LOCAL MPs are optimistic about the future of the country following the Governments Mid-term Review this week.

The Coalition this week issued its Mid-Term Review highlighting a new set of reforms including supporting working families with childcare costs and helping to make the dream of home ownership a reality for more people as well as looking at the care of the elderly and the state pension.

Ahead of publication of the mid-term review, Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said: 'We are dealing with the deficit, rebuilding the economy, reforming welfare and education and supporting hard working families through tough times.

'And on all of these key aims, our parties, after 32 months of coalition, remain steadfast and united. Of course there have been some issues on which we have not seen eye to eye, and no doubt there will be more. That is the nature of coalition.

'But on the things that matter most – the big structural reforms needed to secure our country's long term future – our resolve and sense of shared purpose have, if anything, grown over time.

'At the half-way point in the parliament, we are taking stock of the progress we have made in implementing the coalition agreement that we signed in May 2010. But we are also initiating a new set of reforms, building on those already underway, to secure our country's future and help people realise their ambitions.'

Totnes MP Dr Sarah Wollaston said: 'The mid-term review shows just how many hard decisions have been made by the Coalition since the general election.

'Just last week we have had to take action to restore the balance between working age benefits and wages. It cannot be right that while average earnings have risen by 10 per cent over the past five years, out of work benefits have risen by 20 per cent. In the past year they rose by 5.2 per cent whilst so many of those in work faced limits of 1 per cent or even pay freezes. We now spend £1 in every £8 on working age benefits.

'All this is necessary because while some progress has been made on closing the deficit, which is the vast gap between what the Government spends and what we earn as a nation, there is still an enormous and growing national debt.

That debt costs around £120million every day in interest payments alone. If our interest rates were to rise that would not only have catastrophic effects on every family with a mortgage but would also mean even less for Government to spend on the things that really matter like schools, hospitals, care, policing and defence. No one likes an ex who runs up a credit card bill and then leaves someone else to pick up the bill but that is the reality facing today's Government. We have to restore balance but of course it is true that reducing the size of the State and reducing benefits does not win popularity.

'Despite the challenges there has been real progress on reducing immigration by 25 per cent, raising the tax threshold to take so many more people out of tax altogether, creating more than a million private sector jobs and standing up for Britain in Europe.

'The economy still has far to go but we are in a better position than before the election and can face the future with optimism.'

MP for South West Devon Gary Streeter said: 'In difficult circumstances the coalition has really done surprisingly well. We have reduced the deficit by a quarter, embarked upon a massive reform of a welfare state we can no longer afford and are breathing new life and rigour into the education system. In difficult times over 1 million new jobs in the private sector have been created and we have given apprenticeships a real boost. We still face many challenges but have made encouraging progress.'

Chairman of the Institute of Directors in the South West Richard Ayre said: 'The Government must now redouble its efforts to enact radical reform across the board. There have been many good moves so far, chief among them the crucial work on deficit reduction and the commitment to deregulation.

'To inspire business confidence and get the economy moving we need to see more though. For example, on tax simplification, slashing red tape and setting the private sector free to grow we need to see the coalition accelerate change.'