As the Prime Minister prepares to leave 10 Downing Street for the final time, we ask what has Boris Johnson done for Peterborough?

As Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to walk out of 10 Downing Street for the final time, we look at whether, after less than three years in office, he has delivered on some of his manifesto promises and how they have impacted Peterborough.

The Conservative Party leader, who visited Peterborough at the start of the year when he vowed to ‘look after’ city residents during the cost of living crisis, made numerous major pledges in his manifesto at the 2019 general election that saw him swept into office on a landslide victory.

Promises ranged from recruiting more police officers to providing extra funding for the NHS and included, of course, to ‘Get Brexit Done’.

More police recruitment

Mr Johnson promised to recruit 20,000 new police officers across England and Wales in his 2019 manifesto.

The Home Office then launched the police officer uplift programme in April 2020, with the aim of achieving the 20,000 target by March 2023.

The latest Home Office figures show 13,790 extra officers had been recruited via the uplift programme as of June.

Of them, 152 have been recruited to Cambridgeshire Constabulary, which covers Peterborough.

There were 1,526 police officers in Cambridgeshire in November 2019, just before Mr Johnson became Prime Minister – this rose to 1,678 in June this year.

But Ché Donald, national vice-chairman of the Police Federation, said the uplift programme does not go far enough and only replaces previously lost officers.

Build more houses

Mr Johnson also pledged to create an additional 300,000 homes per year in England by 2025.

However, this target has not been met yet, and Mr Johnson conceded earlier this year that he could not give a "cast-iron guarantee we are going to get to a number in a particular year".

The latest figures from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show 242,700 homes were built in 2019-20, while 216,489 were built the following year – the lowest in the last five years, as the pandemic hampered building.

In contrast, 1,247 additional dwellings were created in Peterborough in 2020-21 – up from 1,133 the year before.

Getting Brexit done

Mr Johnson promised to "get Brexit done" – and on January 31 2020 at 11 pm, the UK ceased to be a part of the European Union.

That will have pleased the majority of people in Peterborough as 61 per cent of its people who voted in the 2016 referendum opted to leave the EU, while 39 per cent voted to remain.

Nursing recruitment and GP appointments

Mr Johnson promised to recruit 50,000 more nurses across England by 2024 and also provide 50 million more GP appointments annually.

NHS Digital figures show 320,000 full-time NHS nurses and health visitors were employed in May 2022, up by 24,000 from 296,000 in December 2019.

The NHS faces high vacancy rates but the Department for Health and Social Care said it is on track to recruit 50,000 more nurses by 2024.

NHS Digital figures show there were 290 million GP appointments in England in the year to July 2019. This stood at 320 million in the year to July, the latest figures available – up 30 million.

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