The festive season brings with a busy few weeks in Westminster and Watford, with lots to look forward to.

We recently saw the Chancellor deliver a budget that rewarded hard working people in Watford. In particular, I welcome lower taxes, higher wages and significant investment in our public services, including our much loved National Health Service.

Although the next few months will be challenging as we prepare to leave the European Union in March, the Chancellor’s speech shows that we do so from a position of strength. Our economy continues to grow, we are no longer borrowing more than we spend, and the deficit has fallen by 80 per cent since 2010.

The Chancellor has shown that Britain and Watford are open for business as we back our high streets, encourage apprenticeships, increase support for small businesses and invest heavily in research and development.

Locally we’ve seen businesses expanding, including the opening of the multimillion pound Charter Place redevelopment, just in time for Christmas shopping! It brings with it hundreds of new jobs, many of which were advertised at my jobs fair earlier this year. Building the Charter Place redevelopment alone has created nearly 500 construction jobs for local people.

I was delighted to be invited recently to the launch of VClean Life, an exciting new company from Watford that is revolutionising the dry cleaning industry. I think it’s great that companies like this are starting out in our area, and I’ve no doubt that they will be very successful here.

I also offer my congratulations to global company, Game Healthcare, who recently won the Queen’s Award for enterprise. I think they have an exciting future in Watford and look forward to supporting them as the MP.

  • Richard Harrington is Conservative MP for Watford