Adam Afriyie, the MP for Windsor, has welcomed the Government’s recent budget, the annual statement detailing its spending priorities for the year ahead. This will be the final budget before the UK leaves the European Union on 29^th March 2019.

Key measures introduced in this budget include:

• An additional £25bn a year for the NHS by 2023, of which £2bn a year will go to mental health
  
• £1.5bn in business rates relief for small high street shops
  
• A freeze in fuel duty on petrol at the pump
  
• £30bn investment on roads repairs
  
• £60m to plant millions of trees
  

The budget comes amid an array of rosy economic news:

• 8 consecutive years of economic growth
  
•  3.3m new jobs created since 2010
  
•  The fastest wage growth in a decade
  
• Falling income inequality reaching its lowest level in 40 years
  
• The highest employment rate since records began in the 1970s
  

 

The MP for the Windsor constituency, Adam Afriyie welcomed the figures:

“I found myself pretty much nodding at every proposal in the Chamber this budget: policy after policy for an ambitious, global Britain.

“This was the final budget before the UK leaves the EU, and is therefore a statement of intent as to what sort of country we will be. The picture projected by the Chancellor today was a rosy one: pro-environment, pro-investment, pro-enterprise, pro-NHS and, most importantly of all, married with a strong commitment to fiscal discipline.

“I was particularly pleased by the announcements regarding mental health, including a 24/7 emergency hotline, more ambulances dedicated to mental health and a network of mental health crisis centres. This will go a long way to addressing the social scourge of suicide, which was the topic I spoke about most recently about in the Chamber. I will be considering Parliamentary Questions shortly to ensure that Windsor gets its fair share of this cash injection.

“As the Chancellor rightly states, austerity is over, but fiscal discipline is not. The tough decisions taken in the two previous Parliaments by Conservative-led Governments have ensured that we have the fiscal room to increase spending on the NHS and raise the personal allowance to £12,500 a year early, meaning that the lowest earners will be able to keep more of their hard earned money to spend on themselves and their family. Taking the Labour path of increasing taxes and spending to irresponsible levels would undo this hard work, relegate our economy to one of a lower tier of competitiveness and ultimately lead to lower spending on the public services we all use.”

 

ENDS

Note to editors

1.  Adam Afriyie has been Member of Parliament for Windsor since 2005.    
   
2. He lives in Old Windsor with his wife and five children.
   
3. At the 2017 General Election, Adam was returned with the greatest number of votes in the history of the constituency, and the highest share of the vote since the 1950s.
   
4. He is Patron of Berkshire Young Enterprise, Sebastian's Action Trust, and Chandler Day Centre.
   
5. He has been Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Ghana and Guinea since 2016.
   
6. He has a strong background in international business, having founded multiple companies outside of the UK.