Rural Communities

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Tuesday 15th October 2024 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what are their priorities for rural communities over the next two years.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords, I am delighted to have this opportunity to debate such an important subject and am deeply grateful to have secured this Question for Short Debate. I declare my interests as honorary president of National Energy Action, honorary associate of the British Veterinary Association, and honorary vice-president of the Association of Drainage Authorities; I also work with the Dispensing Doctors’ Association. I look forward to all contributions this evening, but especially the maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord Elliott.

Rural communities face many challenges and are of a different nature from urban communities, yet in policy terms they are frequently overlooked. While the 2024 Labour manifesto did not specifically mention rural communities, many of the commitments it did include may damage them. There is a desperate need to support farming and other businesses in rural areas with better broadband and mobile connectivity. A lack of public transport in rural areas means that young people are unable to access jobs, while older people find access to hospitals and healthcare challenging for the same reason. The £2 bus fare has helped, but will the Government keep this? There is inadequate public transport in rural areas, but I see no point in devolving more powers to local communities and leadership for bus and other local transport provision if there are no additional resources to meet the new responsibilities.

Planning rules and guidance go some way to protecting rural communities—for example, the ban on building on flood plains and areas prone to flooding. However, rural communities are often used for the convenience of urban communities, with energy being a good example. Too often, energy is generated at sea or on land far away from where it is to be consumed. That energy then traverses rural communities, which are blighted by pylons, without gaining any of the benefits such far-flung, sparsely populated communities long for in often cooler climes with poorly insulated houses and residents on low incomes. It transpires from a Government-sponsored study that it can be cheaper to transfer electricity underground rather than through unsightly, environmentally unfriendly overhead-line transmission. Power lines should be placed underground, or alternatively, electricity generated from renewables should serve those closest to the source of the power generated.

Turning to public services, these are often more costly to deliver in rural than urban areas. Hospitals and GP surgeries can be difficult to access. Every increase in fuel duty affects the ambulance service. There is poor broadband mobile connectivity, meaning that dispensing doctors and rural GPs are unable to issue electronic prescriptions. There are inequalities of healthcare between urban and rural areas which need to be addressed. One hopes that the follow-up to the Darzi review will tackle these.

Rural communities have a desperate need for a smaller, affordable one-bedroom or two-bedroom homes, yet the Government are planning to build 300,000 houses a year, many in areas of water stress and on flood plains and mostly with four or five bedrooms. This will not address the shortage of affordable homes in rural areas but will create problems of increased sewage and houses with five or five times the amount of sewage coming out into inadequate water pipes which, when mixing with floodwater in combined sewers, will enter the sea and rivers.

Farming lies at the heart of the rural economy, yet farmers face great uncertainty. Farmers have a role to play in creating better self-sufficiency, energy and food security, generating power through renewables on their land, and they would like to sell into the national grid. In terms of storing floodwater on farmland, as we heard last week, farmers perform a public good, which should be recognised—along with other public goods that they perform—through the environmental land management schemes. Yet there is an underspend in Defra. I have seen one figure of £138 million and one of £350 million. There is also mounting concern over the forthcoming Budget, not least on the implications of inheritance tax for farms. The Government must give certainty and clarity to farmers by spending the moneys committed to farming in full and setting an increased multiannual agriculture budget for the duration of this Parliament.

To boost food security and self-sufficiency, we must consume more home-produced food and fewer substandard food imports from third countries. It would be very helpful to have an update on the land-use framework, the National Planning Policy Framework and planning policy guidance, to reflect farming being the primary role of the countryside. While environmental benefits sit comfortably with best farm practice, the mass development of solar panels, tree planting, carbon offsetting and housebuilding on Britain’s most productive and fertile land does not make good sense. In the Budget on 30 October, will the Government commit to reviewing the agricultural property relief in a compassionate way, to ensure that it remains available to those landlords prepared to let for the longest terms—10 years or more—to give tenant farmers greater security? When farmers do well, rural communities and market towns flourish.

Racing also plays a major role in rural communities. North Yorkshire plays host to racecourses at Ripon, my former constituency Thirsk, York, Wetherby and Doncaster, jewels in the crown of 54 courses dotted around the UK. Overall, racing is the second-largest spectator sport in Britain, yet it has experienced significant economic challenges recently, from the pandemic to inflationary pressures of the cost of living crisis. I urge the Government to consider ways to encourage racing, which supports 85,000 jobs across mostly small and medium-sized businesses and is a major employer in many areas, including my own former constituencies, the Vale of York, then Thirsk and Malton, providing career opportunities for young people as well as an outlet for leisure, hospitality and tourism.

The role of vets in rural communities is crucial. The veterinary profession is an integral part of the agricultural and food sector, working collaboratively with others to protect animals, people and the environment they share. Vets working across the meat sector underpin the economy, providing value to the £9.1 billion domestic meat industry and the £2.1 billion meat export trade. The vet/farmer relationship is an integral part of any farming team at every stage, from farm to fork, and facilitating trade too. Vets have a health and welfare role to play, not least at auction marts such as that at Thirsk, as well as on the farm.

A strong working relationship across the whole farming team is vital, yet an ongoing issue facing the veterinary sector in rural areas is the veterinary workforce shortage, which I hope that the Minister and the Government will address. The number of qualified vets joining the profession decreased when we left the European Union and it is felt that the new salary threshold will exacerbate the UK veterinary workforce shortage.

I welcome the Minister to her place as the rural communities Minister and ask her to value rural communities, to use the forthcoming spending review to restore the balance in spending in rural areas and to ensure a fairer spend on public services such as health, transport, housing and energy. That will give farmers—the largest sector in the rural economy—certainty and clarity of policy going forward, and ensure that all farmers can prosper and survive, whether they are arable farmers, livestock farmers, tenant farmers, owner-occupier farmers, family farms or larger farms.

Will the Government take the opportunity to create an energy policy that works for everyone, whether living north or south, in an urban or a rural community? I know that, in replying, the Minister will say that her hands are tied by both the forthcoming Budget and the spending review. However, the opportunity must not be lost to ensure a vibrant future for farming, for racing, for market towns and for auction marts, where everybody in rural as well as urban communities can prosper throughout the length and breadth of the land.