It’s a strange job being an MP, but what is often obvious is how the press can seek out the bad news rather than the good. I wanted to try to counter that at the start of the New Year with some of the positive stuff that the government has done in only the last couple of weeks. Slowly and surely this drip-drip of taking positive action to right things will build and hopefully start to fix the foundations and by the end of this coming new year we will see the difference.

In the last couple of weeks, the following were announced:

• £126-million for our hospices to improve the buildings and facilities and help fund their running costs. End of life care has now been included in the list of services that each local NHS must commission and fund.

• An extra £889-million on top of the existing budget for GPs will bring back the family doctor by incentivising GPs to ensure patients most in need see the same doctor every appointment. The reforms will also reduce the number of outdated performance targets that GPs must meet to reduce bureaucracy and ensure doctors can spend more time with their patients.

• £1.6-billion to fix seven-million more potholes

• £1-billion to help break the cycle of spiralling homelessness. Cornwall’s homelessness grant will rise to £10.75 million. More resources will be available for workers on the frontline who get rough sleepers off the street and into secure housing as well as seeing more homeless families out of temporary accommodation. No fault s.21 evictions will also be banned.

• Up to £1-billion to enable police forces to kickstart recruitment of the neighbourhood police officers we need to help protect the public and keep our streets safe. Devon & Cornwall Police will get a £25.5-million increase.

• Government is going to buy back, rebuild and refurbish the military housing that was privatised and is now in a terrible state and costing the MoD millions in rent to a private landlord. That means military housing across Cornwall will improve.

• The new Water (Special Measures Bill) will mean that water regulators will have more teeth to ban bonuses and there will be new criminal sanctions for water bosses. I will be sitting on the Bill Committee that scrutinises the legislation. The government has also launched the largest review into the water sector since privatisation which will form the basis of more legislation to clean up our water for good.

• The Clean Power Plan was published which sets out bold measures to get more homegrown clean power to people and businesses including sorting out the national grid and connecting renewables to it more quickly.

• And £740-million to create more specialist places in mainstream schools for children with special educational needs and disabilities as the first part of major reforms.

That’s just a quick trawl through the last couple of weeks. Change is happening. But sometimes it’s hard to see amidst all the noise.

Happy New Year.

Jayne Kirkham

Labour MP for Truro and Falmouth