Helping us through the Recession
In many ways this constituency has been fortunate during the Recession. It has had the smallest number of people on Job Seeker Allowance in the whole of the South East. But it has certainly not been Recession-proof.
I've spent time talking to individual businesses across the constituency and I've met them in groups in Thame, in Chalgrove and in Henley. It is quite clear that many have experienced very difficult trading and that many, even now, struggle to find credit and face high charges; one found his bank charges had gone up by 1,000%.
This Recession has hit businesses which have previously had good trading records. Unemployment has hit people who have had no previous experience of claiming benefits or of the consequences of being out of work. That's why one of the first things I did was to spend a day at JobCentrePlus in Reading seeing how the system worked.
At a time like this, it's important to know to whom to turn locally for help and advice especially as in many cases local help has been the only help available. Obviously, in the long term it's important to tackle the underlying causes of the economic downturn, and by reducing the deficit help the economy back on its feet.
But I was pleased to host major recession networking events in Henley and Thame to help businesses through the Recession and to participate in seminars with businesses around the constituency.
