Rural Economy
Debate between Lord Gardiner of Kimble and Lord Berkeley of Knighton(4 years, 1 month ago)
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Lord Gardiner of Kimble (Con)
My noble friend is right. Rural areas can be very different from each other, and we believe that local people are often best placed to judge what is right for their communities. For instance, the Government provide grants of up to £18,000 to groups that wish to pursue a neighbourhood plan. Defra itself provides funding to the 38 rural community councils across England.
Lord Berkeley of Knighton (CB) [V]
My Lords, I declare my interests as listed in the register. I am sure the Minister will agree that one of the greatest problems in rural communities is employment. Therefore, with the Government moving towards more environmentally friendly support for agriculture, might there not be possibilities to employ more people—for example, to do things that are labour intensive, such as planting trees? Secondly, transport is essential for farm workers. Have the Government thought about how the move to electronic vehicles might impinge on the ability of farm workers, who are on very low salaries, to buy these cars?
Lord Gardiner of Kimble (Con)
My Lords, on the transport issue, on Tuesday the Department for Transport launched a call for evidence to shape a future rural transport strategy. I shall take back to the department what the noble Lord said. On the economy, everything that we have been doing, not only through the Covid crisis but throughout, is to ensure that there are vibrant opportunities and indeed many small and medium-sized enterprises in the countryside, which we wish to support.
Rural Areas: Income
Debate between Lord Gardiner of Kimble and Lord Berkeley of Knighton(7 years, 9 months ago)
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Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, I will make sure that the noble Lord receives a copy of the new, revised rural-proofing guidance. I have been working with my honourable friend Ben Gummer, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, on this. It is important that all departments across Whitehall understand the issues of rural communities. As Minister for Rural Affairs, I am on a number of ministerial task forces—connectivity and housing, to mention two—precisely to ensure that the rural voice is heard.
Lord Berkeley of Knighton (CB)
My Lords, given what the Minister has just said, is he concerned by the fact that in many rural and underprivileged areas libraries and leisure centres are under threat? These are the very places that offer a glimmer of light to people who lead rather dark lives in terms of entertainment and education.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, this rather takes me back to my DCMS days. One thing that very much strikes me is how vibrant so many rural communities are. Certainly in my part of Suffolk, the amount of cultural activities going on—in dance, theatre and music—is incredible. We all want to improve that and have greater accessibility to those things, but the noble Lord may be painting a rather too pessimistic picture.
Litter
Debate between Lord Gardiner of Kimble and Lord Berkeley of Knighton
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, what the noble Lord says is absolutely right. In the end, we all have a responsibility to care about our local communities. That is why we want a comprehensive strategy that will engage so many more people, so that we can have a behavioural change. We want to greatly reduce littering, from vehicles and more generally, so that our country can look clean and pleasant.
Lord Berkeley of Knighton (CB)
My Lords, I think there is an anomaly in the law regarding fly-tipping. If a fly-tipper were, for example, to tip on the Minister’s land—let us hope that this does not happen—then the Minister would be responsible in law rather than the tipper. Is this not an anomaly?
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, I have direct and personal sympathy with that. We are introducing stronger powers for local authorities and the Environment Agency to seize the vehicles of those suspected of waste crime. We need to bear down on this, which is why it is really important that the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group is working to prevent and tackle illegal dumping.
Employment: Tourism and Hospitality
Debate between Lord Gardiner of Kimble and Lord Berkeley of Knighton
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, the noble Baroness absolutely strikes the right note. Tourism is at the heart of much of the UK economy. If you look at the countryside, there are constituencies where a very significant proportion of jobs are involved in tourism. It needs to be taken extremely seriously indeed. The other point is that whether the apprenticeships are in large organisations or smaller ones, there are great opportunities for young people coming into this industry. I take the point about SMEs. BIS is working extremely hard on apprenticeships. We very much hope that tourism will be part of the next tranche of Trailblazers’ apprenticeship activity.
Lord Berkeley of Knighton (CB)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the arts in the widest sense play a terribly important role in tourism, whether it is the West End theatre, the National Gallery or the Royal Opera House? These things are very important and a lot of organisations are quite stretched with declining subsidies. Given what he has just said, does he agree that subsidies should be seen as an investment?
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
To pick up the noble Lord’s first point, it was very interesting to see in the list of those who went with the Prime Minister to China the number from the creative industries and tourism and heritage sectors. It is a very important part of why lots of people want to come to this country. It is why Britain is fourth in terms of culture and tourism on the Anholt brands index. I very much take that point. On the question of subsidy, it is a balance of the great opportunities our culture has to generate its own funds and government grant in aid.
Tourism
Debate between Lord Gardiner of Kimble and Lord Berkeley of Knighton
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, I would, of course, be delighted to speak to colleagues. We all suffer from the inconveniences of roadworks. Obviously, they are intended to improve the passage of us all once they have been achieved, but I understand entirely the point that my noble friend has made.
Lord Berkeley of Knighton (CB)
My Lords, I am sure that the Minister will agree with me that the arts play an incredibly important role in tourism, and the arts are very much under threat at the moment, as he knows. However, given that the BBC, in the form of the promenade concerts, is a boilerplate for tourism in this country, perhaps this is a good moment to welcome the return to Reithian ethics—education, entertainment and information—as stated by the new director-general this morning, with more emphasis on the arts in future. Will he welcome that?
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, I certainly welcome what the noble Lord has said about the importance of the arts, not only to the domestic market but to many visitors from abroad. Museums and galleries are already doing a lot of work, as part of their China Ready programme, preparing for speakers of Mandarin and making sure that guides are in Chinese. So there is a lot going on in the arts sector.