IT has been a month of good economic news, with growth upgrades and falling unemployment on top of tax changes that deliver an average tax cut of £700 and remove the tax burden from more than two million of the lowest-paid workers.

However, some of the good news was overshadowed by more concerns over MPs’ expenses, and it was quite right that Maria Miller resigned – while her claims may have been legitimate according to the rules then in place, the system under which she claimed was a rotten one.

New MPs like me came in determined to do more to improve the system that had rocked public trust and the new reimbursement scheme is far more sensible and normal, while all claims are transparent.

Nonetheless, we have to raise our game, sort out the system and focus on the core mission of politics – to represent, to the best of our ability, the people who elected us.

Business-wise we have been debating the HS2 Bill this month and as the discussion of the costs and benefits of this vital piece of infrastructure are often mired in inaccuracy, I have posted a copy of a helpful letter I received from the Secretary of State for Transport on my website (claireperry.org.uk) to clear up some misnomers.

I support this project as it is a crucial part of changing the economic geography of Britain and getting growth out of the congested southeast, and the line will not drain resources from transport spending elsewhere, especially in the south-west. For example, while we will spend £16.5bn on HS2 between now and 2021, we will spend more than that on roads in every year of that period (including on the much-needed upgrades to the A303) while almost £40bn of new money will be spent on the railway network outside HS2 by 2019.

Spending on infrastructure is rarely exciting but it is always vital.