The last two weeks have been busy in the House of Commons. During Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday 9 November, I asked the Prime Minister to help take action with supermarket fuel chains like Morrisons charging a premium at their Bridport store, significantly higher than their other stores outside of West Dorset.

Since I brought this up, many people have been in touch to share that they have had similar experience. Including considerable differences between Morrison’s Bridport, Weymouth, Yeovil and Wincanton stores – sometimes up to 20p a litre! Considerable price differences between Tesco in Dorchester, Yeovil, Blandford and Poole, too.

The Prime Minister confirmed that he had instigated a review by the Competition and Markets Authority into the fuel market to help address my concerns. A great step in the right direction and I’m looking forward to meeting him about that shortly.
That same day, the House of Commons also hosted a debate on levelling up rural Britain, in which I spoke of the need to address rural disparities and for a rural taskforce to address some of the issues I raised in my speech.

I spoke of the unfairness of young people in West Dorset having to pay to get to their sixth-form school or college, whereas young people in big cities do not have to shoulder such a burden. Education should be accessible for all young people and the costs of reasonable travel should not have to be a barrier for people.
Another issue I raised is of adult social care in Dorset. Over the last three years the number of patients discharged from Dorset County Hospital into adult social care to the cost of the council has risen roughly threefold. About 70 per cent of our council tax in Dorset is spent on social care.
This week, I will be meeting the Prime Minister to discuss these issues, and will be looking forward to working with the Government to ensure Dorset receives its fair share of support.
The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, delivered his Autumn Statement last week. A number of announcements were given within the new budget to give cause for reassurance to the elderly. Firstly, that the triple lock on pensions is safe. Funding for increased funding for schools has been safeguarded. With more financial help to address issues surrounding adult social care which are of considerable needs to us here in West Dorset and I look forward to seeing the Chancellor shortly to discuss some of the issues where I felt that the statement will not help us as much.