As I write, all of the attention is on the market reaction to the financial measures the new Chancellor announced on Friday. People are debating whether this is a very short-term, temporary reaction or the symbol of something that will last longer. I obviously hope it is temporary, but I am not in all honesty qualified to judge – and would not try and make economic predictions at any time.
There are 3 other areas I do feel more confident about the impact of, however. The first is the Energy Price Guarantee the Government has announced. This will limit the amount you can be charged per unit of gas/electricity and will mean that a typical household will not pay more than £2,500 per year for energy for the next 2 years. This is a very significant intervention by the Government and has provided reassurance to many families.
It is important to stress that it does not mean that no-one will have a higher bill than £2,500, particularly if you use a lot more energy than you usually do – £2,500 is what the average family will not pay more than, based on the average usage. The Government did not want a package that unintentionally encouraged people not to care about how much energy they used, which there was a risk of if there would be no cost above a certain amount.
As I have written about before, the proportional increases that were projected for businesses were often much higher than those for families, so I am glad that an equivalent guarantee is being made to them for the next 6 months, with the unit price again being reduced.
The second area is the Government’s ABCD (Ambulances, Backlogs, Care, Doctors/Dentists) focus for the health system. Many constituents have written to me about these issues in the past few months and I have raised a number of them in the House of Commons.
Specifically on GP appointments, which I’ve had most correspondence about, measures will include changing funding rules to recruit extra support staff, freeing up over one million GP appointments per year. The appointment numbers at every practice will be published and pharmacies will be allowed to take minor referrals and manage and supply certain medicines without a GP prescription.
Of course, we need more GPs, and this relates to the third area I’m pleased about, which is the focus on infrastructure. Since I was elected I have been campaigning on infrastructure issues: to reopen Grove Station, have more health facilities like GP practices, improve the A420 and A34, etc. The Government wants to see much more infrastructure built and built faster – so I’ll be using that to push for what we need.
