Last week brought the great news that inflation has more than halved, meeting the Prime Minister’s pledge to halve it before the end of the year. Inflation has been pushing the cost of living up significantly and eating away at the value of the pound in our pockets.
It required the Government to keep a tight hold on public finances and not to agree to the many spending requests being made of it which, while individually worthy, would have made inflation worse.
While the PM’s political opponents were quick to say he had nothing to do with inflation halving, they had been quick to say he was at fault for it being high, so they can’t have it both ways.
With inflation under control, we can look forward to interest rates falling in due course, thereby making mortgage repayments more affordable once again.
The PM will continue to work on the other pledges he made, including to stop the arrival of illegal migrants by boat (boat arrivals are down 30% this year, while other European countries have seen an increase in boat arrivals this year).
He has now set out a series of other pledges. He’ll continue to focus on reducing the debt, which will further support the reduction of inflation and mortgage rates. He’ll be reducing taxes – I’m writing this ahead of the Autumn Statement, where the Chancellor will begin to set this out – and reforming the benefits system to get more people into work.
When this Government came to power in 2010, it made big changes to the welfare system to get more people into work, which is the best route out of poverty and good for people’s mental health, too. But since Covid, we’ve seen a big increase in the number of people not in work and so reforms are once again needed.
He’ll be backing British businesses, helping them invest, be innovative and trade internationally.
And then there are 2 pledges of particular importance to the work I have done in parliament. Firstly, he wants to improve our energy security by building domestic, sustainable energy. Readers will know the work I did as the lead sponsor of the Local Electricity Bill, which led to the creation of a new £10 million community energy fund and an annual report to parliament being agreed on the progress of community energy.
The other is to give young people they need to get great jobs, one of the key themes of my pre-politics career, which will include scrapping degrees that do nothing for your prospects and teaching Maths and English to everyone until they’re 18. They are ambitious pledges, but will make the country a better place when they’re achieved.
