Congratulations to Hunters for their 25 years of successful recruitment in Shoreham and now in Worthing’s Marine Parade. The Mayor and MPs admired their commissioned art. We know employment has many benefits for the individual and their household, as well to our wider community.
Helping employers staff their organisation and getting individuals into the work that best suits them promotes wellbeing.
At 6.30am on Tuesday I joined other members of the all-party group for gardening at the Royal Hospital, home to Chelsea Pensioners and the location of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Flower Show. There were no signs remaining from the previous evening’s gathering of the great and the good, after the Royal visit by King Charles. My mother used to go for the last afternoon; she would buy some of the exhibits to improve the quality of our small back garden.
A new charity, Project Giving Back, raised and provided funding to charities to have good garden displays. Local supporters of the RSPCA will be pleased that before the 200th anniversary next year, their garden sought to inspire visitors to help animals with a wildlife-friendly sanctuary for birds, mammals, insects and people.
The water running through the exhibit returns to its source, symbolising the charity’s cycle of care: rescue, rehabilitate, release or rehome.
I admired the National Brain Appeal’s Rare Space Garden. People living with rare types of dementia helped design an area to foster autonomy, inspire hope and encourage activity. It was described as restful, stimulating with emphasis on contrast, simplicity, vibrant materials and safety.
In all, the anonymous donors to Project Giving Back supported 15 gardens. I commend the Show Guide and the television coverage. My pleasure was increased by walking with Chris Holmes, valuable member of the House of Lords, with multiple Paralympic gold medals for swimming, a serious lawyer and pensions expert. He shows blindness is not a barrier to life.
On Wednesday morning I was with Lord Victor Adebowale at his Social Enterprise UK gathering to discuss the future of business in the UK. He and partnering groups want to improve public services, deliver sustainable growth and share prosperity in every part of the country, with a new economic vision.
He says thousands of social enterprises, co-operatives, community businesses, social entrepreneurs and other purpose-led businesses are showing how to deliver for Britain. Society pays the price when business is divorced from social responsibility. That echoed points I made in the Chamber this week in the debate on the next steps defending residential leaseholders and in promoting their safety, security and wellbeing.
My approach is to collaborate, to listen and to share; that makes my team and me more effective advocates for constituents and for local interests. In discussion with a better economist, we agreed economics is about the allocation of scarce resources in ways that meet everyone’s needs everywhere while allowing and encouraging greater goods and greater good.
I spoke about how to encourage and make possible solar heating on apartment blocks, especially when being reroofed. How will groups of occupants be able to agree and to fund greater thermal efficiency and carbon-free heating?
Every day, I talk with or meet great people contributing to our lives together. In Rustington I was with West Sussex MIND – thank you for the raffle prize! At the Commons, I heard more tributes by group members and their families about ways to recognise and to come to terms with addictions, with beneficial paths forward.
I attended the presentation on the importance of publication in local newspapers of public notices, especially about planning applications. Combining print and internet notifications should work in the interests of the public. For our communities, whether village, town or estate, to be a pleasant safe sanctuary where people can live together with order, law and enjoyment, we should always act for the wellbeing of ourselves and others too.
