THE economy is, yet again, in the news. After a prolonged period of disappointing growth it now seems that we are turning the corner.

But that is not to say that we are out of the woods yet.

The predicted double dip recession never happened; the prediction that private sector jobs creation was never going to absorb the losses of public sector was proved not just wrong, it was blown out of the water – private sector jobs are being created at a rate of four new jobs for every one lost in the public sector.

We have seen the number of workless households reduced to the lowest levels since records began, at the same time as unemployment is going down.

Of course, there are still many areas for concern.

Youth unemployment is worryingly high and it is right that we have created more apprenticeship courses so that we can better match skills with demand.

One area of risk that concerns me is that of household debt, where the legacy of the Brown Bubble means that British households carry the highest debt in the EU, leaving people vulnerable to both rising interest rates and other economic shocks (although, interestingly, we in the West Midlands are happily the most resilient in the country according to a recent survey).

But here is the most important point about the recovery and the move from rescue to rehabilitation: whilst the government can do a great deal to create the framework and environment for the economy to pick up, the actual heavy lifting of the recovery is down to everyone.

It is businesses across Worcestershire that have invested more and taken on more staff that has reduced the unemployment locally.

It is local entrepreneurs who have taken huge personal risk in setting up new businesses and who have worked incredibly hard to make those risks worthwhile.

And it is people who work for those businesses who have, quite probably, taken reduced income through the tough times to make sure that their employers were still there to pick up in the good time.

So this recovery is not about the government being awfully clever: it is absolutely about everyone getting behind the work of sorting out the crises and working hard to get this country back on its feet again.

CONTACT YOUR MP

Email: mark.garnier.mp@ parliament.uk

Telephone: 020 7219 7198 or 01562 746771.

Write: 9a Lower Mill Street, Kidderminster, DY11 6UU, or House of Commons, Westminster, London