Last Friday at one of my regular advice surgeries in Ludlow, I was struck by the number of people needing help in securing benefits or lone parents struggling to get back to work.
Amid growing uncertainty about the economy, we need to ensure that our welfare system is in good shape.
Last week a report was published by the Centre for Social Justice focused on social breakdown in Manchester. It painted a disturbing picture of educational failure, high levels of youth crime and unemployment, widespread family breakdown and severe alcohol abuse. But at the same time, the city's economy is booming.
In rural Shropshire we like to think we are immune from the problems of inner city Britain. But we have pockets of severe deprivation within our communities, often jostling close by with areas of affluence.
More money is not enough to mend our broken society.
We need fresh ideas to move people off welfare and into work, strengthen families, revitalise inner city schools and tackle drug and alcohol abuse. These are emerging from work that Conservatives have been undertaking in Manchester and elsewhere.
But in last week's Queen's Speech there was little sign of the fresh thinking that the country so desperately needs.
