Thank you for putting me on the list, Sir Roger. It is lovely to be in a Chamber in which, for once, everybody is largely agreeing with each other. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham) on having introduced today’s debate, and the hon.

Thank you, Mr Speaker —brevity, brevity.

It is an honour to follow the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent North (Ruth Smeeth).

It looks like our economy is once again defying the naysayers. UK growth has an inexorably upward direction, which is to be encouraged, and debt as a percentage of GDP is down, thanks to the hard work and perseverance of the British people.

It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Waveney (Peter Aldous) for securing this important debate. It is a pleasure to stand here and discuss how we can promote economic growth across the east of England.

I would like to put on record how pleased I am that this Bill is going through the House today, and very speedily—I am grateful for that.

It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship today, Mr Sharma.

It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship for the second time, Mr Bone, and to follow the hon. Member for Aberavon (Stephen Kinnock). I congratulate my hon.

As many other Members have said, I regret that the Chancellor is absent today, because I would have liked him to hear some of this. Let me crack on.

It is a great pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Copeland (Trudy Harrison) in this important debate. As a district councillor and long-time resident of Tendring, I know that rural crime is all too common in the Tendring District Council area.