My Plan for North Devon 2024 onwards:
Far too many employers are unable to recruit highly skilled staff locally. I will continue to work alongside our schools and colleges to ensure skilled training and apprenticeships are available, to drive social mobility and attainment, making North Devon a great place to work and do business.
A recap on my 2019 priorities:
Supporting the Next Generation
Lockdowns hit education hard and whilst I congratulate all the students who have achieved so much despite the lockdown challenges as well as all the schools and teachers on their improvements and Petroc, our primary further education provider on their significant expansion and involvement with businesses, there is still a huge amount to do. Most notably with school attendance and SEN provision. Devon County Council were brought into special measures and are receiving much needed direct government support. Turning the provision around will take time, but we are still seeing improvements in our schools and their outcomes.
Making North Devon a Great Place to Do Business
North Devon is a great place to do business, but to see real growth into high tech, high wage industries we need higher skills and to tackle the housing crisis. It would be an understatement to say that the pandemic hit local businesses, it hit the country and the world, but we have seen some successful businesses thrive, but for many, survival was a success. Since being elected I have visited amazing businesses and I can quite honestly say that there are so many opportunities and great things happening in North Devon that we really just need to ensure that people know about them!
