ALTHOUGH the economic collapse was worse than we thought and will take longer to repair than we’d hoped, the UK is turning a corner and the recovery is taking hold.

Risks certainly remain, but our path of cutting spending and encouraging aspiration is the only way to deliver lasting improvements in living standards for people in Bromsgrove and throughout the country.

The UK has grown by 4.3 per cent since the end of the recession and more than 1.3 million net new jobs have been created in the last three years. Employment is above its prerecession peak in the UK with local businesses, such as Harris Brushes,Oakland International and E-Lites, going from strength to strength.

Andwenowhave one of the most competitive corporate tax systems in the world meaning that companies that had left the UK are bringing their investment and jobs back here.

At the same time, this Government’s focus on dealing with the deficit is allowing us to help improve living standards by keeping interest and mortgage rates at record lows, increasing the personal allowance to £10,000, freezing fuel duty and making petrol 13 pence a litre lower than it would have been under Labour.

Soon, we will add tax-free childcare to that list.

Thesemakesignificant and positive impacts on the cost of living, although none of them would have been possible hadweabandoned our tough spending plans.

Labour, on the other hand, is still calling for more borrowing, more debt and more spending. Their plan B would put low mortgages rates and jobs at risk. We have laid the foundations for sustainable prosperity, but there is still more to do.

This Government is getting on with building an economy that works for everyone.

Sajid Javid MP