HAPPY New Year to all Salisbury Journal readers!

I spent a rainy New Year’s Eve in Nottingham visiting family and friends where the clouds parted just long enough for us to see some magnificent fireworks and then returned home to a series of conference calls to monitor the progress of the holiday rail engineering works.

All work was delivered on time despite the flooding and storms and the railway re-opened as planned for passengers heading back to work.

Also in the news was another investment package, this time for much needed housing with a £6 million package for funding housing zones based on brownfield sites around the country to kick-start work to build tens of thousands of new homes.

It is part of this Government’s ambition to deliver a million homes by 2020 and open the door to aspiring homeowners right across the UK, and as the MP for an area where house price to income ratios are well above national average, moves like this which increase housing supply, particularly by using brownfield sites, are very welcome.

Locally, a major driver of new housing construction has been the Salisbury Plain Army rebasing plan and earlier this month I hosted a visit of the Minister for Defence Personnel Col Mark Lancaster RE to Ludgershall and Perham Down, where we discussed the rebasing plans and met family members to discuss their accommodation.

Army rebasing is a huge opportunity for our local economy, with £1.2bn due to be spent on buildings and services over the next few years, and I am determined to do all I can to ensure that we get investment in our schools and local Children’s Centre services to support army families and that local jobs and opportunities are created.