Mark Lancaster has been studying the spending review’s implications for Milton Keynes.

Along with fellow city MP Iain Stewart, he was in the House of Commons as Chancellor George Osborne announced tough cuts that will avert Britain’s descent into bankruptcy.

While some projects were scaled back and bureaucracy curbed, they welcomed funding for 75,000 adult apprenticeships a year.

The £530 million investment to improve the UK’s broadband network should benefit Milton Keynes’ severe broadband black spots, while supporting our high number of small and medium businesses. Both MPs welcome this particular measure as there are areas such as Woburn Sands, Bow Brickhill, Castlethorpe and Broughton within their constituencies where this is a big issue.

Meanwhile, while the environment budget must save £174 million through cutting bureaucracy, in fact more money has been pledged for flood defences, vital for places like Stoke Goldington in Mr Lancaster’s constituency.

They intend to press for details about how the promised 150,000 affordable new homes can plug the housing shortfall in Milton Keynes and ensure rents raised in the city are kept in the city. Mr Stewart said: “ I have always campaigned for local residents to be at the driving seat of any expansion in Milton Keynes. Of course, I maintain that infrastructure must come first before expansion.

“With local councils having greater control over housing finances, I am confident that we can collectively shape the desired mix of housing provision required in the city.”

After 171 quangos were reformed, Mr Lancaster intends to find out exactly what this means for the development body Milton Keynes Partnership.

The biggest cuts come in the welfare budget, in which household benefit payments will be capped from 2013 for workless households at around £500 a week for families.

Mr Lancaster said: “The cuts are tough but fair, and most certainly necessary.  The fact is we are spending £120 million every single day just to pay off the interest on Labour’s debt. Despite this we have managed to rightly ring fence the NHS budget and keep schools safe.

“I am now making it my task to ensure that spending reductions, for example in local government and police, are done in a way that does not affect frontline services for the residents of Milton Keynes.”

Mr Lancaster, who is Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Department for International Development, has also been challenged about the retention of the department’s commitment to overseas spending.

He added: “Honouring our commitment to the world’s poorest countries is something we should be proud of. Not only does it improve our county’s security and promote our foreign trade, most importantly it saves millions of lives. In fact, the UK’s aid alone will save the lives of at least 50,000 women in pregnancy and childbirth, and save 250,000 newborn babies.”

Also announced within the review was the commitment to key capital projects such as the investment to relieve congestion on the M1 between junctions 10 and 13. Mr Stewart, a member of the Transport Select Committee in Parliament, said: “The importance of transport links for businesses and commuters cannot be overemphasised. Good transport links will further make Milton Keynes an economic hub with the possibility of greater inward investment which hopefully should translate into jobs being created in the city.”