Tiverton and Honiton Liberal Democrats

North Devon MP Nick Harvey has welcomed a funding boost for jobs and industry across the South West today from the Regional Growth Fund (RGF).

Established in 2010 by Liberal Democrats in Government, the Regional Growth Fund was designed to support projects and programmes to stimulate economic growth and long-lasting employment.

Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is today (Thursday 12 February) announcing a further investment worth almost £300m to help local businesses grow.

As part of the sixth round of the Regional Growth Fund (RGF), 63 new projects and programmes across England will receive their share of £297m.

Liberal Democrats will today (Thursday 12 February) unveil the party's five priorities for the next five years.

These five priorities set out the Liberal Democrat agenda for government of building a stronger economy and a fairer society, creating opportunity for everyone.

Prosperity for all

Creating a stronger economy is about more than just clearing the deficit that's why we will balance the budget fairly and invest in building a high skill low carbon economy. To build a strong, green, innovative economy we need to invest in upgrading our national infrastructure and producing the clean renewable energy that will power our future prosperity.

Local man, Stuart Mole, today won the nomination to be the Liberal Democrat candidate for the East Devon constituency at the May 2015 General Election. Stuart Mole, who lives in Exmouth, is a self-employed writer, a Senior Research Fellow at London University and a part-time doctoral student at Exeter University. A former Commonwealth diplomat, charity director and teacher, he was a Liberal Democrat Borough Councillor for fifteen years and was a Parliamentary candidate in Essex, coming within a whisker of unseating a Conservative Cabinet Minister. He lives with his partner and young daughter, has been active in the "Save Rolle" campaign and sings with the Exmouth Choral Society and the Church choir at St Margaret's, Topsham.

Joel Mason has won the nomination to be the Liberal Democrat candidate for Exeter at the May 2015 General Election. Joel, 22, is a final year student at Exeter University studying Philosophy and Political Economy and he follows in the footsteps of Graham Oakes who gained 10,581 votes in 2010.

Joel, who comes originally from Bedfordshire, has been in Exeter since 2011 and spent a year of his course studying at Grenoble in France.

Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will today (Tuesday 10 February) give a speech to the British Chamber of Commerce.

In his speech, Nick will set a new ambition to help one million more women into work by 2020.

He is expected to say:

"British businesses have led an extraordinary success story over the last five years. And you have done so in extremely difficult circumstances.

Nick Harvey has welcomed progress in rolling out superfast broadband across North Devon.

Figures published today show that over 100,000 homes in Devon have so far received superfast broadband, comprising internet speeds greater than 24Mbps. Connecting Devon & Somerset (CDS), the regional body in charge of the superfast broadband project, are on track to achieve 90 per cent coverage by the end of their 2016 target.

Responding to reports that a financial institution helped its clients evade tax, Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said:

"Financial institutions who are proven to have colluded with tax evaders should face the full force of the law.

"We need to work with HMRC and regulators to make sure that they have all the legal and regulatory tools to tackle such situations.

Liberal Democrats in government are proud to have introduced shared parental leave, giving parents greater freedom to decide how to care for their newborn.

From April, parents will be able to share up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay, on top of an initial two weeks each.

This means couples will have the flexibility to decide whether the mother or father will be the primary carer and to share the role as best suited to each family.

Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has announced that an extra £2bn will be invested in schools across England for improvement and renovation works.

Under the Priority School Building Programme, around £2bn will be invested in refurbishing and rebuilding 277 schools across England.