The past few years have taken their toll on our economy. Throughout the pandemic, the Government has constantly had to balance our health and our wealth, which we know aren’t always distinct decisions.
At the end of last week, figures showed that our economy grew by 7.5 percent, which is faster than any other G7 nation. The rebound is partly due to the economy rebalancing from the shock of the lockdowns, but it is also a direct response to the massive £400 billion package of support, our historic vaccination programme, and the Government making the right calls in terms of opening up our economy.
The growing strength of the economy is also reflected in the number of payroll employees, which rose by 108,000 in January and now stands at 436,000, above pre-pandemic levels, – with the unemployment rate falling by 0.2 between October and December. In the Chichester constituency, the claimant rate in January was at 3.6 percent of working-age adults (aged 16-64), which is 0.7 percent less than the UK as a whole.
That said, I am extremely aware that the cost of living is putting huge pressure on families across the area. That is why we’ve introduced £9.1 billion worth of new measures to help families with the price of their energy bills. These include a £200 ‘smoothing’ rebate on energy bills for all households, to be paid back over the next five years at £40 per year –starting from April 2023. Plus a non-repayable £150 cash rebate for homes in Council Tax bands A-D –equivalent to 80 percent of all households, helping both lower and middle-income families. We’re also injecting £144 million of discretionary funding for local authorities to support households not eligible for the council tax rebate. If you think you need some support, please reach out to the Citizens Advice Service, call free on 0808 2787969.
There will certainly be challenges ahead of us, however, I am confident our economy will continue to go from strength to strength especially with businesses continuing to invest here in the UK – even last year, amid the pandemic, foreign investment created 55,319 new jobs across the country. There will be benefits locally too with Rolls Royce announcing its plans for a multi-million-pound investment at their Goodwood site which is great news for our area.
