It is difficult to believe that we are already coming to the end of this year – a feeling I know many in Surrey will share.

It really is an immense honour to be able to say that I have now been Chancellor for over a year. Inflation in the UK has halved since the start of this year and although the job is not yet done, the progress already made is so important to begin to ease burdens on family finances. 

I have also been able to announce some measures that I am so proud of and I hope will make a huge difference to families across the country. In March, I announced the biggest expansion of childcare in British history. As of April this coming year, 15 hours’ free childcare will be extended to two year olds, and in September that will also extend to children aged nine to 23 months. 

In June we had the publication of something I spent much of my time campaigning for as a backbencher: the NHS’s Long-Term Workforce Plan. The plan could mean we have an extra 60,000 doctors and 170,000 more nurses in place in the next 15 years so will make a huge difference to the NHS. 

We need to get the economy growing, which is what I focused on in my recent Autumn Statement, with the largest ever cut to business tax by making capital expensing permanent. It allows businesses to reduce their tax bill by 25 per cent of everything they invest, meaning businesses have a greater incentive to invest in machinery and tools to boost productivity. 

I also announced a cut in the main rate of National Insurance from 12 per cent to 10 per cent. This amounts to a tax cut of on average £450 next year for 27 million working people across the country starting on January 6 – so in just over two weeks. 

The work in Surrey has not stopped either. Last week we had a productive public meeting with Thames Water, where it was good to hear a sincere apology.

Worryingly, the root cause of the outage experienced across the constituency has not yet been solved, and they have much work to do on communications and other issues, but I have invited them back for another public meeting in March so we can make sure there are some proper answers and they are held accountable. 

The campaign for a new cancer centre at the Royal Surrey continues to have momentum. With bike rides, marathons, and several other fundraising events we have comfortably hit the £400,000 milestone. I will be running the London Marathon again and there is lots more to look forward to next year so we can go even further!

We have also made good progress on the Green Spaces Campaign. Most notably, with the recent announcement that there will be a search for a new national park next year, I am ramping up my campaign to make sure the Surrey Hills are chosen– please make sure to sign the petition on my website if you agree. In the meantime, I worked with Natural England who held a consultation on whether to extend the current protected area and the responses to that are under review – fingers crossed they agree.

My team and I have organised litter-picks and surgeries, on top of visits to schools, businesses, and charities in the local area this year. 

Overall we have sent 13,500 emails (and counting!) to those who get in touch with the office asking for help on a range of issues including visas, road problems, and health concerns amongst many others. 

I have met more than 300 constituents who attended tours of Parliament and look forward to that continuing next year. Almost 8,000 people receive my weekly newsletter each week and many more read my column here and my social media posts. 

It is an absolute privilege to be able to represent you in Westminster and I will continue to put my all into the job next year. As always, if you ever have any issues and you think I might be able to help, please do not hesitate to contact the office in Hindhead or email me on [email protected]