Walsall North remains largely a manufacturing area, and in Willenhall the dominant employment remains lock making. Lock manufacturing goes back over two hundred years in Willenhall. There remain in parts of the constituency areas of deprivation, particularly in some of the northern parts.

In the last 10 to 15 years there have been a substantial number of private dwellings built in most of the wards which make up the constituency.

I took a prominent role in the campaign against Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust being merged with . The information was given to the three MPs straight after the general election 2005 by the chief executive of the Manor hospital. Apart from anything else, I arranged a meeting between the Secretary of State, Patricia Hewitt, and the three members of Parliament for the borough. There was almost unanimous opposition in to what was being proposed, and towards the end of 2005 it was officially stated that the merger was off.

The next campaign was to ensure that the Manor hospital got ministerial approval for major extensive improvements. This had been agreed in principle on the basis of a PFI arrangement. However, the Treasury intervened because it felt that the rate of return was not affordable for the hospital. Together with the other two MPs for the borough, I strenuously campaigned for approval to be given for the work to go ahead in 2007 and had an adjournment debate over this on 8^th June 2006. Later I arranged a meeting between the Health Secretary and the three members. A final decision was taken in September by the Treasury to approve what will be the largest amount of work since the hospital was first built in the 19^th Century.

On the 'contacts' page you will see details of my regular all the year round constituency surgeries. It is my practice to reply to constituents' letters and emails promptly and to chase up replies from officialdom where propriate, including putting down Parliamentary questions to Ministers asking when a delayed reply will be answered.

Local organizations are also chased up on a regular basis by my office when replies are overdue. If a Member of Parliament has to wait too long for a response, one can certainly assume the public will be waiting much longer. In the main replies do come on time.