Earlier today, Woking Borough Council officially announced that it had purchased Wolsey Place Shopping Centre following a decision on February 2 to become sole owners. The cost is £68million, which has been financed by the Public Works Loan Board.

The aim of the purchase is twofold – to invest in an asset that will both appreciate in time and generate a healthy £1.5m every year for the council and to play a pro-active role in encouraging economic growth in the town - in this case by securing the future of a major retail space. There are, it must be stressed, no plans for the council to run the centre, this will remain with existing staff.

There will no doubt be those that criticise the council for taking on more borrowing. They will stand on the fact that Woking has borrowed more than almost any other district council and that this somehow indicates financial imcompetence. Not so. The act of investing in tangible assets on a long-term basis and generating net profits from those investments is using borrowing as a force for good. I won’t defend all of the projects WBC has invested – and I favour a debt-free position – but in this case, one has to consider the broader interests of Woking in the future.

The nature of local government finances has changed. No longer are councils about revenue income, support grants, non-domestic rates and council tax versus costs – they have a wider, enabling role to play through investment in communities. We aren’t the only council looking to be more pro-active economically. Surrey Heath has got pro-active with The Atrium development and there are other options for the future. Runnymede redeveloped its Civic Centre and Guildford has worked to improve its Civic Hall and Friary Centre infrastructure for years.

The difference is that we have already gone into the market while the money is cheap and we are ahead of the curve – as suggested by the fact that the Liberal Democrats also backed the purchase of the centre. I’m pleased we’ve got a consensus on this and hope it survives the election intact.

Traditional local government finance will fade out as more and more cuts have to be made and councils look to other means of raising revenue. Outsourcing only gets you so far and is politically challenging – far better to invest cheaply in strategic assets that will generate multiple benefits for both residents and the council.

Jonathan Lord

Last week, my post on Jonathan Lord’s selection was taken down by someone hacking into my WordPress account. Very petty. It also raised hackles that I appeared to “forget” that there was an election for us to fight if he was to become the next MP for Woking. No, I haven’t forgotten that, hence my many, many posts on the next election. The point about elections, for those who haven’t forgotten that they are happening but have perhaps forgotten how to win them, is to convince as many people as possible that a candidate is the person who will best represent their views and interests.

I am confident that in Jonathan, we have a candidate who is experienced in campaigning, who is an excellent performer on the doorstep and who talks with people easily and fluently about the issues that concern them. Hence, I believe he will be the next MP for Woking – if you can’t say that about the candidate you are campaigning for, why on earth would you be campaigning for them?

Today I went to a very enjoyable lunch event at the house of Cllrs Michael Smith and Anne Murray, which was well-attended and at which Jonathan spoke eloquently and spontaneously about the challenges we face as a party and a country. It reminded me again of the reason that he was selected – at the Open Primary he captured the imagination and support of the hall and was a clear winner on the night.

His CV is impressive – he has been a deputy leader of Westminster City Council, one of the country’s foremost local authorities and ran Anne Milton’s successful campaign to re-capture Guildford in 2005. All the evidence based on recent electoral history told us that the Liberal Democrats should have held onto Guildford – but they didn’t because of Jonathan’s excellent campaign and those involved in it. In June, he was heavily involved in the Guildford county campaign where the Liberal Democrats were pushed out of two Guildford seats and a third, Worplesdon, was turned from a marginal into a safe seat.

He is a proven campaigner, a superb speaker and is excellent one-on-one with people. He is local – I know that won’t stop his opponents trying to place Guildford as 40 miles away instead of four – and he will become more so as the campaign progresses. We know that the Liberal Democrats are targetting Woking, having given up in Guildford not in small part due to Jonathan’s efforts. I don’t blame them – but we will be ready with a candidate who they are going to have to work harder than in Guildford and South West Surrey combined if they are to beat.

Today, the Horsell and Woodham branch that saw Ben Carasco elected in Horsell pledged it was 100% behind Jonathan Lord in Woking and I am confident that with a smart strategy and dedicated teamwork we will be able to put Woking out of reach of the Liberal Democrats. But whatever the result, it should be one hell of a campaign and I for one am looking forward to it.