THIS government was elected to bring about change – and we will be judged at the next election on whether that has been delivered.

People need to feel that change – we need to deliver on our promises, and I won’t hide from that.

The appalling state of the public finances that we inherited means that difficult decisions have, and will sometimes need to be taken, and we can’t fix everything immediately. Some of the damage of the past 14 years feels like turning an oil tanker to put right.

But there are solid signs over the last couple of weeks that we are starting to see the impact of changes being introduced by this Government.

The first of these milestones was the encouraging news last week that the Government has already delivered two million extra NHS appointments since July, which has also brought down waiting times. That has been achieved seven months earlier than we said we would, and this is just the start of our ambitious plan to rebuild the NHS and keep delivering for our free-at-the-point-of-need health service.

That announcement was swiftly followed this week with the news that hundreds of thousands of people across the country will be able to access urgent and emergency dental care as the government and the NHS rolls out 700,000 extra urgent appointments from April – around 21,000 of these will be in our area.

I know that for many the destruction of NHS dentistry was one of the most obvious examples of the Conservative’s dismantling of our public services.

The situation had reached crisis levels with some people in this area being unable to access dental treatment for several years.

The long-term fix for this problem will include golden hello payments for new NHS dentists and reform of the dental contract.

That will hopefully put a few smiles back on people’s faces.

In another positive development I’m sure families will be giving a big tick to news that local schools have been named among the first in the country to receive landmark free breakfast clubs.

Delivering on promises made to working parents in our manifesto, all primary children attending Lindal and Marton Primary School and Waberthwaite School will be able to access a free breakfast and at least 30 minutes of free childcare every day, helping to support parents getting into work.

This trial will allow the government and schools to check what works and what doesn’t – both about the breakfast and the club – before a wider roll-out to every primary school in England in 2026.

Added to this I was delighted to hear the news that St Mary’s Hospice will be in the first wave of Hospices in the country to receive part of £100m national investment in our Hospice sector.

People had stopped believing that government can make a positive difference to their lives.

And you can’t blame them.

Brick-by-brick we need to show that THIS government will be different.