Energy Security

Anna Sabine Excerpts

Tuesday 19th May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Anna Sabine (Frome and East Somerset) (LD)]

One of the many challenges facing rural constituencies such as mine is the rising cost of fuel. When the war in Iran pushed up prices, I had constituents telling me they could no longer afford their planned orders of heating oil and would try to manage without heating for as long as they could. As we might expect, residents in Frome and East Somerset rely heavily on car use, and therefore fuel such as diesel and petrol, to access health services. I am very concerned about the lack of community input into decisions being made about health services, which disproportionately affect those in communities who have to drive or get the bus, or run patient transport services in rural areas.

The King’s Speech brings forward plans to abolish NHS England, but in my constituency of Frome and East Somerset, NHS Somerset has been running what it calls a test and learn exercise at Frome community hospital. For six months the number of beds was temporarily reduced from 24 to 16, and at the end of that period the test and learn was simply extended for another six months, meaning that for a full year capacity has been reduced and no full consultation with communities about these changes has been required. People are rightly concerned that a reduction in their local service will require them to travel further afield, the cost of which is rising.

I have serious concerns about whether the evidence provided so far is strong enough to justify making these changes permanent, and I am deeply troubled by how little the community has been involved in that conversation. I decided to do my own consultation, hosting a pop-up in Frome two weeks ago, and asking local people to tell us why the hospital was important for them. One constituent wrote, “I feel strongly that Frome Hospital provides so many services for local people. When I hear from elderly friends who have ended up with long stays in Bath, I find it incomprehensible that once they reach a certain stage of recovery they cannot be moved nearer home.” Another constituent said, “It is a shame we must lose beds. My friend was in Bath for five weeks, then had to go to Wincanton Hospital for another seven weeks as there were no beds in Frome, and this was so hard for her family, who live miles away.”

The people of Frome and its surrounding villages rely on their community hospital, yet they woke up one morning to find that a decision had, in effect, already been made to reduce its capacity, a decision that means some of the most vulnerable members of our community will not have a bed in a local community hospital setting if they are discharged from our general hospital in Bath. For an elderly person, for a carer managing on their own or for those without access to a car, the risk of being placed in a community hospital somewhere else in Somerset is a serious barrier to suitable care. A lack of public transport and increasing fuel costs place a huge additional stress on families and carers.

Two weeks ago, I was pleased to meet the Minister for Care to discuss the Government’s plan for neighbourhood health centres, a policy I broadly welcome and one that I believe could genuinely benefit parts of my constituency. In the meeting, the Minister was explicit that our integrated care board was required to consult local MPs and other stakeholders on their plans for the new health centres. Not only has our ICB not been in touch, but when we followed up with them ourselves, we were told two things: first, they had no idea they were expected to engage with MPs on this matter; and secondly, they had already decided where the hubs would go, without consulting anyone else. In both the cases I have set out, there seems to be a lack of mechanism to force ICBs or trusts to consult local people and a total lack of sanction if they fail to do so.

People who live in Frome and the surrounding villages are the experts in their own lives, and they have helpful, constructive and innovative ideas to input into decision making around the future of local health services. The Government are also overseeing the removal of Healthwatch and the Citizens’ Senate, two additional bodies that centre patients’ voices at the heart of discussions about their care. I am worried that without those bodies being replaced or without mechanisms in place to ensure good consultation, communities risk being entirely unheard in decisions that will, for some, affect their daily lives. I hope Ministers will co-ordinate with colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Transport and elsewhere to ensure that people in Frome and East Somerset can get the health services they need in the places they need them and in an affordable way.

Oral Answers to Questions

Anna Sabine Excerpts

Tuesday 14th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Victoria Collins (Harpenden and Berkhamsted) (LD)]

21. What steps he is taking to reduce energy bills.

[Anna Sabine (Frome and East Somerset) (LD)]

22. What steps he is taking to reduce energy bills.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Martin McCluskey)]

The Government believe that our mission to deliver clean power by 2030 is the best way to break our dependence on global fossil fuel markets and protect bill payers permanently. We recognise that we need to support households struggling with bills while we transition to clean power. That is why we are expanding the warm home discount to around an additional 2.7 million households.

--- Later in debate ---

[Martin McCluskey]

We are currently consulting on extending the warm home discount beyond 2026. I would encourage the hon. Lady to look at that consultation and feed back her views. The warm homes plan is the route to some of the actions that she has outlined and we will be publishing it before the end of the year.

[Anna Sabine]

In my constituency of Frome and East Somerset, approximately 10% of households use oil central heating, compared with 5% nationally. Given the high volatility of oil prices, that places my constituents in a particularly difficult position as we approach the winter months. Will the Minister confirm what measures will be taken to ensure that homes that are reliant on oil heating can be heated more affordably, so that my constituents do not have to suffer unnecessarily?

[Martin McCluskey]

Since I became a Minister four weeks ago, I have received a lot of correspondence on this issue and I am looking at it closely. We have consulted on the issue and, hopefully, we will be publishing the results of that consultation before the end of the month.

Great British Energy Bill

Anna Sabine Excerpts

2nd reading
Thursday 5th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Anna Sabine (Frome and East Somerset) (LD)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thank the hon. Member for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock (Elaine Stewart) for her speech, particularly what she said about women in politics and smashing the glass ceiling. All the maiden speeches today have been fantastic, but in particular I mention that of the hon. Member for Stroud (Dr Opher), because he talked about developing vaccines for cancer. That was rather poignant for me, because while I have been in the Chamber I have learned that a good friend of mine has died of bowel cancer, which she had had for many years. I pay tribute to her and her young family.

The Great British Energy Bill is particularly important to the residents of Frome and East Somerset, many of whom, especially in more rural areas, live in fuel poverty. Frome and East Somerset is a wholly new constituency created by the recent boundary review, which means I have the very great privilege of being its first ever MP. Frome has a reputation as a cultural and arts hub for the south-west, home to the Cheese & Grain, the Mark Bruce Dance Company and the renowned Frome Independent market. It also has the dubious honour, I am told, of being the most mispronounced town in the UK. Given the number of mispronunciations of my own surname, Sabine, clearly my constituents were looking for someone who sympathises with their linguistic challenge. For the House’s information, it is definitely “Froom” not “Froam”.

I do not think my constituents would mind my describing Frome as feisty. The town is free spirited and forward thinking, often pioneering new ways of doing things, whether having a proudly independent town council, starting the UK’s first community fridge or sharing best practice on social prescribing in GP surgeries. Frome is awash with local groups doing incredible work for the environment, such as Friends of the River Frome and Frome Families for the Future, with which I have already had the pleasure of working. I look forward to championing their causes throughout my time in this place.

Until July, Frome was represented by my hon. Friend the Member for Glastonbury and Somerton (Sarah Dyke), and I hope to be able to emulate her energy and enthusiasm in serving this very special place. The East Somerset half of my constituency comprises the settlements of Midsomer Norton, Radstock and Peasedown St John. These areas have a proud coalmining history dating back to the 1700s. They also share a fantastic sense of community, some wonderful local schools, and plenty of walks and open countryside to enjoy. Midsomer Norton is also home to a section of the Somerset and Dorset railway, with one mile of track running from Midsomer to Chilcompton. My late father was both an ardent Lib Dem and a massive steam train enthusiast, so I think he would have been delighted to see his new MP daughter being given a tour of the railway by the trust’s wonderful volunteers during its 150th birthday celebrations this summer.

Until July, East Somerset was represented by Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg. I know from my time in the constituency the high regard in which he and his team were held by local people, particularly when it came to responding to and resolving casework. That commitment to supporting local residents, shown by both Sir Jacob and my hon. Friend the Member for Glastonbury and Somerton, is one I aim to emulate.

Dotted throughout the constituency are a whole host of other villages, hamlets and communities, many with farming and rural traditions at their heart and with a real sense of community spirit. If I have made it sound like my constituency comprises three distinct parts, then hon. Members should know that they are linked by many factors, such as a proud industrial heritage, a sense of community spirit and, of course, a love of Somerset cider. However, there are constituency-wide issues, which I will work hard to resolve, such as a lack of access to dentists, serious challenges around safety on our A roads, and a need for better bus services to help link up all the different settlements. I moved to Somerset over 20 years ago and intend to spend my time in this place working hard on the issues I know matter to the people in Frome and East Somerset.

Finally, let me say a word on my journey to Parliament. I am technically not the first member of my family to be found on the parliamentary estate. My great, great aunt, Helen Fraser, was a Scottish suffragist and her picture is part of the display on the wall in the admissions office. In 1922, she was the first woman to stand for Parliament in Scotland—of course she stood for the Liberal party—but sadly she did not make it to the Chamber herself.

I attended a state comprehensive school in Hampshire, where I grew up with my mum and brother. I won a county music scholarship that enabled me to join my amazing local youth orchestra and have a whole range of experiences I would not otherwise have been able to take part in. I managed to secure a place at Oxford University and I can well remember feeling like a fish out of water when I arrived there, absolutely bemused by its architecture and traditions, and often wondering if Oxford was really a place for someone like me. Fast forward 26 years and many of those emotions welled up again as I wandered around the parliamentary estate and grappled with the intricacies of its systems and procedures. As a single mum now myself, I am acutely aware that many of the ways in which this place works were not designed with parenting in mind, and they do not always feel accessible to many of us—although I should mention that I am grateful for all the support, as I am sure all new Members are, from the extraordinarily kind and helpful House staff.

Part of the reason I stood for Parliament was to give my wonderful children some faith in our political system and to show them that anyone can be an MP. I am absolutely determined that in my time here I will always have one eye on ensuring that the young people of Frome and East Somerset are not made to feel that anywhere is out of their reach. I want young people from all backgrounds in my constituency to know that the great institutions of this country, be they our universities, our scientific bodies, our civil service, our orchestras or indeed this place, are institutions where they are not only able to participate, but are actively welcomed.