There has been growing good news on the economy, which started last year and has burst through to 2014. In the past few days we have seen the IMF and The Item Club predicting a big surge in UK growth.
Of course to most people, the word growth is just a term bandied around by economists and politicians. But what does it all mean to you?
First, it’s important to explain what we’ve done to achieve economic success. In May 2010, the UK economy was on the brink of disaster thanks to a banking collapse and the Euro crisis. The previous Government had failed to run the economy in a sensible way, stacking up huge debts in the good years when it should have saved.
The new Government had to cut spending to try to make the country live within its means. We were opposed in every vote in Parliament by Labour – particularly on benefits cuts, the biggest area of government spending!
By making these changes we moved the economy from rescue to recovery. We are now in the recovery phase of our long term plan. By cutting spending we proved that we were good to pay back our debts. This has been good for my constituents, keeping interest rates low and has also meant families have stable and low mortgage repayments.
By taking the difficult decisions to cut government spending, we’ve also encouraged private sector growth and this has meant 1.6 million new jobs.
Yesterday, unemployment dropped by another 167,000. This means families in my Reading East constituency have the stability of a job and an income.
Without a long term plan it’s impossible to create jobs and control mortgage costs. It’s also difficult to deal with cost of living rises. Just pointing at things, as Labour has, shouting “that’s expensive” is not an economic policy. Putting up taxes as Labour wants isn’t the answer either.
Smaller government, less spending, lower taxes, low mortgages and more people in good jobs is what we’re trying to deliver. We’re not there yet and I willingly concede we have a lot more to do (especially in education). But the economic plan is the right one and it is beginning to deliver results. We must now see it through over the next decade.