I was up in Manchester last week at the Conservative Party Conference, feeding back views from throughout the constituency to senior leaders of the Government.
Along with continued pressure for better local infrastructure that can connect us to opportunities, via road, rail and broadband, I have been most keen to emphasise that local business needs help and business rates are too high, and that we deserve funding that is more equal with urban areas, in services like education, so I am raising a petition for example to get fairer funding into Someset's schools.
We need the ambition of local business to match the rising ambitions of our people for more jobs with more opportunity to get on in life.
I have therefore been proposing to the Chancellor George Osborne since before the election that we should allow business rates which are collected locally to be set and spent locally. That is because it would help local authority areas to compete with each other to attract business with discounts and low general business rates, as well as enhancing the revenue stream for local authorities that comes from business rates. Somerset County Council for example is expected to garner more than 50% of its future spending ability from its business rate income over the coming years, so enhancing this has been a priority for me.
As a result I was delighted to hear the Chancellor announce in his speech to the Conference that the national government will no longer retain local business rates nationally. While the detail will hopefully become clear over the next 6 months (for example the Cities of London and Westminster which have overwhelmingly massive business rate income because of the companies headquartered and operating there would I am told still help to subsidise other needy areas) this looks set to benefit rural areas such as Somerset, whose business rates have been used to subsidise urban areas in other parts of the country for some time.
This move also supports the desire to give local people more control of services that are delivered in their area, which is seen in Government plans to give more devolved authority on a range of service delivery functions and budgets. I am keeping a close eye on this, particularly as Devon and Somerset's local authorities have expressed an interest in taking part in this process of devolution.
I very much enjoyed visiting one Somerset business that is certainly raising its sights this week. Ariel, the bespoke performance car and motor bike company which is outgrowing is current factory in Haselbury Plucknett, is a great example of ambition and attention to detail. They have taken a heritage brand and created modern, exciting, innovative and world leading products, such as the "Atom", and it sounds like they have some more really interesting new projects in the pipeline.
I am keen to make sure that companies like this have the incentives they need to stay in Somerset, see the sky as their limit, and create the opportunities of the future.
That way, there will be lots of options for the smart and happy children that are coming out of our improving local education system.
I was reminded on a visit to the outstanding Redstart school in Chard this week - now leading a multi academy trust including the improving primaries in Buckland St Mary and Stoke Sub Hamdon - just how important local options for our talented youngsters are.