I HOPE you and your loved ones have been enjoying the Christmas period and making plans for 2025.
It has been lovely to see so many of you at Christmas lights events and markets – thank you to all involved in putting these on.
It’s also been good to sit down with some of you at my latest local advice surgeries.
While it has only been a few short months since the election, I’ve been working hard to make every day count in serving you, doing politics differently and playing my part in making change happen that matters here.
In the last few weeks alone, the government has been able to: commit almost £15 million in improving our buses here in the West of England; start to bring our railways back into public ownership, beginning with South West Railways; increase police funding, including a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee; set up free breakfast clubs in schools, with 750 early adopters starting from April.
In recent weeks, I’ve met with the Housing Minister to discuss HMOs and the challenges that we’re seeing locally in approaches to conversion.
I’ve asked the Foreign Secretary a wide range of questions about the impact of the last government’s cuts on Britain’s standing on the world stage, and on climate leadership, and work being done to repair this.
I’ve also been appointed to support the ministerial team at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. I know these are issues that matter to us locally and am looking forward to working hard at a national level to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas, boost nature again and more.
It was an emotional day in Westminster for the vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. After deep consideration, going through the Bill line-by-line and listening to many local people with a range of views, I voted to support this Bill proceeding for further scrutiny and consideration.
When this returns to the Commons, my final vote will come down to the specifics of the Bill.
Thank you to everyone who has been in touch, and I welcome any further views – I have a survey on my website, with a detailed video about my first vote, too, at tinyurl.com/2n234p2t.
Thanks to brilliant support from Independent Age, my team and local volunteers have held local Pension Credit sign-up sessions across our community, supporting people to receive support they’re entitled to.
I also held my first regular ‘Coffee with Claire’ event, in Emersons Green. These are informal events I’ve set up to bring people together locally to discuss how we can make ours an even better place to live.
I will be holding similar events across the constituency, so if you’re interested in joining, please sign up for updates at tinyurl.com/245k44k7.
As always, please do get in touch if there’s anything I can help you with, at
claire.hazelgrove.mp@parliament.uk.