Cllr Geoffrey Theobald is the Conservative Group Leader on Brighton & Hove City Council
The last few months have seen a raft of figures which give cause for cautious optimism about Brighton & Hove’s future and demonstrate that the Government’s long term economic plan and welfare reforms are working.
I would just like to highlight a few of these:
Whilst we obviously cannot be complacent, these are all very promising signs that the economic recovery is taking hold here on the south coast. The Labour Party’s predictions of armageddon about the Government’s economic policies and welfare reforms have proven to be nothing more than scaremongering and I urge them to now get behind the city’s businesses and residents rather than
constantly talking the economy down.
Whilst the Government is getting on with creating new jobs and helping to get people off welfare benefits, all the local Labour Party can offer is a year long talking shop – or “Fairness Commission” to “tackle poverty and inequality” in the city. No doubt many forests worth of paper will be sacrificed to arrive at the momentous conclusion that the way to address ingrained poverty is to get people off welfare dependency and into work.
Brighton & Hove is an incredibly popular and vibrant city where creativity and entrepreneurship abound. Clearly difficult challenges still lie ahead, not least addressing the chronic shortage of housing in the city, which must be a top priority in the coming years. But with the continuing positive economic news and £420 million of Government funding secured for a new state of the art hospital we have every reason to be optimistic and positive about the future of our city.