Under Labour, Surrey paid the Treasury £5.5 billion in taxes each year, but taxpayers received back a third of the national average level of funding for local services. This has impacted on local public services across the board – including the pot holes you see in our roads, the pressures on local school places and police numbers on the street. Elmbridge and Surrey were short-changed by Labour - I am fighting for a fairer deal for local funding.

I hear first hand about the consequences of this funding shortfall – meeting with parent groups like Claygate Class Action, talking to local police volunteers in Cobham and campaigning against cuts at our community hospitals in Molesey, Walton and Cobham.

Residents across the Esher and Walton constituency feel taken for granted. I am campaigning for a fairer deal, but there are no quick-fixes. We need a long term approach, focused on:

• Reducing excessive government spending – because Surrey ends up bearing a disproportionate burden of the costs in higher taxes.
   
• Ensuring Surrey and Elmbridge get a fair deal from the Treasury, in terms of funding for local public services - given how much local taxpayers contribute to national revenue.
   
• Delivering wholesale public service reform, including:
   
• In our schools: to allow parents, charities and faith groups the ability to expand, and set up, high quality schools in the state sector.
   
• In the NHS: to get rid of the targets and political meddling that warp basic healthcare priorities - and give local communities a stronger say in how services are run.
   
• In our police force: to make our local police directly accountable to the communities they serve, not Whitehall bureaucrats and targets.
   
• Strengthening local democracy – so you have a greater say over the decisions and resources affecting the local schools, hospitals, policing priorities and the planning policies that impact on your lives.