Michael Fabricant is growing increasingly concerned that local business will suffer badly from the dual consequences of high taxation and rail disruption. "It is becoming very difficult for local people to travel down to London and other parts of the country for business and other meetings – and it could get worse", Michael Fabricant warns. "The rail service from Lichfield Trent Valley on the West Coast Main Line has been disrupted and the service is unpredictable with National Rail enquires unable to inform customers as to the availability of trains. Railtrack do not seem to be keeping National Rail fully informed regarding the timing of their engineering works. I shall be contacting both National Rail and Railtrack to see whether the situation can be improved.

"And with the House of Commons Statistical Office, a politically independent body, revealing yesterday that the tax burden – even excluding North Sea Oil duty – is now at the highest rate ever reaching 37.5% of the nation’s gross domestic product, I am deeply concerned at the consequences if Gordon Brown doesn’t give back some of the huge surpluses he has built up at his Pre-Budget Statement next Wednesday" (8th November)

"The tax payer has provided billions of pounds surplus at The Treasury as a consequence of the highest taxation ever. If some of that money is not returned by Gordon Brown and this leads to further disruption to petrol supplies and motorway movements, Staffordshire could become isolated from the rest of the country damaging business prospects still further. In this respect, it is imperative that local people do not panic and hoard petrol: that will only make matters worse. At a time when business and families are paying these high taxes while other countries are reducing theirs, Gordon Brown’s statement next Wednesday will be crucial for the long term prosperity of our nation. There has been too much damage done to businesses and farming locally already".