Stuart wants to enhance public services, understanding the pressures they are under and campaigning to improve services such as efforts to back our community hospitals, fix our roads and tackle rural crime.
Our public services are some of the most important elements in our communities that we depend on. From transport links that enable us to see loved ones and travel to work, to the emergency services that are there for us we need it most.
I know what it is like to rely on our local public services, especially with five children. Securing £312 million for the Hospital Transformation Programme in Shropshire was a fantastic achievement for our current MP, Philip Dunne. This is what it looks like to champion local public services, and I will endeavour to continue Philip's fine work on this issue.
If we keep this pattern going we can continue to improve our public services to secure their long-term future. I will champion all the many issues we face in South Shropshire, especially in areas such as public transport and health services.
In Shropshire, social care accounts for nearly 80% of the council’s overall budget. Shropshire’s rural geography, with fewer than one person per hectare compared to a national average of more than four, means it takes longer, and costs more, to deliver services than it does for most other authorities.
The last government has this year equipped Shropshire Council with almost £9 million in recognition of these challenges it faces providing services in remote communities like ours. I am disappointed that the new government has chosen to "repurpose" this grant and redistribute this funding elsewhere.
The new government was elected on a promise not to increase council tax, but its decisions mean that it could soar by up to £110 next year - hitting families and pensioners the hardest. With inflation already on the rise, the government must rethink its decision and deliver the funding that rural areas need."
As your Conservative MP, I commit to:
Listening to what public services improvements you need;
Supporting the needs of our services by raising the profile of South Shropshire in Parliament;
Delivering the funding and support needed to enhance public services across the constituency.
Sign up to my newsletter and follow my social media accounts to keep up with more developments on my plan.
