As I wrote my Letter from Westminster this time last year, we were a nation still deep in the throes of the Covid pandemic. Twelve months later, the darkest days of the pandemic are behind us but for those who lost loved ones, life will never be quite the same again.

It will take many months for our health service to recover from the treatment backlog due to the pandemic, but the Government recognises this. More investment in our health and social care sector announced by the new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in his Autumn Statement, incidentally, bringing weekly spending on the NHS to over £1 billion more than at the time of the EU referendum. Here in Shropshire, the Hospitals Transformation Plan which local clinicians believe essential to improve quality of care is moving forward with renewed impetus.

Looking back, 2022 was a tumultuous year in Westminster, but good progress was achieved in many areas. For several years I have campaigned for improvements to water quality of our rivers and waterways. On this front the Government have gone further than ever before.

Progress began with the Environment Act, passed in 2021, introducing measures to tackle sewage pollution for the first time. Working with many campaigning organisations I helped secure a new legal duty on water companies to reduce the impact of sewage discharges.

There is no quick fix for six decades of underinvestment in our Victorian sewerage infrastructure, now bursting at the seams, but it is welcome that the Government announced increased investment focussed on storm overflows. £56bn of capital investment in water treatment was announced over the next 25 years, more than double what has been spent annually since privatisation of the water sector, and quadruple what was spent each year when in public ownership.

In November, I was pleased that the Government accepted a further recommendation made by myself and others to ensure that millions of pounds raised by the Treasury from fines on water companies for polluting in breach of permits will in future be redirected to the catchment affected by the pollution to improve water quality.

The sum of these measures represents enormous progress towards cleaning up our rivers, but this is not the end of sewage pollution, and I will continue to do all I can to keep up the fight in the years ahead.

Looking to 2023, the Government are rightly focussed on the urgent challenges we face; from bringing down inflation and supporting the vulnerable through the cost of living and energy prices, to doing all we can to ensure that Putin’s war in Ukraine does not succeed.

The UK has led the way in providing military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and we should be proud of our warm welcome to those fleeing war who have found safety in our communities, including 550 here in Shropshire. We must not conflate the genuine sanctuary Ukrainian refugees seek with the many thousands of migrants who have landed on our shores via illegal routes driven by inhumane people traffickers in France. The Home Secretary will need to go further to put an end to this dreadful trade.

Action is also needed to deliver economic growth and opportunity across the whole of our United Kingdom and I look forward to working with Shropshire Council in the coming months as they continue to bid for Government Levelling Up Funds to unlock the potential of towns like Craven Arms.

As ever, there is much to do, but with Rishi Sunak at the helm, I feel positive for the year ahead. Happy New Year.