Breathe new life into our local High Streets and towns

Small community-based businesses locally will be given the opportunity to be crowned champion of their town or the whole of Essex in 2021 following the launch of an exciting awards programme.

Essex County Council, through Essex Housing, is bringing forward plans for a new modern library for Shenfield.

During the Conservative Party Conference 2020, the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson MP, set out his new plan - Build Back Better.

Small Business Saturday is back this year on the 5th December. Join me in supporting the nation's small businesses to get back to business. To get involved visit https://smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com/

The Kickstart Scheme, a ground-breaking initiative to support 16-24 year olds into work is now available for employers to apply.

I am spending more and more of my time in the constituency talking to local businesses to hear about how they have faced down the challenges of 2020 and how they are planning for the months to come.

There is little doubt Brentwood and Ongar’s pubs, restaurants and cafes have benefitted from the Chancellor’s “Eat Out To Help Out” scheme which ended on Bank Holiday Monday.

Let me begin this week by congratulating all those A Level and BTEC students from Brentwood and Ongar who got the results they needed to get into the University, college or apprenticeship they wanted.

News just in from Essex County Council about the decision to lift the closure of Brentwood High Street:

"In July a key section of Brentwood High Street was closed to most traffic to enable safer social distancing for people in the town centre.

Four months after the formal start of the lockdown designed to stop the exponential growth of the spread of COVID-19 and to stop the NHS being overwhelmed by people needing intensive respiratory care, the country is making progress - progress with caution, but progress nonetheless.