Businesses in Rural Areas

Alison Bennett Excerpts

Wednesday 18th June 2025 Westminster Hall

[Steff Aquarone]

I wholeheartedly agree. It is not just the reduction in social isolation and the improved access to healthcare, but the access to training and development, and the ability of customers to get to places to spend their money in the local economy, that make the case for improvement in public transport such a compelling one.

As I was saying, a large part of this situation is down to our transport struggles. The would-be apprentice in childcare I mentioned cannot get to the right place in Norwich at the right time. Training providers themselves struggle to recruit and retain the necessary staff and professionals to deliver consistent and wide-ranging vocational training offers.

I want to highlight the work of one of my constituents in trying to tackle these training and employment challenges head-on. Mitzi from Mundesley has set up a business that employs young local people to turn empty second homes into affordable rental properties. She currently has three such young people—Jake, Jeremy and Sandor—and they are getting practical skills and training in the construction industry while helping to deliver much-needed affordable homes for people just like them.

Community-centred entrepreneurs like Mitzi are not a rarity in rural areas. People start the businesses that their communities want and need, and they provide just as much, if not more, than they receive. However, rural entrepreneurs such as Mitzi, and business owners and managers across rural areas, also struggle with a lack of networks and experience, which are more easily clustered in urban settings. In the square mile of the City of London, there are 22,000 businesses; in the 360 square miles of North Norfolk, there are 5,000. There is a lack of easy networking, shared expertise and experience, and paths to mentorship and training, which are far more viable in an urban business setting, and yet we have no less ability to develop cutting-edge innovation, global leadership and breakaway sector success.

[Alison Bennett (Mid Sussex) (LD)]

I was very lucky last year, on the day after the general election was called, to celebrate my birthday at Albourne Estate, which is a vineyard that produces exceptional English wine. As those of us in areas such as Sussex look towards devolution, does my hon. Friend agree that it is vital that businesses like Albourne are given support through the incoming mayors, and that those mayors have the powers in areas such as transport, training and skills to deal with the issues that he is outlining?

[Steff Aquarone]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her intervention, and I am grateful to that business in her constituency for providing such a great product, which I have sampled. It is mostly breweries in North Norfolk, so I think I will be safe.

I totally agree with my hon. Friend: devolution is a great opportunity. Whatever people feel about devolution, the opportunity that it provides, both in transport and for economic growth leadership, is clear and we must embrace it. Devolution is happening, including in Norfolk and Suffolk, and she has outlined one of the things in favour of it.

Clean Tech East, which is in a business park that straddles my constituency and that of the hon. Member for North West Norfolk (James Wild), is one example of sector-led success, but it is also a great example of the support that is needed from Government, which is slightly different. In particular, we need Government to empower local leaders to take action.