What a moment it was when Chloe Kelly hit the winning penalty and the Lionesses retained their European championship title. Strong Norfolk contribution to the success too with Lauren Hemp hailing from my home town of North Walsham!
That success comes as Parliament heads into the summer recess, so it is an opportune time to look back at the year so far. It’s certainly been busy.
I have received 7794 emails - around 1100 a month on average. I prioritise helping people and with my dedicated team have dealt with 4690 individual casework issues for constituents on issues ranging from housing, health, pensions, police, and many more. Cases successfully resolved include getting pension credit backdated, restoring broadband services, speeding up approval of a new care home, special educational needs support, and helping a firm with a business rates issue resulting in a saving of £10,000.
Plans for the new QEH continue to progress. I was delighted to receive confirmation from the Department of Health that up to £1.5 billion of funding is in place to deliver the scheme. This is a very important step on the journey to deliver a new QEH. Hundreds of people have taken part in public sessions to shape the plans. The next step is to begin work on the new multi-storey car park to allow the new hospital to be built on the current main car park. Securing funding has been my priority and I will continue working closely with the Trust to ensure plans proceed as rapidly as possible.
Backing businesses and encouraging investment is vital. In Parliament I have regularly challenged ministers over the damaging impact of the national insurance increases, as well as a near doubling of business rates for hospitality, retail, and leisure firms. Over 120,000 jobs have been lost since the Chancellor’s October budget in those sectors alone. Through my Norfolk for Jobs campaign I am continuing to support efforts to help more people into work and employers in North West Norfolk in filling job vacancies.
My survey on mobile and broadband underlined the challenges faced locally with over half of respondents reporting a lack of useable mobile signal indoors and 51% rating broadband speeds at lower than 6 out of 10. I am using those results to press providers and government to deliver improvements in coverage and speeds including through the Shared Rural Network and Project Gigabit.
Improving access to NHS dentistry remains a priority. Despite obvious need, Norfolk and Waveney NHS failed to spend £7.8 million of funding last year. But rather than direct them to use innovative approaches such as pop-up centres in areas of highest need, the NHS nationally has clawed back that money. I have urged the government to return funding so it can be spent locally. In the House of Commons, I have also called on ministers to back plans for dental training at the UEA, as well as supporting CWA’s efforts to start dental training on the School of Nursing Studies site.
As well as these issues in Parliament I’ve raised the harmful impact of the family farm tax, the need for A10 and A47 improvements, energy discounts for park homes, opposed softer sentencing powers, and reversing the winter fuel cuts.
I’ve also been active both in Westminster and locally raising strong concerns about damaging plans to impose electricity substations, pylons, and 6,700 acres of solar farms on our area. The issue is the cumulative impact of this infrastructure on our area and that needs to be properly considered in the planning system.
While I cannot promise success in every case, my commitment is to do my best to help constituents and campaign for our area.
