Postal Services: Rural Areas

Adam Dance Excerpts

Wednesday 4th February 2026 Westminster Hall

[Stuart Anderson]

I definitely agree: is not acceptable at all. As the Minister is listening, and I am pretty sure Royal Mail will be watching, let me say that we need the service to change. People are getting penalised through no fault of their own, and it is having a damaging and detrimental impact on many people.

[Adam Dance (Yeovil) (LD)]

Royal Mail staff in my area tell me that, apart from having to focus on first-class post, a big cause of the delays is poor recruitment, which leads to unachievable workloads. Does the hon. Member agree that it is no surprise that our rural post service is struggling when Royal Mail officers and postmen and women are paid only a little above the minimum wage?

[Stuart Anderson]

Recruitment is a serious issue for Royal Mail at the moment. Some people have worked there for years, and when I go to sorting offices they tell me how they delivered far less five years ago and how it was a completely different service 20 years ago. We certainly need to ensure that they are looked after, and that we have the right packages to retain people at Royal Mail.

It is clear from the stories I have outlined that postal services in rural areas are an absolute mess. Cards, serious medical appointments, fines, invoices and legal letters are being missed because the bare minimum standards are not being met in South Shropshire. I am not asking for anything new; I am asking that the minimum standard is met for my constituents.

It is all well and good saying that we are moving into the digital age, but only 40% of South Shropshire residents are on 5G, and 43% of homes do not have high-speed broadband. I can guarantee that those among the 40% and 43% are in the same areas, which are the remotest parts of the constituency that do not have connectivity, so they cannot get on the internet or on their phones to access services, and they are not getting their mail. They are completely excluded from the modern-day way of life, and that is not acceptable.

Physical letters do still matter, and many of my constituents are rightly angry, and actually livid, that Royal Mail has prioritised parcels over letters—I have documented evidence in many cases—to the detriment of my constituents. I look forward to hearing from the Minister what can be done to improve the delivery of letters in South Shropshire as urgently as possible.

Postal services in rural areas matter, and the residents of South Shropshire are rightly angry at the lack of good and functioning services in some of my area’s towns and villages. Rural areas are sick and tired of being ignored while urban areas are, at times, prioritised. The chipping away at rural areas is starting to hurt my constituents. We need to protect the post office network and hold Royal Mail to the standards that my constituents expect. Right now, it is just not good enough.

Businesses in Rural Areas

Adam Dance Excerpts

Wednesday 18th June 2025 Westminster Hall

[Adam Dance (Yeovil) (LD)]

There are over 3,400 fantastic businesses in Yeovil that provide amazing services for our communities, from big employers such as Screwfix and Leonardo to local businesses such as Ben Russell’s hairdressers or the Somerset Cheesecakery in Ilminster. Thanks to terrible Government Budgets, unfair trade deals and soaring energy prices, many businesses in Yeovil do not feel supported by central Government. This Government can change that.

I am sorry if this sounds like a list of local demands but, well, it basically is. The Government changes to national insurance are an unfair jobs tax. Let us get rid of that, and instead, reverse Conservative tax cuts for big banks, increase the digital services tax to 6% on social media giants and raise the remote gambling duty for online gambling companies.

Next is our family farms. Farmers deserve some actual support, because in Yeovil they have lost trust in this Government. To start, the family farm tax has to go, or at least be delayed until April ’27 as the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee suggests. We also need to strengthen the grocery code so it has some actual teeth to support farmers.

Finally, our high street businesses need banking hubs. I was happy to have secured a banking hub for Crewkerne, but, despite having the same needs, Chard and Ilminster were denied one because they had cash machines. They are not alone. Will the Government expand the criteria for approving banking hubs and commit to rolling out a few more than 350 banking hubs?

I could go on about funding for vital bus services, such as the No. 11 bus in Yeovil, and the need for better broadband, greater investment in apprenticeships, greater defence spending to support jobs in Yeovil and so on, but time is short, so I will just say that I hope the Government take on board my asks and those from hon. Members today, because then we might finally start to get a Government who help rural businesses thrive rather than getting in the way.

[Matt Western (in the Chair)]

Last, but certainly not least, I call Jim Shannon.

Closure of High Street Services: Rural Areas

Adam Dance Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2025 Westminster Hall

[Adam Dance (Yeovil) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Miss Furniss. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) for securing this vital debate.

As in many rural areas across the country, high-street services in my constituency of Yeovil have slowly vanished. That includes banks, businesses and pharmacies, as well as culture and leisure facilities. Many of the banks in my constituency have shut their doors. Lloyds bank has closed its branch in Ilminster, and is now closing its branch in Chard. Although we have managed to secure a banking hub for Crewkerne, Ilminster and Chard have been denied banking hubs, despite having the same needs as Crewkerne.

I urge the Government to reassess how appropriate LINK’s criteria for suggesting banking hubs are for rural communities. I still do not believe that travel times or rural geography are being properly considered. There also needs to be as much emphasis in LINK’s assessments on maintaining face-to-face services as there is on access to cash.

[Alison Hume]

On banking hubs, it has not come up in this debate that we are losing banking services that are open five days a week for a banking hub that, in the case of Whitby, is only open one day a week for a few hours. Does the hon. Member agree that that is a big reduction?

[Adam Dance]

I agree; it is a big reduction. Fortunately, in Crewkerne in my constituency, our banking hub will be open five days a week, but I agree that they need to be reassessed.

Beyond banks, many businesses on the high street in my constituency have had to close, such as Kazbar in Yeovil. The broken business rates system has been a significant driver of many of those closures. If we want to support businesses on rural high streets, we need a commercial landowner levy, which would tax only the land value of commercial sites.

Pharmacies also provide vital services to our high street. The 20 pharmacies in my constituency are at the heart of local healthcare but are under severe pressure. Across the country, an estimated 1,200 pharmacies have had to close over the last seven years. I hope that the Government reassure us today that, in their discussions on the 2025-26 funding contract, they will focus on reaching an agreement that exempts our pharmacies from the rise in employer national insurance contributions.

Finally, we must not forget the vital cultural services that our high streets can provide. I had the honour of opening Yeovil’s new amphitheatre at the Triangle, which creates a new public open space and focal point for events. We need more projects like that, but between 2010 and 2024 annual spending on culture and leisure services saw a real-terms fall of £2.3 billion. It is vital that local authorities receive more funding from the Government to support the arts and culture so that we can provide excellent culture projects to regenerate our high street.

In conclusion, the tide of closures on our high streets must be reversed. Our constituents deserve high streets that they can be proud of, and which provide services we need, not boarded-up shops.

[Several hon. Members rose—]