This being my final column of 2023, it is an appropriate moment to reflect over the past 12 months.  

This time last year, at the end of 2022, inflation was at 10.5 per cent, and the Prime Minister pledged to halve it, in addition to growing the economy, to get our national debt down, to cut NHS waiting lists and to stop the boats.   

12 months later, and we know the Government has halved inflation, meeting the priority the Prime Minister set out and giving cost of living relief to families up and down the country. This is a significant achievement and the result of hard decisions, fiscal discipline and rejecting calls for higher spending and more borrowing. 

Doing deals with Albania and France, as well as passing the Illegal Migration Act in July, represented decisive action to crack down on illegal Channel crossings. Already, thanks to Government action, small boat arrivals in the UK have been reduced by 20 per cent in the last year.  

In the NHS, the number of patients waiting more than 18 months has reduced by over 90 per cent since its peak and two-year waits for treatment have been virtually eliminated. In Shropshire, we have seen extra beds at our acute hospitals, and slow but steady progress in advancing the Hospital Transformation Programme. 

Our economy has proven itself resilient, growing 2.4% larger than in 2019. The OECD upgraded their growth outlook for the UK by 0.5 percentage points this year and neither they nor the Bank of England are predicting recession, unlike in Germany. In South Shropshire, over the past 12 months we have had 130 people move off out-of-work benefits, giving them the security of a regular paypacket. At the Autumn Statement last month, government debt, after growing to cope with the pandemic and energy crisis sparked by Russia, is forecast to decline in the OBR forecast period. 

With the Environmental Audit Committee, this year we published reports on net zero in the construction sector, the financial sector, greener imports, the Arctic, forestry and timber, as well as food security, helping to guide the government towards a greener future. I was pleased to attend COP28 and to visit the Arctic circle with other EAC members, to meet scientists doing pioneering work to measure our impact on the climate. 

This has been a busy year, but I look forward to my final year in Parliament achieving even more in 2024. 

I wish all readers a very Happy New Year.