This will be my last column for Stourbridge News before the festive break and I would like to wish readers a Merry Christmas.

Like so many I will be with my family this year tucking into a traditional Christmas dinner with all the trimmings before I will be back home in Wollaston soon after to continue the job with a series of visits and engagements, plus dealing with urgent casework over the Christmas period and new year.

And 2024 looks to have some very positive news for Stourbridge. We are inching closer to a new police base and response team for the town – something I have been campaigning on since 2019 following the unpopular closure of the police station in 2017.

I am hoping to hear some New Year's good news on this front. As always, I will keep you updated here in the Stourbridge News.

In other positive news, the Lye regeneration plan has now been signed off. Spades are scheduled to be in the ground in 2024 for both Stourbridge High Street and Lye before even more work in the following year. This is real progress and something I have long campaigned for. We need investment in our town centres, better and more brownfield housing and improved transport infrastructure. There is more to come, especially now the West Midlands has a devolution deal with the government that means the mayor Andy Street has more control over key areas like transport and housing.

Christmas is an expensive time and recent cost of living pressures due to the war in Ukraine and post pandemic supply issues have not helped.

However, there has been good news on this front too. Inflation has been more than halved - as the PM promised - and inflationary pressures are easing. The price of petrol, for example, has fallen to its lowest point in two years.

Wages are now outstripping inflation for the first time in two years, easing financial pressures on families at a crucial time. We need to be mindful that wages will not cause inflationary pressures again but it is welcome after some challenging times. The unemployment rate also remains low. Government support is continuing for those who are most vulnerable through this winter.

Even though many of us will be lucky to be with family and friends over the festive period many people will be at work in key industries and services. I would like to thank them for all they do. Doctors, nurses, firefighters, the police, social care workers, shop workers, our armed forces, to name but a few, will all be giving up family time to serve us, protect us, support us and even save our lives. What you do is appreciated across Stourbridge.