May I start my first newsletter of 2023 by wishing everybody in Blyth Valley a Happy New Year.
There’s no doubt that 2023 will be challenging year as we continue to recover from the Covid Pandemic and continue to deal with Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. I’m particularly pleased to hear our Prime Minister Rishi Sunak set out five clear promises so early in the New Year. The Prime Minister has pledged to halve inflation this year, grow the economy, get our national debt down, cut NHS waiting lists and legislate to stop the small boats. The Prime Minister is setting out a renewed Conservative vision to change the way the Country works, raise our aspirations and build a better future with a more innovative economy, stronger communities, world class education, healthcare built around patients and family at the heart of social life.
I will continue to work as a Conservative MP to support this vision and continue to do all I can to improve people’s lives in Blyth Valley. I represent over 85,000 people who live in Blyth Valley and in the past year my team of hard-working caseworkers and I have had 1,417 individual cases raised, sent 3,373 responses to policy queries and sent almost 8,000 case related emails. We have closed over 4,000 cases since I was elected. We will always welcome contact from my constituents, and we do our best to help.
Many of the projects I have worked for since being elected in 2019 were progressed in 2022. Some of these long-term structural changes take time to get off the ground and often cannot be completely delivered in the life of one Parliament but I determined to see as much progress as possible happen as fast as possible. Enhancements to Blyth Town Centre as part of the £70m Energising Blyth Programme have progressed well, work has started on re-opening the Northumberland Railway Line to passenger services and on building new stations, funding is committed to the Offshore Training Centre and I am pushing hard for progress on the Blyth Relief Road and improvements to Moor Farm Roundabout. The Blyth Estuary is attracting lots of new investment and renewable energy jobs and it’s important our infrastructure keeps up. The work I do on the Environmental Audit Committee and on the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Left Behind Areas is important nationally but also for Blyth Valley.
