From: Greg Hands MP news@greghands.comSubject: News Bulletin from Greg Hands MP #450

Date: 23 November 2015 at 11:17To: news@greghands.com

In this edition:

Greg Hands MPs Diary Website of the Week:HM Treasury Photo news:Book of condolences at theFrench Embassy in London An Update on Crossrail 2for Chelsea & Fulham Jobs Up Again in Chelsea &Fulham King's Road Medical Centrerated as Outstanding Greg Hands welcomes'Good Coverage' for Callsand Texts in Chelsea &Fulham More Apprentices inChelsea & Fulham is goodnews for young people Photo news:"Think German" Network Message for residents fromThames Water - CountersCreek Flood AlleviationScheme Greg Hands MP's speechto the Investec Mid-MarketConference Campaign update:Labour council climb downon cutting weekly bincollections... but twiceweekly collections remainunder threat 7 ways to contact Greg Hands

Issue 450 - Monday 23rd November 2015

Since the last edition, Greg:

As Chief Secretary to the Treasury held meetings andnegotiations with Secretaries of State across all Ministries andDepartments in the run up to the forthcoming SpendingReview. The Chancellor of the Exchequer will present theSpending Review on Wednesday (25th November).Attended Cabinet at No 10 Downing Street.Signed the book of condolences at the French Embassy inSouth Kensington, to remember those who lost their lives in therecent terrorist attacks in Paris. Chelsea & Fulham is home tothe largest French community in the UK.Received daily written correspondence, emails, and telephonecalls on the options including Imperial Wharf, SW6 forCrossrail 2 coming to his constituency. For details, see below.Welcomed the news that the well-organised campaign byConservative Hammersmith & Fulham councillors has causedthe Labour-run Council to back down on its consultation toreduce refuse collection in the Borough.Was keynote speaker at Investecs summit on UK Mid-Marketcompanies.Welcomed German Members of the Bundestag, Dr AndreasNick and Jens Zimmerman, to HM Treasury to discuss EUrenegotiation, the UK economy, and more.Attended a reception for the Think German campaign at theForeign Office, for all those involved in promoting the Germanlanguage in the UK, with guest speaker Neil MacGregor.Held his constituency surgery at Fulham Library. Gregssurgeries are generally held weekly, and generally on Fridayafternoons at Fulham Library. To make an appointment, pleasesend an email to handsg@parliament.uk or call 020 72195448.

Website of the Week:www.hmtreasury.gov.uk Check out here for the latest announcements on Gregs SpendingReview, which will be announced by the Chancellor of theExchequer on Wednesday (25th November).

Photo news:Book of condolences at the FrenchEmbassy in London

Greg Hands MP signing the book of condolences at the FrenchEmbassy in London this week, in the wake of last weeks horrificterrorist bombings in Paris. Chelsea & Fulham is thought to have

the largest expatriate French community in the UK.

An Update on Crossrail 2 for Chelsea &Fulham

Greg Hands MP welcomes theongoing input from hisconstituents and localstakeholders into the Crossrail 2consultation process. In the three weeks since hereceived the Mayor of Londonsfeasibility study into alternative

Crossrail 2 stations either at Imperial Wharf or Fulham Broadway,Member of Parliament for Chelsea & Fulham, Greg Hands, has beenreceiving a steady stream of written correspondence, emails, andtelephone calls from constituents and local stakeholders. In response,Greg has sent updates and copies of the Mayors feasibility study tomore than 200 people. Greg urged the Mayor to do the study, whenthey met in the Summer to discuss it. Greg is now collating the views expressed by his constituents beforedetermining how best to proceed in representing them as part ofTransport for Londons (TfL) consultation process. In addition tomeeting representatives of the No Crossrail in Chelsea campaign,Greg will also reply to the Mayor of London with questions about hisfeasibility study and especially about the feasibility of a Crossrail 2station at Imperial Wharf, SW6. Speaking after reading the most recent correspondence on Crossrail2, Greg Hands said: I have been and continue to be a longstandingsupporter of Crossrail 2 coming to Chelsea & Fulham in general.However, I am keen to hear local residents views and, in manycases, their concerns about possible locations for a Crossrail 2station in the constituency. And so, I would like to ask once again: would local residents prefer astation at Crossrail 2s newly preferred site on the Kings Road; atImperial Wharf; or Fulham Broadway? Or somewhere else? Or nostation at all? I am keen to hear your views! TfLs consultation on Crossrail 2 can be found here, and details ontheir proposals for a station on the Kings Road can be found here. To request a copy of the Mayors feasibility study and to convey yourviews, please contact Gregs office at handsg@parliament.uk or 0207219 8828.

Jobs Up Again in Chelsea & Fulham

Greg Hands, Member of Parliament for Chelsea & Fulham and ChiefSecretary to the Treasury, has welcomed new figures which show thatthe number of people in Chelsea & Fulham claiming JobseekersAllowance and Universal Credit while not in employment has fallen bya further 145 since October 2014, and by 892 - a 47 per cent drop since 2010. The official statistics show that the Conservative Governments long-term economic plan continues to create jobs and increase wages forfamilies in Chelsea & Fulham and across the country. At 73.7 per cent,the UKs employment rate has never been higher, and the UK ismoving towards the goal of full employment that the ConservativeParty committed to in their manifesto. The figures also show that average pay growth is now 3 per cent while inflation is close to flat meaning that the ConservativeGovernments plan for a high-employment and high-wage economy isworking. This is being seen across London, with 536,000 more people in worksince the last Labour Government, and also in the UK as a whole,where 2.1 million more people now have the security of a job than in2010. In response to these new statistics, Greg Hands said: These figuresare excellent news, showing that the number of people in Chelsea &Fulham relying on Jobseekers Allowance or Universal Credit while outof work has fallen by 145 over the past year, and a total of 892 a 47per cent drop since 2010. With full-time employees making up three quarters of the increase inemployment over the past year, and with wages rising by 3 per cent, itis clear that the Conservative Governments plan for a high-employment and high-wage economy is working and we can seethat right here in Chelsea & Fulham. But we must not rest on our laurels. There are more than 700,000 jobvacancies, which shows that we have the opportunity to help evenmore unemployed people back into work. And we must guarantee thatour economy creates new jobs by ensuring that we have agovernment which lives within its means and sustains our economicrecovery.

Kings Road Medical Centre rated asOutstanding The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated the Kings RoadMedical Centre in Chelsea as outstanding, following an inspection inSeptember 2015. Under CQCs programme of inspections, all primary medical servicesin England are being given a rating according to whether they aresafe, effective, caring, responsive and well led. The Kings Road Medical Centre provides primary medical services toaround 10,700 patients throughout the Royal Borough of Kensington &Chelsea, and it has a much higher than the English average ofpatients aged between 20 and 39 years. The practice also has alower than the English average of patients aged over 40 years andyounger patients aged under 19 years. CQC inspectors found that the practice used innovative and proactivemethods to improve patient outcomes, working with other localproviders to share best practice. The practice worked closely withother organisations and with the local community in planning howservices were provided to ensure that they meet peoples needs. A dedicated support worker was based at the practice three days aweek to assist older patients and their carers access timely care andcommunity support. Their rle included befriending, attending patientshomes, liaising with social services, and acting as advocates on behalfof patients. The practice had a daily frontline GP who was based behind thereception desk and provided both telephone and email consultations,urgent prescriptions, and a triage service. Practice staff told inspectorsthat patients of working age found this service particularly useful. Theservice provided expert care to patients at the point of contact, andreduced the need for patients to have an appointment with a GP. Working with a local charity, the practice provided the Expert PatientsProgramme (EPP), a self-management programme for people livingwith long-term conditions, which aimed to support people byincreasing their confidence, improving their quality of life, and helpingthem effectively manage their conditions. Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concernsand report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learningfrom internal and external incidents were maximised. Ursula Gallagher, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice said:"We found that the Kings Road Medical Centre is providing anoutstanding service, particularly for older patients, those of workingage and those with long term health conditions. Patients told us that they were treated with compassion, dignity andrespect and that they were involved in their care and decisions abouttheir treatment. They also told us that they found it easy to make anappointment with a named GP and that there was continuity of care,with urgent appointments available the same day. We were particularly impressed with the practices work to initiatepositive service improvements for local patients and the commitmentof all staff to continuously seek improved outcomes for local people. Staff demonstrated a sound understanding of the differing needs oftheir patients and reflected these needs when planning and deliveringservices. This is a great example of what outstanding care looks like." Member of Parliament for Chelsea & Fulham, Greg Hands, said: I amproud to have the Kings Road Medical Centre a practice rated asOutstanding in my constituency of Chelsea & Fulham. Mostimportantly, I am pleased to hear that patients feel that they have beentreated with compassion, dignity, and respect, and they were involvedin their care and decisions about their treatment. The full report from the Kings Road Medical Centre inspection hasbeen published on the CQC website: www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-497344471.

Greg Hands welcomes Good Coverage forCalls and Texts in Chelsea & Fulham Ofcom has identified good coverage for mobile phone calls and textsin Chelsea & Fulham. On 18 November, Ms Sharon White, Chief Executive of Ofcom (theindependent regulator and competition authority for the UKcommunications industries), wrote to Member of Parliament forChelsea & Fulham, Greg Hands, to explain the expected mobilephone coverage for his constituency. Ofcoms online Mobile Coverage Checker helps consumers checkthe expected mobile phone coverage for anywhere in the UK. Usingdata from the UKs four mobile phone network providers, Ofcomsinteractive map shows the predicted level of coverage both for indoorsand outdoors, as well as for voice calls, 3G, and 4G data connections.Ofcoms online checker has proved to be a very popular tool both forconsumers and for businesses, with over 286,710 people using themaps since their launch in August this year, and with about 1,500people using the checker every day. As per the following diagram, Ofcom predicts good coverage for callsand texts in Chelsea & Fulham.

However, Ofcom is keen to receive ongoing feedback from localresidents in an effort to improve their maps, and to check that themaps match what local residents actually experience. 4,000 peoplehave submitted responses so far, and as a result of this feedbackOfcom is able to update its maps monthly and carry out their owntesting to validate the coverage of data from mobile phone networks. Ofcom plans to develop this tool further and will be rolling outimprovements in 2016. Later this year, Ofcom will launch a mobile app, which will allowpeople to test their smartphones and tablets Wi-Fi connections.Indeed, Ofcom estimates that consumers home broadbandexperiences may not be working as well as they could in about a fifthof UK homes. Accordingly, the new app should help identify ifsomeones broadband isnt performing as it should be, and it willsuggest simple trouble-shooting tips to help address the problem. Speaking in response to Ofcoms announcement, Member ofParliament for Chelsea & Fulham, Greg Hands, said: Its really goodnews for my constituents that there is good mobile phone coverageright across Chelsea & Fulham, and indeed as we have all come toexpect. I am also pleased to see that WI-FI access has now beenrolled out to all London Underground and Overground stations acrossmy constituency, with Fulham Broadway now covered. However, if you own experience of mobile phone coverage disagreeswith what Ofcom has announced, please dont hesitate to contactthem as requested. To provide your feedback on mobile coverage, please visithttps://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/webflow/mobile-coverage/ or contact Gregs office at handsg@parliament.uk or on020 7219 5448.

More Apprentices in Chelsea & Fulham isgood news for young people Greg Hands, Member of Parliament for Chelsea & Fulham and ChiefSecretary to the Treasury, has welcomed new figures which show that190 new apprenticeships were started in Chelsea & Fulham last year.In total, 1,020 new apprenticeships have been started in Chelsea &Fulham since 2010, meaning that more young people are getting theskills they need for a successful and secure future. The figures showed a strong rise in the number of apprenticeshipsstarted, up 13.7 per cent in London in 2014-15 from the year before.This means that more young people are getting the skills they need toget on in life and make the most of their talents as they do locally atKensington and Chelsea College. In total, 2.4 million apprenticeships were started in England over thelast parliament, and the Conservative Government is committed to goeven further over the next five years and deliver 3 million moreapprenticeships by 2020. This is being funded by an apprenticeshipslevy on large employers, who will have control over funding to ensureit is giving young people the skills they will need to succeed. Greg Hands said: These figures are fantastic news. 1,020 newapprenticeships since 2010 means that more young people in Chelsea& Fulham are getting the skills to succeed and get on in life as theyare at places like Kensington & Chelsea College. Apprenticeships have been at the heart of our plan to deliver a moresecure future for young people, and as Conservatives we arecommitted to go even further over the next five years, with thecommitment we made in our manifesto to deliver 3 million more highquality apprenticeships by 2020. We are giving young people proper training and the prospect of betterfuture. Millions of young people are getting a good start in life, learninga trade, and knowing the purpose and pride that comes with that.

Photo news:"Think German" Network

Greg Hands MP at the launch of the Think German network atthe Foreign Office last week.

Message for residents from Thames Water- Counters Creek Flood Alleviation Scheme Cremorne Wharf Depot, Lots Road, Chelsea Thames Water are raising awareness and providing generalinformation on their new preferred site. More detail on their proposeduse of this site and potential mitigation measures will form part of theirphase 2 consultation planned for early 2016. Why this proposed site? The site plan consists of the land to the rear of an existing ThamesWater pumping station on Lots Road and includes an existing depotbuilding and jetty. A temporary jetty would also be built out into theriver to facilitate construction and barge movements. Thames Water are proposing to use this site to intercept the WalhamGreen Storm Relief Sewer and the Low Level No.1 Sewer and transferstorm flows into the proposed new storm relief sewer. They alsopropose to use this site as the starting point for the tunnelling of thestorm relief sewer instead of the Maclise Road car park adjacent toKensington Olympia Station. This means they would be able to usebarges instead of lorries to transport the majority of materials from thissite. This site also allows Thames Water to connect their proposed stormrelief sewer to the Thames Tideway Tunnel. The new sewer wouldbe approximately 35 metres below ground at this point. What work is involved? At this site we Thames Water will seek to:

Use the site as the main drive site to facilitate the tunnelling oftheir proposed new sewer

Intercept the Walham Green Storm Relief Sewer and the LowLevel No.1 Sewer

Create a temporary platform over the river to facilitate bargemovements

Create a temporary pumping station that would stay inoperation until the Thames Tideway Tunnel is commissioned

Construct a connection to the Thames Tideway Tunnel

Some construction work near the entrance and exit access roadswould be required. They are working on the designs for this work andthese will be available during their phase 2 consultation in early 2016. Following construction at this site, a permanent kiosk containingcontrol equipment, a ventilation column and manhole covers willremain. Thames Water would also need access occasionally tomaintain the sewer. How long will this take? Thames Water would expect construction here to take approximatelythree and a half years and their work to take place alongside theconstruction work for the Thames Tideway Tunnel. To allow for continuous tunnelling which reduces the risk of groundmovement, the site will be operational 24 hours a day throughout themajority of this construction period. More information An environmental assessment (including a traffic survey) will takeplace before Thames Water apply for planning permission. Thisassessment would also form part of their planning application. It willinvestigate the impacts of our proposed work, including a study intopredicted traffic movements, as well as how they could reduce theimpacts of these works for residents e.g. noise. More detail on their proposed use of this site and its potentialmitigation measures, including the connection between the proposedstorm relief sewer and the Thames Tideway Tunnel, will form part oftheir phase 2 consultation planned for early 2016. For more information on how Thames Water assessed the suitabilityof this site to be a construction site, please read their report:

Cremorne Wharf Depot, Lots Road, Chelsea, map andleaflet

Cremorne Wharf Site Suitability Report

Greg Hands MP's speech to the InvestecMid-Market Conference

Greg Hands MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, addressing theInvestec Mid-Market Conference in London last week.

Investec Mid-market Summit, 20 November 2015 For those of you who dont know me, Im Greg Hands, Chief Secretaryto the Treasury, number 2 to George Osborne in the Department, and,as the MP for Chelsea and Fulham, quite possibly the local MP forsome of you. I havent had to travel very far just a few hundred yards down theroad, in the Treasury building, where we are busy putting the finishingtouches to next weeks Autumn Statement and Spending Review. The preparation of the Spending Review is a central part of my role asChief Secretary to the Treasury. Essentially, I am the Minister responsible for public spending. Or, to be more precise, the Minister responsible for reducing publicspending because we have a deficit that needs to be eliminated. I run a portfolio of some 742 billion but unlike the portfoliosInvestec manages, my objective is not to make it as big as possible One of my favourite quotes is the response that Fred Smith, of FedExfame, gave when asked by a journalist to what he owed his success. He replied: The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. Our main thing is sorting out the deficit. Thats the mandate on which we were elected, and what the publicexpect us to do. The Summer Budget set out the consolidation required to deliver thesurplus in 2019-20: 5bn from continuing to tackle tax avoidance, evasion and aggressiveplanning; and 12bn of reductions to the welfare bill. And next Wednesday, the Chancellor will set out the remainderrequired to deliver the surplus. These decisions will be tough, but necessary; because without gettingpublic spending in order, we cannot deliver the reduction in thenational debt necessary for our long-term economic security. But apart from putting public spending on a sustainable footing, thereis another important function carried out by the Treasury: Creating the right conditions for growth. As a literary-minded Chancellor put it many decades ago: its not justabout Bleak House, its about Great Expectations too. So today, I would like to say a few words about how growth can beachieved. The first point I would like to be clear about is that it is notGovernments that create growth. What we aim for is creating the right conditions for growth. Thats an important distinction, though its one which is too oftenforgotten. It is companies such as yours that start up, that expand, that take onnew people, that open up new markets you are the growth creators. Our job is to make sure you, and companies such as yours, have whatyou need, in order to create that growth. The second point I would like to make is that your sector is not onlyexceptionally important to the UK economy but also, I think,occasionally seems a little overlooked in public discourse! I think part of the reason for that is that the lay person finds theconcept of very small and very large businesses, relatively easy tounderstand. The small business is the butcher, the baker, or the candlestick maker(which, these days, is I suppose more of an artisan boutique).Everyone knows someone with a small business. And big businesses are no less easy to visualise theyre the bigmultinational corporations who are household names, and whoseleaders are very good at being heard. But what of the mid-market? Well, as is so often the case, its the middle that does a lot of the work. Our analysis suggests that mid-sized businesses, defined as thosewith annual revenues of 25 - 500m, account for: Total turnover of almost 875 billion per year, almost 20% of theprivate sector total; Almost 4.5 million jobs, over 20% of private sector employment; And this analysis showed that youre especially important in certainindustries that includes accounting for more than a quarter ofemployment in the manufacturing, transport and wholesale sectors. You also account for some of the biggest success stories in UKentrepreneurship many of which we celebrate here today. That is a significant contribution to this nations wellbeing. And that iswhy yours is a sector whose continued success we want to see. So today, I would like to touch on three areas where we can enableyour success and enable the creation of growth at the same time. The first area is ensuring that you have the access to the financeand investment you need. We currently do this through a number of schemes: We have the Funding for Lending Scheme, designed to reduce banksand building societies funding costs, allowing them to boost lending tothe real economy. This year, weve focused the scheme on supportinglending to small and medium-sized companies such as your own. Im delighted that just in the second quarter of this year, net lending byparticipants was in the region of 500 million. We also have a number of schemes run by the British Business Bank. The Business Finance Partnership aims to diversify the sources offinance available to smaller and mid-sized firms; The ENABLE Guarantees programme reduces the amount of capitalthat banks need to hold against new SME lending; The Help to Grow programme helps companies with high-growthpotential move to the next level of funding; Tax-advantaged venture capital schemes provide generous tax reliefsto investors in small and medium-sized business, which have helpedover 22,000 companies raise over 17.5 billion; And, because the best way of incentivising investment is making itcheaper, at the last Budget, we announced we would increase thepermanent level of the Annual Investment Allowance eightfold, to itshighest ever permanent level. Not only that. Were reforming the tax relief scheme for research anddevelopment, making it easier for small and medium sized companiesto make a claim. Look out for a consultation on this in the next fewweeks. And over the coming years, well keep up the focus on knocking downthe barriers to funding so where you continue to encounterdifficulties, let us know; youll find us in listening mode. The second area is making sure that the UK is ideally positioned tomake the most of global opportunities. The UK is already an attractive place to do business. But we knowthere is more we can do to attract opportunities to our shores making our business environment that much more dynamic. That is why, for example, we have paid such importance to cutting ourrate of corporation tax, so that it is the lowest in the G7. And we are also pulling out all the stops to help our companies export. In our recent Productivity Plan of which more shortly weannounced that we would mobilise the whole of government behindexporting, working alongside a more effective UK Trade andInvestment (UKTI for short), and better export finance. Not only did that mean enhancing and modernising support toexporters; it also involved building stronger trading links with emergingmarkets, especially China, India and Brazil. The sheer size of the deals announced during recent inward visitsfrom the Presidents of both China and India, shows how much ourcountries can benefit from building strong, mature partnerships withthe worlds growing economies. Small and medium-sized businesses have a specific and importantrole to play here. In the last Parliament, we committed funds to help mid-sizedcompanies export: 4m in 2014/15 and 5m in 2015/16. This enabled UKTI to treble the number of mid-sized companies it hasassisted between 2014 and 2015. We also provided, in last years Autumn Statement, a 20m packagefor first time exporters. As a result, UKTI has more than doubled thenumber of businesses it helps on an annual basis, since 2010. And we also know that export finance is crucial. As a result of reforms in the last Parliament, UK Export Finance is nowdelivering its services to record numbers of British businesses, with14.5 billion of support provided for exports since 2010-11. We announced in the Productivity Plan that we are increasing therange of lending UK Export Finance will support, to include exporterssuppliers; and that UK Export Finance, jointly with the British BusinessBank, will re-examine how best to meet our exporters financingneeds. Our third area of focus is boosting Britains productivity. Highly respected economists such as my Ministerial colleague JimONeill have long argued that productivity is one of the key drivers ofa nations prosperity. For too long, we have had a so-called productivity gap. There are no easy solutions to the productivity gap. It is due to a largenumber of factors some of them negative; some of them, such asour record levels of employment, positive. But there are actions we can take to resolve the problem and, for thefirst time, this year we published a Productivity Plan setting outprecisely how we do that. For instance, we can do much more to improve the quality of ournational infrastructure an issue which I know businesses haveraised repeatedly. Thats why we committed to spend 100bn on infrastructure over thecourse of this Parliament Set up a National Infrastructure Plan with an infrastructure deliverypipeline Published a specific plan for the skills we need And, so we can look look clear-sightedly at the future, weve also setup the National Infrastructure Commission, headed by Andrew Adonis,which will take a long-term, depoliticised approach to major projects. Improving our national infrastructure will also help deliver a key part ofour agenda: regional rebalancing. Im a London MP, so clearly this is the greatest city in the world! But, as I know from watching the games in both stadiums in myconstituency, if you rely on just one star player, youll never reach yourpotential as a team. There is great potential for regional growth out there. If the north wasto grow every year as fast as is forecast for the whole UK, we couldadd over 37 billion in real terms to the regions economy by 2030. We havent always made the most of that potential, but through thecreation of the Northern Powerhouse a combination of more funding,and far greater devolution were changing all that. The Northern Powerhouse will usher in some fantastic opportunities inour Northern cities and I hope your businesses, and many more,reap the rewards. Just to give a flavour of things to come, at the March Budget this year,we provided funding for an ambitious series of northern powerhousetrade missions (3.5m in 2015-16), as well as funding to ensure thatthe UK firms make the most of the International Festival for Business2016 in Liverpool. And I am particularly pleased to see that, in the list that Investec haspublished of its fastest growing medium-sized businesses, the north-wests representation increased from nine to 14, while a total of 27companies on the list now hail from the north of England and Scotland. I very much hope that this trend continues. Of course, businesses themselves have an important role to play inincreasing productivity. Shortly after the election, some of the countrys most senior businessleaders, convened by Sir Charlie Mayfield, wrote to us, making thecase for taking forward a business-led action group for productivity. This work will focus on direct action to enhance productivity in sectorsand workplaces across the UK, and will report to the Chancellor andthe Secretary of State for Business by the end of the year. A number of the countrys largest institutional investors are alsocollaborating on a project led by the Investment Association, designedto figure out how investors can support long-term growth. These are two excellent initiatives by senior business people, so wewill continue to engage with them, as the work develops. Finance; exports; productivity these are three important parts of amuch wider Government strategy to help companies such as yoursflourish. And of course, there are a number of other vital factors to yourcontinued success. A larger workforce equipped with higher-orderskills is one; better and less regulation is another. Over the coming years, we will continue to make advances on allfronts, to create the conditions for you to do well. We do this because of our belief in the wealth-creating ability ofprivate enterprise. There is no question in my mind that a healthy, flourishing privatesector leads to national prosperity. Ive held that belief for as long as Ican remember certainly before starting my own career in financialservices, and then becoming involved in politics. But what we have seen recently is some of the old consensusesdisappearing. Only a few years ago, most people believed in things like the freemarket, and private-sector driven growth, and the benefits of wealthcreation. Im not sure thats necessarily the case now certainly noton the front benches of Her Majestys Opposition! It falls to all of us to prove the naysayers wrong. For us as a Government, that means continuing to create the rightconditions for you to prosper and succeed. For you as businesses, it means innovating, employing, expanding,and flourishing. I look forward to seeing you go from strength to strength and wellhelp you all the way. Thank you for your contribution.

Greg Hands MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, addressing theInvestec Mid-Market Conference in London last week.

Campaign update:

Labour council climb down on cuttingweekly bin collections...... but twice weekly collections remainunder threat SIGN THE PETITION TO STOP LABOUR REDUCING THEFREQUENCY OF BIN COLLECTIONS >>Following pressure from Conservative Councillors, the Save Our Binscampaign and thousands of angry local residents, Hammersmith &Fulham Labour Council have u-turned on their damaging proposals tocut refuse collections in the borough. The Labour Leader of the Council had to issue an embarrassing pressrelease saying weekly collections will stay, despite a live consultationstill asking for residents' views on reducing the frequency ofcollections. Labour's Consultation - clear as day:

This climb down raises some serious questions about the way Labourdo business in Hammersmith & Fulham, as well as leaving the futureof twice weekly collections in question. If Labour don't want to reduce the frequency of bin collections,then why on earth did they consult on it? The only conclusion fromthe way the consultation was hidden away, remaining un-publicised forweeks and closed early is that Labour want to cut bin collections, butwere rumbled. Why are they remaining silent on twice weekly collections? Nearly a third of Hammersmith & Fulham residents benefit from twiceweekly refuse and recycling collections. In all of Labour'scommunications this week they have only committed to retainingweekly ones. The only conclusion from this is that they plan to cut thesecond collection in many densely populated streets and blocks. Commenting, H&F Conservative Group Leader Cllr Greg Smith said:"H&F Labour Council need to be honest with residents. Theylaunched a well hidden, but nonetheless live consultation on thefrequency of bin collections. To deny that cutting refuse collectionswas on the table is simply extraordinary. It is obvious that they haveu-turned following pressure from Conservative Councillors andthousands of angry residents. Labour now need to issue a clearstatement confirming that they will not try to cut weekly bin collectionsAND maintain twice weekly collections for everyone who currently hasthem. "Conservatives believe the frequency of bin collections is a criticalissue for residents in an area as densely populated as ours and ifanything, they are not frequent enough for many households." Hammersmith & Fulham Conservatives will continue to fight anymoves by Labour to reduce refuse and recycling collections and alsochallenge them on their very poor record on street cleaning to date. Please urge your friends, colleagues and family to sign our petitionhere so Labour know the strength of feeling on this issue.

7 ways to contact Greg Hands MP:

By Phone: 020 7219 5448By email: mail@greghands.comBy post: Greg Hands MP

House of CommonsLondon SW1A 0AA

In person: Click here for details of howto book an appointment atGreg Handss weeklysurgery

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