The official groundbreaking ceremony for the £900 million Panattoni site took place this week, with the Prime Minister in attendance to put the spade in the ground.
I was incredibly proud to welcome the Prime Minister to see this highly ambitious project – which will see the site become one of the largest brownfield redevelopment sites in the UK. He was right to recognise the benefits that the site will bring Swindon, and the strong economic background which is encouraging investment in Swindon and across the UK.
This development is expected to deliver 7,000 new jobs on site across advanced manufacturing, logistics and traditional head offices. Thousands more jobs will also be created along the supply chain for the site. It is expected once the development is completed in 5 years’ time, there will be double the jobs that were provided by Honda, bring a £200m a year boost to the Swindon local economy.
Whilst the Government set the economic and investment structures in place, it is a credit to the previous Conservative Council who help facilitate and bring the project to fruition. Many other Local Authorities would have not been so supportive of such a major development, but by making Swindon ‘open for business’, this is how we will create the next generation of jobs for our growing town.
It was World Book Day yesterday, and many children will have enjoyed taking part and dressing up as their favourite book characters.
I am a huge believer in the power of books to change lives. Studies have shown reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational backgrounds or their income.
Throughout my time as an MP, I have been passionate about getting children reading and ensuring they have access to books. I have chaired a cross-party group APPG for Libraries, served on the APPG for Literacy - as well as launching the annual Summer Reading Challenge in Parliament. All of these initiatives are so important to unlocking the potential of children.
It was a pleasure to do my annual Uplands School Council meeting this week. A lively and fun Q&A and I was very impressed that they are produced their own video on how democracy works, it was very professionally done! Perhaps I should commission them for General Election material!
Finally, the Chancellor presented the Spring Budget to Parliament this week, setting out the Government’s economic plans.
The key announcement was a further cut to National Insurance, taking it down to 8% - which follows a 2% cut to national insurance in Autumn Statement. This means National Insurance has fallen from 12% to 8% since November, saving an average worker £900 a year.
We also saw additional investment for the NHS, alcohol, and fuel duties frozen, an increase in the VAT threshold saving businesses £1,000 and a much-needed change to the Child Benefit qualification rules. The economy is turning a corner, inflation has more than halved and energy prices are expected to fall sharply in April – if we stick to the plan, we will see a brighter future. The growing economy will unlock further tax cuts and allow us to continue investing record money into our vital public services.
