is far from guaranteed, faced with the choice of sinking the country below an irreversible tide of mounting debts or demonstrating to the world’s markets that, in times of turbulence, we remain a safe investment open for business; I support the tough decisions being taken now to ensure our children have a brighter, more prosperous future.
As such, I am pleased to report that the Government has now cleared a quarter of the crippling historic debts inherited from Labour and fostered record low market interest rates to further boost our investability. Ministers have dropped taxes that dissuade foreign investors from supporting our economy, such as Labour’s job tax through increased Employer National Insurance, and slashed through reams of red tape to ensure businesses are readily able to take on new employees, can access funds and are undertaking new investment projects.
Through a business-style efficiency drive, the Government has reduced the civil service to its smallest size since the 1940’s, saved £2 billion through the scrapping of almost 200 quangos and reduced the role of Whitehall via decentralised power to local communities.
By utilising pioneering Business Hubs and Enterprise Zones across our core cities, this Government is pulling together business and community leaders to facilitate unprecedented collaborative leadership across the country to ensure that what needs to get done for our economical welfare, both in the short and long term, is being done.
Apprenticeship Hubs and localised youth contracts have already seen 177,000 more apprenticeships delivered over the past year, and are set to create many thousands more too, which will help ensure that we have the jobs and key skill sets available for our nation’s needs in years to come (an increase of 74% in Crawley alone). More broadly, the Work Programme is helping empower people who were previously dependent on welfare support, through employment in our expanding private sector.
This Government has stood in solidarity with the hard pressed working family; cutting income tax for 25 million people, reducing the previous Government’s planned fuel duty increases by 10p, capping benefit payments so that nobody can earn more off benefits than the average working family and a two year long council tax freeze.
So far as pensioners are concerned, ministers have secured the biggest ever cash increase to the Basic State Pension by £5.30 per week, whilst simultaneously protecting key benefits such as winter fuel allowance and bus passes.
Whether it is putting a stop to the mass immigration perpetuated under the last Government, restoring our footing at the forefront of new high tech industries or supporting hard pressed working families, this Government has rightly made the invidious choices now to ensure our prosperity later.