CAROLINE ANSELL MP: Tackling cost of living and going through new laws

The cost of living remains my number one concern and the primary focus of my campaign work both at home and in Westminster. I met with the Chancellor earlier this week to discuss what measures will be forthcoming and what I would like to see happen. As I write, his statement to Parliament is imminent.

There’s been a new announcement by our town’s Liberal Democrat councillors about providing local support through community grants. Last week they voted against providing local support, so I can only be pleased.

I was also pleased to hear directly from our Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) in our Wednesday meeting about their success connecting pensioners with financial support in the form of pension credit. There may be as many as 1,000 pensioners locally who are missing out. It’s mission critical we reach them. The process is quite quick and relatively straight forward to check, call 0800 99 1234 or if you are online, go to the government website. Please do share this important information so we can get the message out. Going forward, there are further shared concerns we will be working on, including disability assessments, and I thank the team and their host of volunteers for all their sterling work.

As well as lobbying for investment for our town and championing policy changes to benefit local people, another part of my role in Westminster is to study proposed new law, ‘line by line’.

I am now engaged in the passage of government’s Online Safety Bill. Ten hours of prelim work this week has been taking evidence and speaking to witnesses from an array of organisations including the NSPCC, Meta, Ofcom, Refuge who have taken challenging questions and provided important perspectives for us to consider. Some of the harm described has been harrowing. There is no question about the need for regulation but globally, this legislation is pretty ground-breaking and the digital world so fast evolving. I have several weeks of this close study ahead.

Congratulations to Plastic Free Eastbourne on their Water Festival Week and Blue Planet Conference on Saturday. I will get a new long range perspective on the Beachy Head Marine Conservation Zone I fought for when I visit offshore wind farm, Rampion, this Friday!