(4 weeks, 2 days ago)
Lords ChamberIt is a privilege to follow the noble Lord, Lord Harlech, and I thank the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans for his passionate work for rural communities and for bringing the future of the rural economy to the attention of the House today. I declare my interests as set out in the register: I live in a rural village, work in a rural market town, and run a veterinary practice that relies on rural businesses and the community for its turnover.
So, what makes up the rural economy’s Christmas list to the Government to enable it to grow and prosper in the coming years? The first item on my list is very similar to that of the noble Lord, Lord Harlech: government thinking to ensure that the rural minority is not forgotten when major decisions are made by government departments.
The farming community is the cornerstone of the rural economy, and is reeling from the recent Budget, as debated recently and mentioned today. This is an example of how the rural community suffers from the lack of joined-up government and policymaking. There appears to have been very little consultation between Defra and the Treasury on this decision. Will the Minister continue discussions with the Treasury, on behalf of the farming community, on the impact of this change to APR and BPR?
The Government can also support farming by monitoring and reviewing the dominance of food manufacturers and supermarkets in the food market. The price that food is sold to the consumer needs to reflect the cost of production for all businesses in the supply chain, and to ensure that farmers are not the ones squeezed to create profit for those dominant companies.
Joined-up thinking between local towns and local district councils would also be of benefit, ensuring that we can maintain and develop town high streets, which are essential for the rural community. In the town of Malmesbury we have a proactive town council that is looking to develop the town, but one of the frustrations of the local traders is parking charges. These are set by Wiltshire Council and are seen as a revenue generator. The result is a frustrated town council, as it wants to encourage the local community to come into the town to support local businesses and maintain a thriving town centre.
Number two on the Christmas list is planning reform, as mentioned by the noble Earl, Lord Devon, and other Peers. We welcome the review of the National Planning Policy Framework, and the delivery of new homes to address the affordable housing crisis in rural areas and the creation and development of rural businesses. The planning process is costly, bureaucratic and painfully slow, especially in rural areas. An example is Cirencester, in the Cotswolds, which has planning for a housing development of 2,350 houses. It initially went into planning in 2017 and building started in the summer of 2021, but as of today, only 65 have been built, 14 of which are affordable. For an area in need of homes and low-cost housing, building 65 houses in seven years is just too slow to meet demand. That begs the question: is the developer controlling the supply to maintain higher house prices? Would the Treasury consider charging large housebuilders a tax on developments that have not sold any property within five years of granting an outline or detailed plan, to encourage home building? Also, I hope that planning reform will optimise the development of brownfield sites in rural areas, especially redundant farm buildings.
Number three on the list is transport. Ours is a medium-sized business in a rural town, and 95% of our 125 employees drive to work; no one uses public transport. Bus services are difficult to run due to the large number of locations that need to be visited, and passenger numbers are relatively low. So again, we welcome the Government’s review of bus services, but the rural economy needs better public transport to prosper. Future bus services must be more flexible to make them efficient for users, and economically viable for bus companies and local councils. There has to be innovation, such as technology that could request pick-ups and drop-offs in villages when required. I appreciate that these ideas present challenges, but my hope is that the Government can address them through innovation—trying new and risky ventures in public transport to resolve this long-standing problem.
Number 4 on the list is communication, which many Peers have mentioned. I have spoken in the past about communication in rural areas and the deterioration of mobile phone coverage with the turning off of 3G. I have read Ofcom’s response to the Minister of State, and it is reassuring that it will continue to monitor 4G and 5G coverage. The 4G network is essential in rural areas, as signal strength is much greater than with 5G. Project Gigabit continues to be rolled out, as the noble Earl, Lord Caithness, mentioned. As a beneficiary of broadband home fibre in a rural area, I know that it brings massive improvements that enable home working and less frustrating domestic internet use.
This sort of connectivity is essential to growing productivity through the use of current available technologies; it will allow a vast array of small businesses to grow and develop in rural areas. But not all rural properties can be connected economically, especially in Wales, by fibre to the home. Will the Government consider supporting extreme locations with subsidies for satellite broadband to enable businesses to develop in these remote areas?
The list of support could be endless, but the opportunities are great. With joined-up thinking between rural communities and the Government, and with innovation, we could reverse the tendency of rural businesses to decline.
(2 months, 1 week ago)
Grand CommitteeMy Lords, I thank noble Lords for giving me the opportunity to speak here. I welcome the Minister to her place. I declare an interest as a farmer in Northern Ireland; we heard some mention of Northern Ireland. I suppose I have a few queries around these regulations.
One of my concerns is how it will be managed, with animal welfare being a devolved issue in both Scotland and Wales. Will that cause any complications with these regulations, because quite often we find that devolved institutions are very precious and protective of their own rights? I am just concerned that it will fall between two stools.
The noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, has already asked whether the farmer or haulier will be responsible when there is a check and an inspector looks at the issues.
I am also curious about journey log records. The regulations mention applicable guidance that will focus on changes to the application process for journey logs, especially the need to provide corroborating evidence on the purpose of the export. I am wondering what level of evidence will be required to corroborate that with the journey log, because quite often that can be manipulated. We have heard some instances of concern around export to Northern Ireland and how that may provide extended journeys that are not covered within the legislation.
The next point I am curious about is animals that are being transported from Northern Ireland to Great Britain; will they be required to have exactly the same journey logs? Will the same record-keeping system be required for them and will the corroborating evidence be the same as that required in other parts of Great Britain?
Those are just a few of the queries that I have on these regulations; I know that the debate on the main legislation has already taken place. I just have some concerns that we may find that some issues drop through loopholes and may not be fully accountable to the authorities that look over the regulations.
My Lords, I also welcome this statutory instrument and the detail of it. A lot of my points have already been expressed by the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, and the noble Lord, Lord Trees. It is certainly very important from a farming point of view—I represent vets who work with farmers—and on the ability to export breeding stock in the long run, and with all respect to the bluetongue outbreak.
I also note that the equestrian side of it needs to be addressed in due course. We welcome that, so I will not go into any more detail on that.
Live exports to Northern Ireland were just addressed by the noble Lord. The time limit for exports of sheep et cetera from Scotland to Northern Ireland has been extended, because there is no direct ferry route from Scotland to Northern Ireland due to the ferry regulations. Is Defra going to monitor the number of live exports from England to Northern Ireland, and likewise from Northern Ireland back to England? That is important to ensure the numbers are tracked correctly.
Furthermore, when animals arrive in Northern Ireland, who is going to monitor what is in place, as requested by the RSPCA? Is Defra going to monitor that, as well as the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland?
I will further emphasise the final point of the noble Lord, Lord Trees: we would welcome, for improved animal welfare, a review of the current journey times within Great Britain.
My Lords, following the very good speech of my noble friend Lady McIntosh, I will say that animal welfare was the most debated subject when we were both in the European Parliament together. I wonder whether we are still abiding by all EU rules now.
(3 months ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering, on securing a debate in the Chamber on this important subject. I remind your Lordships of my interests as listed in the register: I live in a rural area and run an SME, a veterinary practice, in a rural town in Wiltshire. I express my belated congratulations to the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock, on her ministerial appointment and congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Elliott, on his maiden speech—I will not attempt to pronounce the name of his home village.
In the veterinary business I run, a challenge has arisen in the past six months. For our ambulatory vets, there has been a deterioration in mobile coverage for voice calls, text messages and data services. This is hampering the ability to communicate, to increase business efficiency and to receive emergency messages. It also raises safety issues, as many of my vets are lone workers who work throughout the day and night.
The probable cause of this decline has been the switch-off by the mobile network providers of the 3G network. The 3G network had significantly more range from telecom masts of up to six miles, whereas the higher-speed 4G and 5G spectrums have ranges of three to four miles, and as little as two miles for 5G. Can the Minister say whether Ofcom could review mobile phone coverage, especially in rural areas, and what impact this is having on rural communities?
Internet connection is, as mentioned by many of your Lordships, a vital part for businesses and homes, especially with the recent trend in encouraging us all to use more data services. This is reflected today in the closure of bank services and all of us being forced to use online services for our daily banking. The continued need for good broadband connectivity is essential for rural communities to continue to prosper, as with similar services in urban areas. We welcome the Government’s manifesto promise to
“make a renewed push to fulfil the ambition of full gigabit and national 5G coverage”.
Rural areas need more government support to ensure that most rural towns and villages get gigabit services at an affordable cost as the number of providers is limited due to high installation costs, thereby reducing competition and opportunity for price competition.
Farming businesses are at the heart of the rural business community and support many secondary businesses such as the veterinary business I work in. Over the past year, dairy farmers in particular have found it hard to invest and make profits due to the low milk price. This has been reflected in our business in that some farmers are using only veterinary services that maintain herd health and other essential veterinary services.
The full range of skills and value that veterinary surgeons can bring to a farming business for the long term cannot be implemented as margins are so tight for farmers. They do not have the confidence to invest in such things as herd health planning for long-term productivity gains, and in the time and infrastructure projects needed to make farms more profitable and to adapt to the current and new challenges from the environment and changing weather patterns.
I am sure that the Minister is well informed on the NFU’s manifesto for certainty regarding agriculture support. It is not just about financial support but about safeguarding our food security and our farming environment. The protection of biosecurity of our national plants, herds and flocks is also particularly important, as we debated earlier this year. To continue to improve biosecurity in the UK, I ask the Minister what additional plans there are to further improve border surveillance and checks to protect the country from illegal imports of disease-infected meat products and plants.
I am sure this Government will support ensuring we have a level playing field with regard to animal health standards and will look to take on the challenge to ensure that all imported animals related to food are reared to the same animal health standards as farmers in the UK must adhere to. This is not only to create a level playing field for our farmers to trade in but, more importantly, to protect animals throughout the world so that they can have the same living conditions as those farmed in the UK.
Affordable housing is essential in rural villages. This is reflected across the employees that I work with in our business. Very few of our low-paid employees live in the market town of Malmesbury in Wiltshire. The majority commute using their cars, as public transport does not fit their working patterns, or is extremely slow. Can the Minister say what the Government have planned with regard to trying to address, again, the challenging issue of affordable housing in rural areas? Could the Minister also pass a message to the Treasury that increasing fuel duty has a disproportionate effect on rural communities and the low paid, as they need their cars to commute to work.
As a result of the high cost of living, there is a lack of childcare places for young parents to enable them to return to work to further their own prospects, and to further enhance rural communities. I have recently heard of a new parent having to put their child’s name down for a place at a nursery before their child is even born to ensure that they have a place when they return to work at the end of maternity leave. So any additional support from the Government for the childcare sector in the rural community across the nation would be welcome.