THE UK is currently in the midst of a truly national economic recovery.

That was the message from the Chancellor on Wednesday as he delivered his annual Autumn Statement.

After the election earlier this year, I am glad to report that the Conservatives are now delivering on the commitment we made to people in Swindon that we would put their economic security first.

This week signalled a move from rescuing Britain from the brink of bankruptcy; to the job of rebuilding our finances, our defences, and our society so that we become the most prosperous and secure nation in the world.

Crucially, this also means that we are in a position to leave the next generation with a stronger country than the one we inherited.

Ahead of the spending review, I received a lot of letters from people concerned about the changes to Tax Credits.

I am glad to say that I fed these concerns back and the Government has listened.

Most people commented that changes to Tax Credits should be phased in. Because of the improvement in the public finances, the simplest thing to do is not to phase these changes in, but to avoid them altogether.

With the introduction of Universal Credit and the National Living Wage, Tax Credits will now naturally phase out.

So to all of the residents who wrote to me about this, I hope you can see that it is always worthwhile to let me know your views.

Other measures outlined included our plans to create a modern, integrated health and social care system that supports people at every stage of their lives.

This includes making a half a trillion pound commitment to the NHS over this Parliament – the largest investment in it since its creation, as well as an extra £1.5bn for the Better Care Fund.

Crucially we are setting out to support hardworking families. This includes making the largest ever investment in free childcare and doubling the housing budget to more than £2bn a year.

protecting the schools budget in real terms over the next five years, creating more jobs and apprenticeships - giving people the security of a pay packet, and introducing the biggest real terms rise in the basic state pension in 15 years.

Recent events have also reinforced the need to reinvest in the resources to protect us at home and project our values abroad. This is why we are increasing the defence budget by 2% and protecting police funding.

All in all, we are protecting our economic security, by taking the difficult decisions to live within our means and bring down our debt. And our national security, by defending our country’s interests abroad and keeping our citizens safe at home.