For the people of Mid Norfolk struggling to pay the bills, council tax and reliant on our local public services, I believe that we have a duty to focus “efficiencies” on the back office administration costs of council and public services before making them at the frontline.

That’s why, in recent years, I have been so vocal about the need to ensure that vital taxpayers’ money is not being wasted on back office administration, but instead being directed to the frontline services we all rely on and cherish. Too often – especially in health care – I have seen important local services neglected by regional or London administrators on £200,000 pa, with little or no contact with the frontline here in Norfolk.

I’m very conscious, however, that local Government has borne the brunt of the necessary post-crash public spending cuts led by the Coalition Government. And that this presents real and present challenges for our local councils in delivering and improving essential local services. (Local Government has seen its budgets cut by approximately 25% to help reduce the deficit – which is exactly why we need to slim back unnecessary back office admin).

While we must continue to be economically responsible and ensure that precious public funds are being used as effectively as possible, I also take my duty, as an MP, to support our local services very seriously. I have, therefore, been working as part of a cross-party group of MPs to highlight and fight rural underfunding in so many of our services, but especially education and social care.

I have also co-signed a letter with Norman Lamb MP and Clive Lewis MP to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to highlight the pressures on our local councils and to ask for a meeting with him to discuss what can be done to help them. (Please see a copy of that letter below)

The people of Norfolk need all of us in public office – regardless of party politics – to come together and work on issues like this.

Rest assured, I remain firmly committed to doing just that in order to support our local services and the dedicated staff whose support we all rely on.