Dom at Walton Heritage Day with the Walton Sea Cadets
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This month, I met with Surrey County Council leader, Tim Oliver, and Cabinet Member for All-Age Learning, Julie Iles, to discuss the supply of secondary school places across Esher & Walton and the progress being made towards the completion of (the permanent site for) Cobham Free School and Heathside Walton School. You can read my blog post here.
I also paid a visit to Esher Citizen’s Advice Bureau to speak with Deputy Manger Sarah Waite and her team during the week that CABs around the country celebrated their 80th anniversary. As always, the brilliant team updated me on local trends, and we discussed their experience of universal credit and the wider welfare reform agenda. I blogged about it here.
Next, I met with Dr Russell Hills, Chair of Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), who are responsible for commissioning a range of healthcare services for patients in Esher, Claygate, Cobham, Oxshott and Molesey. We discussed out of hours GP access, Molesey Community Hospital and the expanding range of direct access care in Elmbridge. You can read more about it on my blog.
I also met with our new temporary Elmbridge Borough Commander, Inspector Bert Dean. He updated me on the action that is being taken to keep crime low in Elmbridge, particularly around burglaries and drugs crime across the Borough. It was also good to hear about the significant reduction in the number of illegal encampments following the injunction secured by Elmbridge Borough Council. You can read more about it here.
Finally, I attended another terrific Walton Heritage Day organised by Walton on Thames Trading Alliance. This year’s Heritage Day was a great success and was packed with things for all ages to enjoy. I blogged about it here.
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In my role as Foreign Secretary, it's been another a busy month, delivering on the Government’s vision for a post-Brexit Global Britain that is ambitious, international, outward-looking and self-confident.
I visited Washington to hold meetings with key US politicians in Congress, to talk about the work the Government is doing to prepare for Brexit and the potential of a future UK-US free trade agreement.
Alongside this, I have been busy in Parliament, updating MPs on the UK’s relationship with Iran, after the attacks on Saudi Arabia, as well as updating MPs on the situation in Hong Kong.
I am proud that we have also announced that the UK will be hosting the next global climate change summit in 2020 in Glasgow - an example of the global leadership role we are taking on.
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We have had some more good economic news this month. Our economy is growing, and the unemployment rate is down again - at its lowest level since the 1970s. The unemployment rate is now 3.8% – having more than halved since 2010 and the number of people in work has increased by over 3.7 million since 2010. Along with this the economy has also now grown by 19% since 2010. Crucially, wages have increased by 4% compared with a year earlier meaning people have more money in their pockets.
Finally, this month, the Government held its spending review, which announced the extra money we are spending on the NHS, levelling up funding for our schools, boosting further education and tackling violent crime by hiring 20,000 new police officers. This is a positive agenda - and great news for Elmbridge.
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