BACK to school means back to Westminster after a busy summer, and the autumn is already shaping up to be action-packed too.  

On Tuesday, November 7 Charles III will unveil the Government’s agenda for the year ahead in his first historic King’s Speech. Soon afterwards, the Chancellor will present the Autumn Statement, in which he will set out a balanced approach to bring inflation down further, invest in our public services, and grow the economy. Before both though, we will have Rishi Sunak’s first party conference speech, in which he will lay out a path to a bright future for the whole country.

And that work has started locally already on health, where we’ve secured hundreds of millions of pounds to drive forward our new general hospital at Junction 7 of the M3, alongside the newly opened GP health centre and the new diagnostic hub at Andover War Memorial Hospital. The next job is the lack of local NHS dentists. I am working with ministers and the local Integrated Care Board to make sure we fix this issue urgently.

On crime and anti-social behaviour, there is a new ban on zombie-style knives and machetes, and we’ve put plans in place to make laughing gas illegal by the end of the year. We should start to feel the presence of the newly minted 20,000 extra police officers, and the impact of the dynamic new Chief Constable here in Hampshire.  

And on education, our journey to excellence locally must continue, especially for those with special educational needs. You’ll be hearing more from me on this subject in the weeks and months ahead.