John Redwood MP visits Bexprt, Winnersh

On Friday 16th June John Redwood MP visited Bexprt, a telecoms and IT consultancy businesses on Wharfedale Road, Winnersh.

John met Mo Hamdy the founder and CEO of Bexprt and Gwen Edwards, Marketing Director.

Bexprt was recently presented with an award for Digital Exports by the Department for Business and Trade as part of the Made in the UK, Sold in the World 2023 awards.

Bexprt is a fast growing small busi- ness with a large export customer base. Its head office is in Winnersh Triangle and a second office has opened in Riyadh. Turnover has quadrupled in four years.

The company helps businesses with their telecoms and technology services. It is partnering with Amazon Web services to help people use the Cloud system for external storage of data. There are opportunities for businesses to contract their data storage and processing to an external supplier using powerful computers in specialist

Wokingham residents will struggle with new mortgage payments

Many people know me as a local Councillor and as the Leader of Wokingham Borough Council until I stepped down recently. I have recently been pleased to meet residents whilst out and about in the new Wok ingham constituency.

I have heard first hand from constituents who have told me about their serious concerns about the way the country is being managed by the government. Of course, people have mentioned to me the dreadful state of our econ omy, the cost-of-living crisis, and the continuing crisis affecting the NHS and Social Care. Everyone knows that our MP, Sir John Redwood was unbelievably supportive of the economic policies of former Prime Minister Liz Truss and former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng. Sir John said that measures in their budget were “sensible”.

The extremely damaging consequences of these supposedly “sensi- ble” measures are now being felt by everyone paying mortgages, hoping to be able to do so, or whose rents depend upon their property owners paying a mortgage on it. The Bank of England raised interest rates to 5% last week, and many people think that they will go to 6% over the next few months. This is all pushing prices up.

More and more people in Wokingham and surrounding areas are struggling to cope with rising food and energy costs. Far too many people are having to rely on food banks to help them feed their families. They are struggling to pay energy bills which have more than doubled in the last year and to keep a roof over their heads and they are worried about how they will be able to afford essentials. After all these years of Conservative government we should be in a better position than this.

Councillor Clive Jones, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate for Wokingham.

warehouses with high levels of cyber security and service.

John Redwood said: “The company is positive about the opportunities for Artificial Intelligence as faster searches, machine learning and new language models enhance computer services.

“We are moving to a world where people can have an AI assistant to provide data, commentary and assistance by speed reading and repeating materials available through big data storage.

I congratulate Mo and his team on their award for Digital Exports and wish Bexprt every success as it grows its way to greater success, offering interesting services to local and international businesses and helping to grow the national economy.”

Balancing the books in difficult times

As every household faces the challenge of inflation and high interest rates, so do the local councils that provide you with key services.

In the case of Wokingham Borough, the challenge is made harder by the low level of core funding we receive from central government. We are in fact the lowest funded unitary authority in England. That makes us heavily dependent upon whatever resources we can generate ourselves and making as many savings as we can in these inflationary times.

We will continue to target our limited resources at those most in need, as we did last year. But finding the savings that enable money to be spent where it is most required becomes more and more difficult, as there are no more easy savings left.

Last year we had to make tough decisions to balance the council’s books; we will have to do the same again this year.

We will not shirk that responsibility because the price of failure to manage the council’s finances effectively would be very high for the residents and businesses of the borough.

When the government judges that a council is effectively bankrupt, or about to become so, it sends in commissioners to take control. They adopt brutal methods to remedy the situation; typically putting the council tax up by double the amount that the government allows other councils to do, and at the same time inflicting deep cuts in local services.

This is not just a theoretical possibility In the case of Slough it became a reality. We are determined that it won’t happen to Wokingham; a broke council is no use to anyone.

I’m being open and honest with you about the challenges we face because I know that you, in your own working and family lives, know very well that balancing the books matters. I know that you, too, face considerable financial challenges and so understand that the council must do what it takes to keep vital services going.

But despite the difficulties, I remain an optimist. We rose to the challenge of a very difficult financial situation last year; with your help, we will do so again this year.

Stephen Conway Leader, Wokingham Borough Council