In this week's letter, Olivia Bailey, the Labour MP for Reading West and Mid Berkshire, wishes everyone a happy New Year and lays out her agenda for what she hopes to achieve. Mrs Bailey writes:
A very Happy New Year to everyone in Reading West and Mid Berkshire. As 2026 gets underway, I remain focused on delivering for residents across Reading West and Mid Berkshire – working with the police and local councils to tackle antisocial behaviour, continuing to press National Highways for safety improvements on the A34 slip roads at Beedon and East Ilsley, and continuing to push for improvements to our local NHS services.
And I am committed to working with colleagues in government to make sure that local people feel the benefit of the changes we are delivering to help with the cost of living. So it was fantastic on Monday to hear from the Prime Minister on his visit to Reading about the action the government is taking including freezing rails fares for the first time in thirty years, saving £340 on a season ticket from Reading to London, and extending the £3 cap on bus fares until March 2027.
But that’s not all. Other measures the government has taken to ease the cost of living that will kick in this year will include, taking £150 off energy bills for the average household in April, the fuel duty cut extended until September, prescription charges frozen to keep them under a tenner, the expansion in funded childcare, saving families on average £7,500 a year, and an increase in the State Pension, giving pensioners up to an additional £575 a year.
This isn’t mission accomplished though - I know that people are frustrated at the pace of change – and that not enough people are feeling it fast enough. But this coming year, with wages increasing faster than prices, more people in Reading West and Mid Berkshire will see the change in their weekly shop and their bills. And, as a result of the decisions that we’ve taken to cut borrowing and strengthen the economy, inflation is being driven down, and we have had six cuts in interest rates since the General Election.
Together, we are getting Britain back on track. But we can only give our country the renewal it needs if we come together to reject the division and decline peddled by Reform, the Tories, and others and move forwards to build a better Britain and a better Reading West and Mid Berkshire.
2026 is the year Britain turns a corner.
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