COlUMN: I'm looking forward to more investment and new projects to support our town

I wanted to use this week’s column to tell you about a couple of great national announcements since the New Year.

First we’ve seen in the last week the news that Government will make up to £330 million from dormant bank and building society accounts available to help the homeless, disadvantaged young people, local charities and other good causes over the next four years. These are accounts that have been dormant for years where no account holder appears to exist and one cannot be traced - money that will now be put to good use supporting the homeless and vulnerable in our society.

This is a positive and sensible step and, combined with new funded pilot schemes across the UK for new methods of tackling homelessness, could make a difference to people’s lives.

We’ve also heard that for the first time ever the UK has been ranked the best country in the world to do business, and that investment in to the UK from other countries rose last year.

Despite all of the melodrama in the media about the impact of Brexit on business and employment, as a country we are in an incredibly strong position and continuing to grow. This amongst other good news lead a number of ‘experts’ to admit that their ‘doom and gloom’ predictions about the impact of a vote to leave the EU were wrong.

Clearly there are challenges posed by Brexit and we all need to know where we stand as soon as possible, but actually what these figures show is that the world still trusts the UK as a great place to invest and do business as much as ever. As the key Brexit legislation passes through the House of Commons over the next week or two and Government moves on to talk trade in the EU negotiations, we’re in a really strong positon to deliver on the referendum result in a way that benefits the whole of the UK.

So reasons to be cheerful in 2018, both local and national, and I’m very much looking forward to the challenge.