Last week’s economic data continues to show that wages are continuing to rise ahead of prices. For 19 consecutive months wages have risen faster, meaning families have greater financial security and can plan with greater confidence.
This is against a backdrop of record high employment, with unemployment rates across my Aldridge-Brownhills constituency consistently falling and currently 43% lower than in 2010.
All of these figures are encouraging and they show that the British economy is fundamentally strong enabling us as a Government to invest in your priorities – frontline funding for our hospitals and schools and 20,000 more police officers on our streets. The hard work to rebuild our economy has also meant that we have been able to continue cutting taxes by increasing personal allowances to £12,500 per year, whilst we are planning to increase the National Living Wage to £10.50 per hour.