It’s very nearly Christmas after an eventful year, tinged with some sadness.

A dreadful war on our continent, challenging global economic pressures, and the loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth have made for a difficult and sombre 12 months.

For many, this winter has brought real problems from high inflation and rising energy bills.

I would urge everyone to make sure you are getting all the government help available — be it energy bill discounts or various cost of living payments for low-income families, pensioners or people living with disabilities.

Next year, we are spending a further £26 billion to support the most vulnerable households and you can find more detail on gov.uk.

Christmas is also a difficult time for many who struggle to afford a home.

Fortunately, this winter our local authorities are getting an extra £173,000 as a top up to the Homeless Prevention Grant. (Test Valley will receive £59,940, Basingstoke and Deane will get £113,468.)

This money will be targeted at the most vulnerable households, through local authorities, and will help prevent them from becoming homeless.

As we say farewell to 2022, next year, you’ll be hearing much more from me on the mission to make our streets safer.

We’ve made some good progress recently, thanks to British Transport Police and Hampshire Police who have arrested dozens of criminals and rescuing vulnerable people, mainly children, from the clutches of county lines drug dealing gangs, and we’ve seen the results reported here in the Advertiser.

We’ve recruited almost 500 new police officers in Hampshire, our share of the government’s pledge to get 20,000 more officers on our streets by March 2023.

We need them visible in towns like Andover, focusing even more on drugs and anti-social behaviour.

Following my recent successful campaign to get more funding for our schools, I also look forward to working with our local heads in 2023 to improve standards yet further, and create more outstanding schools across North West Hampshire.

It’s going to be a busy 2023 for me, but in the meantime, I hope you, your family, and your friends have a happy and peaceful Christmas.