The weekend featured the annual Yeovil District Hospital abseil which has been going for many years now. It’s a great event and raises money for the hospital charity. Well done to everyone who took part; it’s a lot of fun and takes quite some courage too.
This week the International Monetary Fund has upgraded its predictions on our economy. We are no longer predicted to have a recession and should outperform other countries including Germany. Clearly this is good news but you have to consider how much harm was caused by all the previous stories about our economy shrinking and falling behind other G7 countries. Businesses need stability and confidence and negative forecasts are not helpful. It was also a shame to see some in the media apparently delighted with the gloomy predictions. Still it is a step forward all the same.
We still need to bring inflation down and the Government is very focused on that. It’s a problem in many countries but energy prices are starting to fall and predicted to continue to do so. Support with the cost of living is helping many families and you can see what is available on the website helpforhouseholds.campaign.gov.uk
It was interesting to see this week reports in the national press about the phosphate issue that has affected us here and had such an effect on planning new homes. The Times makes the reasonable point that whilst we all want to take steps to protect our environment and biodiversity, the quango Natural England does have a lot of power in this situation. Apparently 74 councils have had to stop new homes being built because of their rules. I am not in favour of all development and have been against many of the decisions made by South Somerset District Council particularly about bolt-on developments in our villages which often come with no additional resources and infrastructure. People do need nice places to live though and one of the reasons I supported the move to a unitary Somerset authority was to allow for a better overall planning system. In the meantime though I am in touch with the Government about faster and more decisive action on the phosphate issue which won’t mean new building everywhere but will give developers and others involved more certainty, allow more investment and jobs and above all give people attractive and affordable homes to live in.
Finally it is good to see that a petition has gone to the Council in advance of a meeting to discuss acute hospital treatment for strokes. Having consulted with local doctors I also have concerns about moving the service and have written to Somerset NHS about this. The Government is generally in favour of empowering local doctors to make decisions about how to allocate resources but in this case they do not all agree and it needs to be looked at again.