James Duddridge, Member of Parliament for Rochford and Southend East, reflects on the Government’s key achievements of 2012. The Government has had to make very difficult decisions since the 2010 general election and at times it is easy to lose sight of the achievements. So, at the start of 2013, James took the opportunity to review some the achievements over the past twelve months.
James said:
“In 2010 the coalition government inherited a massive level of debt which was increasing every year. Against this backdrop we have reduced the budget deficit by a quarter and made some big improvements for example, in 2012
- Legislation was introduced whereby there is now a benefits cap so no household receives more in benefits than the average family earns
- The Government assisted in the opening of more than 1000 Academies
- Net migration was cut by a quarter
- The NHS budget was protected
- Billions of pounds of Whitehall waste was identified and cut
- Fuel Duty was frozen
- The Government helped freeze council tax bills for the third year in a row”