Latest figures from the independent Office for National Statistics show that recorded crime in Essex fell by 4%.

Commenting, local MP Stephen Metcalfe said: “4% may not be the highest fall in reported crime, but it is nonetheless significant and has been welcomed by people across South Basildon and East Thurrock. Our hardworking local police officers should be proud of their success.”

“These latest figures are clear evidence that Government reforms to policing are working. This Conservative Government is on the side of people who do the right thing and as a result, their policies have resulted in safer communities up and down the country. I look forward to seeing further reductions as the reforms really take root.”

Mr Metcalfe, who addressed a group of local business men and women at the post budget business breakfast, said that the budget will help everyone, whether they are low earners, families, motorists or employers in South Basildon and East Thurrock.

Amongst the announcements, the local MP particularly welcomed the raising of the personal allowance, the scrapping of the fuel duty escalator and the introduction of the employment support allowance.

By raising the personal allowance, those on low incomes can now earn £10,000 before any income tax has to be paid. The tax cut will benefit an estimated 39,443 people in South Basildon and East Thurrock bringing the total lifted out of tax completely to 4,012.

Further savings will be made by the Chancellor’s decision to scrap fuel duty, which will put an extra £7 into the pockets of the average family when they fill up their car. Over 5.6 million motorists in the South East are set to save over £170 year. Fuel duty will now have been frozen for nearly three and half years – the longest freeze in duty for over 20 years.

The Employment Support Allowance is also great news for South Basildon and East Thurrock.

This is a bold set of tax cuts for businesses and employers which will take £2,000 off the National Insurance bill of every employer whether they be a business, charity or community amateur sports club. This will help 140,000 employers in the South East, taking 70,000 out of having to pay any tax on jobs at all.

Mr Metcalfe commented: “The Chancellor made some fantastic announcements that will put money back into the pockets of people in South Basildon and East Thurrock. Fuel will be 13p per litre lower than if Labour were in power, businesses will have what they need to hire, expand and grow, and those on the lowest incomes will have more money in their pockets now that the income thresholds have risen.“

“Let’s not forget that these announcements come in the wake of further good news this week. On Tuesday the Treasury also announced plans for tax free child care in 2015. This will be worth up £1,200 a year for every child under the age of 12.”

“The message is clear. This Government is for hard working people. We have listened and responded and I look forward to seeing people in South Basildon reap the benefits.”

The summit, which is to take place this coming Friday will bring together all those with an interest in local rail issues including C2C, Network Rail, DP World’s London Gateway, and local stakeholders including Councillors, residents and Mr Metcalfe himself.

He commented: “Over the last few months I have received an increasing number of letters expressing concerns about rail issues, particularly around delays caused by the lowering of the level crossing gates and questioning what would happen in an emergency. We need to understand these issues better and the only way to do this is to come together, to pool ideas and to discuss potential solutions.”

Among the issues to be discussed will be the length of time level crossings remain down and the congestion this causes, emergency services access and the potential impact of increased freight from London Gateway.

Mr Metcalfe added: “I am under no illusions, these are not problems that will be solved overnight but I hope that this summit will be the start of a process that will see improvements for all concerned.”

“I look forward to the meeting and would like to thank all those involved for agreeing to attend. I think together, we can start making a real difference for our local community.”

Under the current system, 70 per cent of crimes are recorded as ‘undetected’, leaving victims and the public concerned that nothing has been done by police. Under the new recording framework a new ‘community resolution’ category will recognise the community penalties that criminals receive, increasing transparency and improving accountability.

‘Undetected’ offences also include cases where ‘no further action’ was taken as the police were unable to mount a prosecution, either because there was insufficient evidence, the alleged victim did not want to proceed or because one party died after the offence was committed.

Commenting, Conservative MP Stephen Metcalfe said: “Recording offences as ‘undetected’ when in fact a lot of police time and effort has gone into investigating the offence is totally misleading and sells our police officers short. It is inaccurate and it is good news that the Government are scrapping it.”

“Residents in South Basildon and East Thurrock want to know more about crime and policing in our area and this change will mean they get better information. It builds on the very popular online crime maps on the ‘Police.uk’ website in giving local people a clearer picture of what is happening in our area.”

Conservative Policing and Criminal Justice Minister Damian Green said: “By introducing new categories, the police will be able to demonstrate the hard work they do and increase public transparency in policing.”

In the last financial year, 900 people started an apprenticeship in South Basildon and East Thurrock – an increase of 61% per cent compared to the last year of the Labour Government.

Mr Metcalfe commented: “With the world around us changing, we will only succeed in the global race when everyone is given the chance to reach their full potential and apprenticeships are a vital means through which this can be achieved.”

“Conservatives have dramatically increased the number of apprenticeships on offer compared to the last Labour Government. These record levels of apprenticeships are fantastic news for our country, for South Basildon and East Thurrock, and most of all for the people whose lives are being transformed by the opportunities they offer.”

Mr Metcalfe said: ” Does my right hon.Friend agree that we should be cutting taxes for hard-working people in Basildon and Thurrock, rather than taking money away from them only to then return their own money through tax credits?

The prime minister, David Cameron replied

“My hon. Friend is entirely right. Of course, he will know that in April every working family will see a £220 tax cut as we lift the tax threshold yet further—everyone will benefit from that.

“In our view, what we should be doing is cutting people’s taxes, rather than taking more in taxes and recycling them through the massive tax credits business. That is what we believe on the Government Benches, and that is what will work for working families.”

Mr Metcalfe said: “Does my hon. Friend agree that it is entirely right to make prisoners work, and that the enforced idleness that there has been in prisons has to be reversed because that will lead to prisoners getting gainful employment on release?”

Jeremy Wright (Kenilworth and Southam, Conservative)

“I agree entirely with my hon. Friend. It is right, and it is what the public expect, that prisoners do something productive while they are in custody, rather than simply sitting around in their cells.

“That could involve a range of things such as work, education or drug treatment, but he is right that his constituents and mine would expect them to be doing something.”

Mr Metcalfe’s opposition comes as the prime minister forges ahead with honouring a commitment he made at Tory party conference last year when he said: “I don’t support gay marriage despite being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I’m a Conservative.’

Mr Cameron is honouring the commitment he made at the Tory conference last year when he said:

However, a recent ComRes poll found that 68% of Tory voters believed that marriage should continue to be defined as a “life-long exclusive commitment between a man and a woman”.

A further 65 per cent said that plans to legalise gay marriage are ‘more to do with trying to make the Conservative Party look trendy and modern’ than a matter of conviction.

Among the 118 MPs is 40-year-old Conor Burns. The openly gay MP for Bournemouth West who is a close friend of Lady Thatcher, said in a local newspaper interview: ‘I marvel at why we’re bringing this forward. There is no clamour for this at all within the gay community.’

More progressive Tories have said: “If you don’t like gay marriage, our advice is not to marry a homosexual.”

Even though No 10 has signalled that it will be a free vote in the Commons, ministers will be under huge pressure to back the measure because the PM has staked so much personal authority on the change.

The list of 118 MPs are:

Nigel Adams (Selby and Ainsty)
Peter Aldous (Waveney)
Tony Baldry (Banbury)
Guto Bebb (Aberconwy)
Henry Bellingham (North West Norfolk)
Sir Paul Beresford (Mole Valley)
Jake Berry (Rossendale and Darwen)
Andrew Bingham (High Peak)
Brian Binley (Northampton South)
Bob Blackman (Harrow East)
Nicola Blackwood (Oxford West and Abingdon)
Peter Bone (Wellingborough)
Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale West)
Julian Brazier (Canterbury)
Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire)
Steve Brine (Winchester)
Fiona Bruce (Congleton)
Robert Buckland (South Swindon)
Conor Burns (Bournemouth West)
Simon Burns (Chelmsford)
David Burrowes (Enfield Southgate)
Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan)
Douglas Carswell (Clacton)
William Cash (Stone)
Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham)
Christopher Chope (Christchurch)
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds)
Therese Coffey (Suffolk Coastal)
Geoffrey Cox (Torridge and West Devon)
Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire)
David Davies (Monmouth)
Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire)
Philip Davies (Shipley)
David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden)
Nick de Bois (Enfield North)
Caroline Dinenage (Gosport)
Richard Drax (South Dorset)
Charlie Elphicke (Dover)
Jonathan Evans (Cardiff North)
David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford)
George Freeman (Mid Norfolk)
Richard Fuller (Bedford)
Roger Gale (North Thanet)
Edward Garnier (Harborough)
John Glen (Salisbury)
Cheryl Gillan (Chesham and Amersham)
Robert Goodwill (Scarborough and Whitby)
Robert Halfon (Harlow)
Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge)
John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings)
Gordon Henderson (Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
George Hollingbery (Meon Valley)
Philip Hollobone (Kettering)
Adam Holloway (Gravesham)
Gerald Howarth (Aldershot)
Stewart Jackson (Peterborough)
Gareth Johnson (Dartford)
David Jones (Clwyd West)
Marcus Jones (Nuneaton)
Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest)
Pauline Latham (Mid Derbyshire)
Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire)
Philip Lee (Bracknell)
Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford)
Edward Leigh (Gainsborough)
Julian Lewis (New Forest East)
Ian Liddell-Grainger (Bridgwater and West Somerset)
Peter Lilley (Hitchen and Harpenden)
Jonathan Lord (Woking)
Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham)
Anne Main (St Albans)
Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Anne-Marie Morris (Newton Abbot)
Karl McCartney (Lincoln)
Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton)
Stephen McPartland (Stevenage)
Esther McVey (Wirral West)
Steve Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Nicky Morgan (Loughborough)
David Nuttall (Bury North)
Matthew Offord (Hendon)
Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton)
Priti Patel (Witham)
Owen Paterson (North Shropshire)
Mark Pawsey (Rugby)
Mike Penning (Hemel Hempstead)
Christopher Pincher (Tamworth)
Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin)
John Redwood (Wokingham)
Jacon Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset)
Simon Reevell (Dewsbury)
Andrew Robathan (South Leicestershire)
Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury)
Andrew Rosindell (Romford)
David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds)
David Rutley (Macclesfield)
Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire)
Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell)
Richard Shepherd (Aldridge-Brownhills)
Henry Smith (Crawley)
John Stevenson (Carlisle)
Bob Stewart (Beckenham)
Gary Streeter (South West Devon)
Mel Stride (Central Devon)
Robert Syms (Poole)
David Tredinnick (Bosworth)
Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight)
Andrew Tyrie (Chichester)
Paul Uppal (Wolverhampton South West)
Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes)
Ben Wallace (Wyre and Preston North)
Robert Walter (North Dorset)
James Wharton (Stockton South)
Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley)
John Whittingdale (Maldon)
Bill Wiggin (North Herefordshire)
Gavin Williamson (South Staffordshire)
Jeremy Wright (Kenilworth and Southam)

Mr Metcalfe asked: “What steps he is taking to tackle the causes of social breakdown?

Iain Duncan Smith (Secretary of State, Work and Pensions; Chingford and Woodford Green, Conservative)

“Last week we published the social justice outcomes framework, which has a set of indicators that highlight our priorities: to eradicate family breakdown, educational failure, worklessness, addiction and crime, and to grow the social investment market—a big area for us. The framework will measure our progress towards achieving these aims, shifting the policy focus and spending towards outcomes rather than inputs.

Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock, Conservative)

“Can my right hon. Friend tell the House how projects supported by the innovation fund will tackle social breakdown?

Iain Duncan Smith (Secretary of State, Work and Pensions; Chingford and Woodford Green, Conservative)

“Indeed I can. The innovation fund was set up by me when I came into the Department. It consists of approximately £30 million of seedcorn funding to enable voluntary groups, charities and organisations—beyond the normal organisations that one comes across in the work process—to show that their programmes, which help people to deal with drug addiction, family breakdown or gang violence, actually work, to prove that concept, and to set them up to be able to run those programmes.

“At least 11 social impact bonds have come out of this and we have just launched a second round.”

Stephen Metcalfe: “In light of my right hon. Friend’s answer that he will vote against any boundary changes, will he confirm that he will, therefore, allow Government Ministers to vote against Government policy?

Nicholas Clegg (Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council; Sheffield, Hallam, Liberal Democrat)

“As I have said, it is an excellent tribute to both sides of the coalition that, notwithstanding huge pressures to do otherwise, we have religiously stuck to the commitments that we made together to the British people in the coalition agreement.

“On this particular occasion, for reasons I will not rehearse now, one party in the coalition felt unable to deliver one very important part of the constitutional reform agenda—House of Lords reform—so, reasonably enough, the other part of the coalition has reacted accordingly on the issue of boundaries.

“Those are circumscribed circumstances which will not and do not prevent the coalition Government from working very effectively on a broad waterfront of other issues, the most important of which, of course, is cleaning up the economic mess left by that lot on the Opposition Benches.”

Under the present proposals, South Basildon and East Thurrock would lose a vast swathe of Orsett, Horndon-on-the-Hill and Bulphan to Brentwood and Ongar.

Mr Metcalfe said: “Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to be the last Member here to congratulate my right hon. Friend on her decision and on bringing Gary McKinnon’s 10-year nightmare to an end.

“I can assure her that my constituents will welcome today’s announcement, both the specifics and the more general reforms she has proposed.

“I encourage her to bring those forward as soon as possible so that cases do not drag on like this in future.

Theresa May (Home Secretary; Maidenhead, Conservative)

“I recognise the eagerness with which my hon. Friend, and indeed others, wish the Government to bring forward these changes.

“I can assure him that we, too, are eager to bring them forward as soon as possible, but that will of course be as parliamentary time allows.”

Mr Metcalfe gives a fascinating insight into the story and circumstance of close friends who may be in a situation where they may want an “assisted death”.

Jackie Doyle-Price and Stephen Metcalfe both voted to approve the Police Grant Report (England and Wales) for 2012-13.

Presenting the bill on Wednesday in the House of Commons, minister for policing, Nick Herbert said: “This Government inherited the largest budget deficit in our peacetime history. The deficit needs to be reduced, which means less spending across the public sector, and the police service must play its part.”

The vote comes as a bitter blow to policing in Thurrock which is already under severe strain. Thurrock has seen a massive spike in burglaries in areas such as South Ockendon. Council officers have also reported a huge increase in anti-social behaviour and public order in Purfleet and Tilbury.

Basildon magistrates court is packed every single day with a large number of cases from Thurrock. It would be overflowing but for the fact that a large number of cases are either released without charge, don’t pass the CPS 80% thresholds or are products of a “triage” system.

Police officers in Thurrock have both privately and publicly signed the police federation petition: “The cuts are criminal.”

Responding to the news, prospective parliamentary candidate for Thurrock (Labour), Polly Billington said:
“It’s deeply worrying that in Essex, police officers have been cut – we are losing more than any other force in the East of England. This is bound to have an impact. I am worried not only how it will affect serious and low level crime in Thurrock, but also the effect it will have on the morale of ordinary police officers serving in Essex Constabulary. Quite frankly, David Cameron and his Home Secretary Theresa May should think again and put public safety first.”

The Essex figures are part of wider research showing that 90% of the police officers cut are from the front line.

Yvette Cooper MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, said:

“The Prime Minister’s claim that the proportion of front line officers has gone up was both wrong and out of touch.

“Over 4,000 officers have gone from front line jobs in the first year of the Tory-led Government alone.

“And these new figures from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Police also show that 9 out of 10 of the total police officers lost in the first year were from frontline jobs. That means the proportion of officers on the front line has fallen too.

“This Government is cutting the police too far and too fast. We have continually warned that cutting 20% from the police budget and cutting 16,000 police officers across the country would have a damaging impact on the front line.

“The Government should switch to our plans for a 12% cut to the police budget so that the number of police officers and front line services can be protected.

“The Prime Minister and the Home Secretary need to set out a plan to cut crime instead of just cutting police officers.

“Personal crime, including theft, robbery and violence, has gone up by 11 per cent over the last year – the steepest increase for over a decade. This is a terrible time to cut 16,000 police officers. The Tory-led Government is out of touch with communities on crime and public safety, and they need to think again.”

Jackie Doyle-Price and Stephen Metcalfe are unavailable for comment.

Mr Metcalfe said:

“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to speak in this important debate. There is no doubt that growth and employment should be at the top of everyone’s list of priorities, and I know that that applies to this Government, who are trying to promote that agenda. This motion, however, does nothing to build on that. It is just more of the same from the Labour party—the party that brought us to the brink of bankruptcy. [Interruption.] It is the party that just loves to spend other people’s money.

Toby Perkins (Chesterfield, Labour)

“I think that the hon. Gentleman might have dropped his script. According to his own party, growth and job creation are not the No. 1 priority, which is deficit reduction. We absolutely support the hon. Gentleman in what he said, so will he start to put some pressure on his party to put growth and job security at the top of the agenda again?”

Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock, Conservative)

“I put the two hand in hand. [Interruption.] Yes I do. The Government have a cogent plan, but as I say, they have to deal with the reality that we inherited.

“As I was saying, the Labour party just loves to spend other people’s money. We all like to spend money: it give us that warm glow inside, but I imagine that the rate at which Labour has spent money, and wants to spend it again, would give a white-hot glow. Labour Members do not even try to hide the fact that they spent all the money. Mr Byrne informed us in his now infamous note that there was no money left. Again, it falls to us to clear up their mess.”