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GOOD MORNING & welcome to my South West Surrey update No.226 -
Apart from Boris shenanigans the focus in Westminster has been on all things tech this week where last year the UK became the third largest sector in the world after the US and China. Locally, I had a very pleasant morning looking at the planned AONB Surrey Hills extension with Thérèse Coffey followed by a surgery. Now onto preparing for my Farnham charity bike ride…

WHAT’S GOING ON IN WESTMINSTER

TREASURY UPDATE You wouldn’t know it from the newspapers but we have had two bits of good news recently. Coming off the back of the OECD announcing an upgrade to UK growth forecasts ([link removed]) (as mentioned last week), the Office for National Statistics this week confirmed that we have a record number of people in work ([link removed]) and have finally surpassed the numbers we had pre-pandemic. The ONS also released statistics which show the economy is now bigger than before the pandemic. ([link removed]) However with that resilience has come inflation so as I outlined in this video ([link removed]) we have to continue to do everything we can as a country to support the Bank of England to reduce it.

PRODUCTIVITY How will we keep taxes down in the long term? Every year the size of our state is projected to grow at 2% whereas the British economy as a whole is projected to grow at just 1.6%. You don’t have to be a brilliant Treasury brain to work out what that means for taxes and borrowing. If we do nothing, debt will more than double to 217% of our GDP by 2070 as I explain in this thread ([link removed]) . I have therefore asked John Glen, who is Chief Secretary to the Treasury, to lead a major public sector productivity programme to look at what it would take to deliver at least 0.5% more public sector productivity. I announced all of this in a speech ([link removed]) at the Centre for Policy Studies on Monday night which you can read here ([link removed]) .

TECH WEEK On Monday the PM kicked off London Tech Week with a plan for AI regulation ([link removed]) . There was also the announcement that Silicon Valley Bank UK, which the Prime Minister and I worked hard to save in March, has now been relaunched as HSBC Innovation Banking ([link removed]) . I hosted a breakfast with HSBC and SVB followed by taking part in a panel ([link removed]) chaired by the Secretary of State for Science Chloe Norwich in which we discussed how the UK can remain competitive ([link removed]) for tech business scale ups. That was also a topic I discussed in a fireside chat ([link removed]) at the Founders Forum CEO Breakfast with Financial Times Editor Rhoula Khalaf on Wednesday. As I also wrote in this week’s Farnham Herald
([link removed]) we need to be supporting the tech sector as it will be one of the fastest growing sectors this century and we are pretty good at it with more unicorns ($1 bn companies) than France, Germany and Sweden combined.

WHAT’S GOING ON IN SOUTH WEST SURREY

GREEN SPACES I am happy to report that Thérèse Coffey loved the Surrey AONB almost as much as we do when she came on her visit on Friday. As mentioned in this joint video in Shamley Green ([link removed]) we had a productive day in which I spoke to her about how important it is to extend the AONB area. This will be the first extension of the Surrey Hills AONB since 1958 and increases it by a whopping 25%, taking the protection level in Surrey as a whole to over 30%. There are many reasons to do this: benefit to rural businesses and more biodiversity, as I wrote about in last week’s Herald ([link removed]) . We outlined all of this to Thérèse as we took her ([link removed]) to see some breathtaking views. The consultation has now closed… fingers crossed for the result!

ON YER BIKE! Well, I will be anyway on Sunday 2^nd July at the Farnham Bike Ride along with 14 other members of the team raising funds for the Cancer campaign– to set up a new Cancer Centre at the Royal Surrey. This annual event, now in its 15^th year, attracts hundreds of cycling enthusiasts and fundraisers who ride a variety of distances through the town and area. Please show your support and visit the Friends of Royal Surrey Cancer & Surgical Innovation Campaign on their stand in Castle Street and donate on the day. I have also set up a Just Giving Page ([link removed]) where you can sponsor me to raise funds for this amazing cause which will allow the treatment of an additional 7,000 patients a year at our amazing hospital.

SURGERY STORIES For my surgery calls last Friday I started by speaking to a local head about school funding and teacher pay. He has particular concerns about the deficit he inherited on becoming head which is linked to the number of special needs children in his school and the challenge of fully meeting their needs within the EHCP budgets provided. I talked about the £2.3bn increase in the schools budget in the Autumn Statement but said I would talk to Gillian Keegan about issues around special needs funding.

Next I spoke to a mum from Farncombe whose son has not been able to get a place at his nearest school. She is appealing the decision and I will do all I can to help as being separated from friends is a horrible thing for young children.

I then spoke to a lady from Haslemere about why exemptions to pesticide bans are being allowed. She is worried about the impact on insect and wildlife so I will take the issue up with Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey.

Finally I spoke to an Elstead expert on AI who thinks Rishi Sunak is doing exactly the right thing in exploring how to set up light touch guardrails to this exciting new technology.

BOTTLES, BOTTLES, BOTTLES… Can you donate a bottle of something for the Bourne Show ([link removed]) on 1^st July? Friends of Royal Surrey Cancer & Surgical Innovation Campaign will be running a tombola in aid of the new facility. If you live in the constituency and have a bottle you could spare, please call 07932 411108 and a member of the team will collect it.

JOIN ME Want to get more involved locally? Email me at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) to join my growing team supporting our work in our community.

AND FINALLY… As someone who firmly believes that Christmas decorations should not go up too early, I am very relieved Farnham, Godalming and Haslemere don’t have the same issues as this Yorkshire town ([link removed]) that still has its tree up…

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Promoted by Sean Donovan-Smith on behalf of Jeremy Hunt MP and South West Surrey Conservatives, all at 2 Royal Parade, Tilford Road, Hindhead, Surrey GU26 6TD.

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South West Surrey Conservative Association . 2 Royal Parade, Tilford Road . Hindhead . Surrey, GU26 6TD . United Kingdom