Rural Affairs

Caroline Nokes Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[John Lamont (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (Con)]

It is a privilege to follow the maiden speech of the new hon. Member for Stirling and Strathallan (Chris Kane). I am sure he will make a significant contribution to this place, and as a fellow Scot I wish him well.

I am lucky to represent the Scottish Borders, the place I call home. We have wonderful towns in the borders, but it is one of the most rural constituencies in the whole United Kingdom. There is a strong sense of community spirit among local people, but there is also a deep and growing concern that the Governments in Edinburgh and London do not get what is important to our communities. There is a widening disconnect between people and politicians, and a growing feeling that the needs and concerns of rural areas are not important to Scotland’s two Governments.

For 17 years, rural areas in Scotland have been overlooked, and even ignored, by the SNP Government, who do not understand what is important to our communities—an SNP Government who are distracted and focused on their own selfish and often divisive obsessions. They spend time on fringe issues, such as gender reform, that do not matter to the everyday lives of people in the borders. With a new Government in London, local people are now feeling the same way about Labour. Labour clearly does not value rural areas and does not care about farmers or listen to our communities. The Labour Government are bad news for the borders and for rural areas across Scotland and the United Kingdom.

Let us look at what the Labour Government are already doing to rural communities. In their first Budget they changed inheritance tax, and business and agricultural property relief, despite warnings of the impact on rural areas. Their family farm tax will rip apart rural businesses and prevent farmers from passing on the family farm to the next generation. It is cruel, bitter and divisive. It is also the opposite of what Labour said it would do—another broken promise from the Labour Government.

Let us listen to what Labour said before the election. The Secretary of State said in December 2023 that the Labour party had no plans to change inheritance tax, including agricultural property relief, so it is shameful that he now claims to be proud of Labour’s family farm tax. He was not the only one to make that pledge. The Prime Minister, the Chancellor, the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, repeatedly promised not to raise taxes on working people, but that is exactly what they have done.

I have news for Labour: farmers are working people. In fact, they are some of the hardest-working people of any industry. They get up before dawn and put in a hard shift every single day of the week, 365 days of the year. Labour should be ashamed of raising tax on farmers and preventing them from passing on the family farm. This shameful betrayal will not be forgotten by rural areas or in my borders constituency.

Let me share with the Labour party what local farmers are saying, because it is clearly not listening. I recently spoke to Colin and Jill McGregor of McGregor Farms near Coldstream, who said:

“The autumn Budget that Labour broadcast last week will affect every family farming business across the country. We have been digesting the details over the last couple of days and can see a substantial financial impact on our farming business. The Government seems to have no idea of the costs involved in agriculture. The tax that would have to be paid on death will cripple many family farms, with a huge proportion having to sell land to pay the tax and breaking up family businesses that have been working the land for many generations.”

Labour does not seem to care about the damage it is doing to farming.

Farming is not just a job but a way of life. We cannot overlook the immense contribution that our farmers and food producers make towards the rural economy and protecting our natural environment. They supply supermarkets and local shops, provide for housing in our towns and villages, invest in infrastructure, create jobs, employ workers, and much more. It is crucial that the Government take the right steps and measures to protect the industry and ensure its longevity for many years to come.

Labour and the SNP must provide certainty and stability to our farmers. If they do not, farmers and landowners will no longer invest or provide those important services. We should not forget: no farmers means no food. Labour’s family farm tax will not just break up family farms, but limit food production, damage our food security and drive up the cost of our weekly food shop in supermarkets. Labour must drop the tax and keep its word to farmers.

But that is not all: Labour must start listening to rural areas. As it stands, Labour’s plans will do great damage to local transport plans. Labour has announced plans to drop the dualling of the A1 road, which is a vital transport link for my constituency in the Scottish Borders and for cross-border connections between Scotland and the rest of the UK, and it has halted progress on the borders railway, which is crucial for commuters and anyone looking to get around in the borders. How is the borders economy supposed to grow, and how are businesses supposed to create jobs, when Labour is cutting investment in our communities?

I will always stand up for rural areas, especially those in the Scottish Borders. It would be nice if, just once, the Labour party did the same.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

I call David Taylor to make his maiden speech.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. Members will be conscious that lots of speakers wish to contribute this evening. After the next speaker there will be a six-minute limit, which may need to be reduced in due course.

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[Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)]

I refer to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

Can Members imagine what it is like for someone to not be able to see, hearing water flooding into their home, not knowing where it is coming from, fearing how deep it might get, with no idea where the next escape route might be in the house? Can they imagine being a child who has previously become homeless due to flooding and lost their most treasured possessions, for whom just hearing a raindrop outside triggers their post-traumatic stress disorder and nightmares? Can they imagine being a farmer whose entire crop is lost to the impact of flooding? Can they imagine being a carer for a child on dialysis, knowing that when it rains they could soon be dealing with pumping out contaminated water from their own home while their child is having treatment?

For many, these situations are not unimaginable; it is their reality. That is not a surprise when flooding is the most recorded natural disaster on this planet. In 2023, 176 flood disasters were recorded across the world, a similar number to the year before, both of which are significantly higher than the average of 86 recorded in the 1990s.

One third of our planet is prone to flooding, and over five million people here in the UK live or work in flood-risk areas. Flooding is also a huge economic problem, as we have heard today. According to work by the Risky Cities project, Arup and other partners, the single biggest shock or stress that can affect the economy of 60% of the Rockefeller Foundation 100 resilient cities across the world is flooding. However, it is not just too much water; we are increasingly seeing the impact of too little water, or drought, and too dirty water, or pollution, impacting our rural and urban communities.

Water knows no boundaries, whether geographical, political or topographical. That is particularly challenging in countries such as ours where we have tried to make sense of the natural world and environment by creating frameworks and therefore putting boundaries in place. Water is complex. In many parts of the country, we could walk a kilometre alongside a watercourse and anywhere along that stretch someone might be impacted by flooding. The same water can pass along a river managed by the Environment Agency, into a culverted area managed by the local authority, through a farmer’s field with riparian ownership, back to the EA, into an internal drainage board-maintained ditch, through a water company pumping station, back to a sustainable urban drainage pond managed by the local authority, and so on. In that short stretch between here and Westminster bridge, we could have several hand-offs and handovers of that ownership of an asset by half a dozen authorities.

To be frank, if we ask any of my residents who I visited recently in Westwoodside in Axholme, a rural area, or the River Idle Flood Action Group in Bawtry, they will tell us that they do not care who owns the water, they just want that water out of their homes, out of their gardens, and out of their business premises. In fact, they do not want it even to get to the stage where it comes in in the first place.

The same water management principle applies to cleanliness, whether water is impacted from diffuse sources like the run-off from land, combined sewer overflows, trade waste, septic tanks or misconnections. The ammonia, E. coli, enterococci, nitrates and metals that impact our ditches, dykes, rivers and oceans come from many sources owned by many individuals and organisations. We all have a massive part to play in cleaning up watercourses, and the fact remains that we need to manage water across the whole catchment; that requires system thinking and it requires our rural communities.

A catchment approach is imperative in managing water across the whole water cycle and in leadership, both role model and visionary. Role model leadership involves acting now. We have seen how this Government have focused and taken swift action through the Water (Special Measures) Bill, which will start to tackle part of the challenge, setting up the flood taskforce, providing £60 million in the Budget for flood-related work with the agricultural community, and the biggest agricultural budget in history for sustainable farming.

Visionary leadership involves looking at long-term planning for resilience to flooding through adaptation and mitigation. It is the kind of vision that considers innovation through sustainable urban drainage and nature-based solutions, working with the land to create flood adaptation while improving soil effectiveness, reducing carbon and finding new commercial opportunities. I have seen examples that deliver a combination of these things, like farmers in Yorkshire planting pop-up rainforests. That visionary leadership should also consider education, new skills, behaviour change towards partnering and close working across all agencies. It is because of all the above that I welcome the Government’s action regarding the independent water commission, which will be the largest review of the sector since privatisation.

Nobody knows the land better than those who manage it, so I urge the Minister to continue to work closely with our landowners. Nobody is more passionate about the environment than our younger generations, so I urge the Minister to continue to work well with our Education Department around Skills England and the new opportunities for our rural areas. Nobody has more passion locally than our communities, who want to see improvements on their doorsteps. So may I finally urge our Minister to consider how to best work and co-create with our community groups—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. I call the Chair of the Select Committee.

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[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

I congratulate the hon. Members who made their maiden speeches earlier. I thought they were all excellent, although I obviously take issue with anyone who does not think that North Shropshire is the best place to be an MP. North Shropshire is very rural and is inhabited by some of the best people you will ever meet. I like to spend my Saturdays and Friday afternoons knocking on their doors and asking them what they think. What they think is that they were taken for granted by the previous Government for many, many years, but I fear they are concerned the new Government are about to repeat that trick. I strongly urge them not to.

Farming is the backbone of the economy in places like North Shropshire. Whether farming arable land or dairy herds, people have had an incredibly challenging time, not just because of the phasing out of the basic payment scheme and the botched transition to the sustainable farming incentive, but because farmers with breeding herds trying to export to Europe have been badly let down by the botched Brexit deal. There is no timetable on the horizon for a phytosanitary agreement to resolve that issue; I urge the Government to act at pace to resolve it for farmers who need to export abroad.

The changes to the inheritance tax threshold have been very badly communicated to farmers. According to the Government’s figures, 288 farms in North Shropshire will be affected. Many of the farmers have been in touch with me, and they are extremely concerned, because they need more support not higher tax. If those farmers are wrong, I think the Government need to accept that their communication with them needs to be a great deal better, because at present they are very concerned. I urge the Government not to adopt a high-handed tone but to listen to and engage with them.

Farmers are also concerned because of flooding. They have had an extremely challenging time, with 18 months of continuous wet weather. Many in my constituency who lost a whole field or a larger area last year are still unable to re-till following an appalling October, but in Shropshire we have not been eligible for either the farming recovery fund or the frequently flooded allowance, although many of my constituents are underwater, reliably, every single year. I therefore urge the Government, when they look at flood defence spending, to consider those who are being clobbered by the weather year in, year out but have so far been ineligible to receive the support that they need to recover.

I also urge the Government to think about how the sustainable farming incentive might be used to encourage farmers to hold water upstream. An hon. Member—I apologise for forgetting which one—mentioned reservoirs; I urge the Government to consider building that issue into their plans, so that water can be managed effectively for the farmers who have had such an appalling time over the last 18 months.

Healthcare is problematic in rural areas. Because ours are not big university hospitals, it is difficult to attract staff to come and work in them—they are not necessarily looking at a glittering career investigating all sorts of exciting conditions—which means our health services are much worse than those elsewhere in the country. When I was elected, the problem of ambulance waiting times was the top issue that people raised on the doorstep, and it remains awful. October was the third worst month on record for handover delays at West Midlands ambulance service. Last week one of my constituents had to wait 24 hours in pain on a plastic chair before being diagnosed with heart difficulties. Every month over 2,000 patients spend more than 12 hours in the A&E departments of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.

We must address the important issue of the recruitment and retention of health staff in rural areas. Obviously, the Budget has raised the question of how healthcare providers will handle the increased NICs. That is probably an issue for a separate debate, but I urge those in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to liaise with their colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care and discuss how we can get staff into rural areas and ensure that people have the same outcomes as those in the rest of the country, because at present they are being poorly served.

People need to have access to healthcare, as well as education and work opportunities, but transport is a huge problem, and that is killing off the high street. According to the jobcentre in Oswestry, the single biggest issue is the inability of workers to get back into work because public transport is so poor that they cannot access a place of work. Shropshire has lost 63% of its bus miles since 2015, while the national average is 19%. That will give Members some idea of how difficult it is for us. In the Budget, the Government did not mention public transport investment in rural areas. I strongly urge the Minister to address that with his colleagues and, in particular, to consider really good schemes such as the Oswestry-Gobowen railway line, and the desperate public transport desert that is Market Drayton.

I have very little time, so I will just say this. The Government must make sure that the shared rural network is delivered and is effective, but if it is not, they must ensure that people can roam between networks. Local councils must be fairly funded so that the cost of delivering services over a vast area is reflected in the funding settlements that they receive. When it comes to healthcare, transport and digital services, rural areas are struggling, and we must have—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

We will go down to a five-minute time limit after the next speaker. I call Graham Leadbitter.

Farming and Food Security

Caroline Nokes Excerpts

Tuesday 8th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Gilmour (Tiverton and Minehead) (LD)]

As the first ever female director of the National Farmers Union in 100 years, I think I can speak with some credibility here. I represent Tiverton and Minehead, which includes the Quantocks and Exmoor. I have to say, you have some chutzpah—my farmers tell me that you sold them down the river. I say to Government Members that we need to work together on this, because our lot on the Liberal Democrat Benches know more about farming than they do.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. I remind hon. Members that if they use the word “you”, it means me.

[Steve Barclay]

I would never suggest such things of you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I could not quite spot the hon. Lady’s question—it seemed to be more of a statement. I am sure that farmers in Tiverton, as well as those around the country, want to know why the £50 million that was allocated in May has not been given out. The Lib Dems may not care about that money, but Conservative Members want that support for farmers.

Secondly, the £75 million of support for internal drainage boards needs to be deployed in full and without delay. Thirdly, the £220 million allocated for technology and productivity schemes needs to be honoured in full. Fourthly, the Government need to confirm there will be no cuts to the farming budget—an issue that is causing so much concern—so that we do not lose the £2.6 million that has been allocated for this year. Fifthly, we need a commitment from the Government that they will keep the farm to fork summit in Downing Street, they will have the food security index and they will appoint a tenant farming commissioner.

Looking further ahead, the Government must do more to give farmers confidence. That means ruling out the removal or reduction of the agricultural property relief, better protecting farmland from schemes for solar and pylons, and ensuring that food production is central to the land use framework. Only by doing those things can they show that they are backing our farmers and protecting food security, but sadly I fear an urbancentric Government simply will not do that, not least with a Labour Secretary of State who is currently getting pushed around by his Cabinet colleagues. It is only this Conservative team who are, and will be, a voice for rural businesses, rural communities and our rural way of life, with improved farming production at its very heart.

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[Ann Davies (Caerfyrddin) (PC)]

As a dairy farmer and a tenant farmer, I perhaps have unique experience in this matter. Obviously I am Welsh as well, and I realise that agricultural policy is devolved to Wales. This issue involves the aftermath of Brexit. Under the EU common agricultural policy, Wales received around 9.5% of the total UK CAP budget, which was based on our rural lifestyle in Wales and farming criteria such as the size, number and nature of farms. If allocations are calculated using the Barnett formula and population figures instead, we would have only 5.6% of the total agricultural budget.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. Can I remind the hon. Lady that interventions need to be short?

[Ann Davies]

Sorry—I am very new and I apologise. Can the Secretary of State guarantee that Wales will not miss out on any increases in the UK funding settlement for agriculture and rural development due to the reduced allocation?

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[Steve Reed]

I will finish my speech, if Members do not mind.

That is why this Government will do what the previous Government failed to achieve, despite repeated promises. We will publish a land use framework, providing more clarity and starting a conversation on land use and how we can maintain food production, restore nature and grow the economy.

Farmers do a fantastic job for our country. They produce the food we eat and steward our beautiful countryside, and they deserve our support, but the previous Government let them down. Our new deal for farming will offer farmers a fresh start—action to cut energy bills, action on rural crime, action to open markets to trade and export, and action to cut the appalling levels of mental ill health that affect farmers right across our country. I welcome this debate and the chance to restate this Government’s support for farmers. After 14 years of failure, change has begun.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

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[Rachel Taylor (North Warwickshire and Bedworth) (Lab)]

The suicide rate among male farmers is three times the national average. The Conservative party left rural communities such as mine facing a mental health crisis. A close family friend of mine, Rocky Poulson, took his own life just four days after a farm inspection found that 18 of his sheep were tagged with the wrong coloured ear tags, leaving him facing criminal sanctions and the embarrassment of that among his friends and colleagues—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. May I respectfully suggest to the hon. Lady, and all Members—she should be sitting if I am standing—that interventions should be short, they should be spontaneous, and they certainly should not be read out as if they were part of a speech. I am sure the hon. Lady has made her point.

[Tim Farron]

She really has, and I completely sympathise with her and those around her over the loss of her friend.

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[Tim Farron]

Yes.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. Before the hon. Gentleman resumes his remarks, I point out that the Front Benchers have used about 20 minutes each. I am sure that he is coming to a close.

[Tim Farron]

I have been generous in giving way, and you have been even more generous, Madam Deputy Speaker. A minute and I am done. I agree with the hon. Member for Carlisle (Ms Minns).

The Conservatives’ betrayal will rightly weigh around their neck for a generation—farmers have long memories—but if Labour bakes the Conservatives’ failure into its spending plans, it will hang out to dry not only Britain’s farmers, but its newly elected Members of Parliament. Rural communities need champions; Liberal Democrats will be those champions. We will make a conscious choice to step into the void; that is what rural communities need. We will be the voice for farmers, and for the whole of our countryside. We value our farmers; every day, on their job list is feeding the country and saving the planet. What a mission! It is our duty and our privilege to support them in that mission.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Before I call the next speaker, I should say that the Front-Bench speakers have used up a significant amount of time, aided and abetted, I have to say, by excessively long interventions, some of which were made by Members who did not hang around long in the Chamber after making them. It is a courtesy to the Chair, and to the Front-Bench speakers, that Members who wish to contribute to a debate be here for the start of it. Those who were not here then will not get called, because we have very little time left. I call John Whitby to make his maiden speech.

Food Security

Caroline Nokes Excerpts

Tuesday 30th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sir John Hayes]

I do not make a habit of saying kind things about Liberals of any description, but I am going to say something quite kind to the hon. Gentleman because he is right to draw attention to that code. When I was a Minister in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, as it was, I was instrumental in arguing the case for the Groceries Code Adjudicator. I met the first adjudicator and brought the second, the current incumbent, to my constituency to meet a group of farmers and growers during the last Parliament. The hon. Gentleman is right about the strength of that role, which just proves something that not everyone here will know: even Liberal Democrats sometimes get it right.

In summary, I believe that now is the time for food security. Now is the time, building on the last Government’s beginning—it was a belated beginning—to make food security a central tenet of the new Government’s priorities. I know the Minister enjoyed good relations with farmers and growers during his period as a shadow Minister—that has been reported to me by my constituents and others—and he will have heard this argument made by them, and not only by us representatives in this place. It is really of vital importance, in the national interest and for the common good that we no longer allow our valuable agricultural land to be used for all kinds of other purposes, and so compromise this country’s food security, making us more dependent on imports, more vulnerable, increasing emissions, increasing food miles and damaging local economies. That is not the way forward. Let us make food security matter.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

I call the Minister.

Flood Defences: West Worcestershire

Caroline Nokes Excerpts

Wednesday 24th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Dame Harriett Baldwin]

I have given way once already to the hon. Lady. I am going to allow the Minister to use the remaining time to respond.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

I call the Minister, Emma Hardy.

Planning, the Green Belt and Rural Affairs

Caroline Nokes Excerpts

Friday 19th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Nokes (Romsey and Southampton North) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Hexham (Joe Morris). I thank him for his full tribute to his predecessor, Guy Opperman, who was loved on both sides of the House.

Very early in my political career, in 1999, when I was first elected as a councillor, my dad told me that nothing in politics is quite as vexed as the politics of the southern area planning committee of Test Valley borough council. He was right, but I reassure the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who is responding to this debate, that the council has already modernised its planning committee. It has already taken great strides and, until the nitrate issue in the Solent hit us, it was one of the councils delivering the highest number of houses in the country, but it has faced challenges. I welcome the announcement on compulsory purchase orders and the changes that might come, but we need detail. I seek reassurance that the detail will come and will give real powers to local authorities, because Test Valley borough council has faced a challenge since 1982, when the Romsey brewery started its last brew. I was at school at the local primary school and I remember the smell well.

That brewery site has an extant planning permission that has not been built out in the last 40 years. It is a phenomenal shame to the town that every time the local council has tried to put place in a successful compulsory purchase order, the developer has simply started work on one more unit of accommodation to delay that from happening. Given the part of the country that you are from, Mr Deputy Speaker, you may be familiar with Stanborough Developments, the company that brings that curse to Romsey. Its actions mean that we have a brownfield site in the middle of the town, with extant planning permission for a project that has never been finished, and that could be providing homes for local people.

I vividly remember a Westminster Hall debate on this subject back in 2019, brought forward by my former right hon. Friend the Member for Guildford, the great Anne Milton. That was the first occasion on which I had the dubious honour of trying to both chair and speak in a debate. Alex Cunningham, the former Member for Stockton North, said that the Labour party would bring forward “penalties” for this sort of developer. I appreciate that it will require retrospective legislation, but I seek reassurance that the Labour Government will make good on the promises made by Mr Cunningham about extant planning permissions, and that we will see developers like Stanborough suitably punished.

I reassure colleagues that I will not bang on about green belt this afternoon, for the good reason that there is no green belt in Hampshire, save for a tiny corner in the very south-west, designed, as you will know, Mr Deputy Speaker, to prevent the spread of the urban conurbation of Bournemouth, which is in an entirely different county. We would love some green belt, but we simply do not have any. What we do have is an area that is under extreme water stress.

We cannot take our foot off the brakes on building without also considering where the drinking water will come from. The Abbotswood development in my constituency frequently has to have water delivered by tankers because Southern Water repeatedly fails in its duty to provide water. It is not exclusively to blame, because although water companies can be consulted on development, they have no right to say no to it. They have no ability to say, “We simply cannot deliver water to this development.” In areas like the Solent, the situation will become increasingly challenging. I saw in the pages of the Daily Mail that the expectation is that southern Hampshire will take an enormous amount of development under this Government’s plans. It cannot do that if those homes cannot have a water supply.

[Mr Richard Holden (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend talks about the need for proper infrastructure alongside developments. In my Basildon and Billericay constituency, around Burstead, Billericay and Laindon, there is a lot of concern about huge infrastructure going in without local consent. Do her constituents face that issue as well?

[Caroline Nokes]

Absolutely. Infrastructure is key to making new developments work, but we need to take communities along with us, and to work hand in hand with them.

In the debate, we have heard about villages up and down the country; they are the heart of our rural communities. Many villages in Romsey and Southampton North have worked incredibly hard to get their neighbourhood development plans in place, and held local referendums to confirm them, but now they are scared that that work will go to waste. Yet again, I seek reassurance from the Minister that that work will be upheld and cherished, because it will give us the scale and type of communities that we wish to see. When local people have been involved in the process, the Government should not turn around and tell them that their views are now irrelevant, and that a development will be imposed on them anyway.

In the minute I have left, I wish to make a couple of further points. Over the last 48 hours, a number of issues have popped into my inbox. First and foremost, there is still a problem with the quality of new builds. When houses are thrown up at speed, people are sometimes left with significant build quality problems. One gentleman emailed me yesterday saying that he had to spend £350,000—fortunately, he had insurance covering that amount—to rectify the developer’s problems. In my constituency, we have sometimes seen houses torn down because the build quality was not good enough. Let us ensure that we do not see a repeat of that.

While we are talking about new-build estates, can we solve the issue of estate management companies ripping off homeowners and not bringing estates up to the quality needed if the estate is to be adopted? [Interruption.] I can see that the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice (Emma Hardy), is taking that on her shoulders. She should believe me. I will be beating a path to her door, because there is much that still needs to be done to ensure that the housing that is delivered is of good enough quality for people to live in.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Sir Christopher Chope)]

I call Elsie Blundell to make her maiden speech.

Water Company Performance

Caroline Nokes Excerpts

Tuesday 21st February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Nokes (Romsey and Southampton North) (Con)]

(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on what measures can be deployed to ensure water companies are performing adequately.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Rebecca Pow)]

First, I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Romsey and Southampton North (Caroline Nokes) for bringing the matter of ensuring that water companies are performing adequately before this House. I think we all agree that this is an incredibly important and serious issue. I have been clear that water companies’ current performance is totally unacceptable and that they must act urgently to improve to meet Government and customer expectations. The British people expect better and so do this Government.

We have committed to deliver clean and plentiful water, as set out in the environmental improvement plan, and we have set out clearly how water companies must deliver that. First, our strategic policy statement to Ofwat, the water company regulator, sets out four clear priorities for water companies to protect and enhance the environment, deliver a resilient water sector, serve and protect consumers, and use markets to deliver for our customers.

Secondly, we have set new duties, through the Environment Act 2021, on water companies to monitor their overflows and set new legally binding targets to restore our precious water bodies to their natural state by cracking down on harmful pollution from sewers and abandoned mines, and improving water usage and households.

Thirdly, the storm overflow reduction plan, launched back in the summer, requires the largest investment programme in water company history and builds on the existing statutory duties. Water companies already have a statutory duty to provide a supply of wholesome water under the Water Industry Act 1991 and associated water quality regulations. They must ensure the continuation of their water distribution functions during an emergency.

I will begin by addressing my right hon. Friend’s concerns, because she has been in touch. I appreciate the lengths to which she has gone to hold her own water company to account, particularly over the supply interruptions experienced by Southern Water’s customers following multiple emergency incidents back in December 2022. A more recent incident last week led to approximately 15,000 Southern Water customers being off supply for an extended period, as she will know. Although some supply interruptions cannot be avoided, the repeated failure to properly ensure customers’ continued water supply is totally unacceptable. I will be meeting with Southern Water’s chief executive officer to understand how it plans to address its failings.

The Government and their regulators hold water companies to account in a number of ways, particularly through transparent reporting and performance. As the economic regulator for the water industry, Ofwat tracks performance against performance commitments, which are set at the start of the funding cycle.

The current performance commitments were set for the cycle from 2020 to 2024 and include pollution incidents, treatment works compliance and supply interruptions. Ofwat assesses performance against each of those metrics annually and ranks the companies in the water company performance report according to whether the metrics have been achieved. It reported that five water companies were extremely poor. The Secretary of State and I met them to hold them to account and to make it clear that we need further progress—

[Rebecca Pow]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I want to be clear that where water and sewage companies are found to be breaking the law, there will be substantial penalties. We have increased all our measures on those penalties, and we are looking at whether we will go ahead with the £250-million cap that has been proposed. We will be consulting on that shortly.

[Caroline Nokes]

Water companies’ performance is not just about finances and Ofwat must not just be an economic regulator. It is about customer satisfaction, consistent supply, treating waste water, investment in networks, and making sure that our constituents have a clean drinking water supply all the time. In addition to compensation, customers need there to be better ways to hold water companies to account for significant outages, such as the three that we have seen in southern Hampshire in just five months, each of which lasted for days.

There is the ignominy of being in the Ofwat category of “lagging behind”, but that does not seem to have improved Southern Water or Thames Water, which have been in that category for two years running—shame does not appear to be effective. There are poor customer satisfaction ratings, but what do they change? There is a requirement to produce an action plan and targeted improvement plans, but by when, and what are the penalties for not delivering on them?

My constituents have gone without water to wash with, to drink, to cook with and to flush the loo with for days on end, with poor and in some instances misleading communications and without access to bottled water stations in my constituency. The only one was accessible on foot only, but water is really heavy to carry. They want significant fines for failure to supply, in the same way that there are significant fines for pollution. They want a requirement for emergency and back-up supplies to be available when parts of the network go down. Is it acceptable that if one part of the Otterbourne water supply works in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Winchester (Steve Brine) is out of action, there is no provision to bypass the problem and continue supply?

Ofwat has said that it will push the “lagging behind” companies, but how hard, and what is the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs doing to make sure that that happens? What is the penalty for not delivering on improvement plans? Last year, only 68% of the forecast improvement moneys were spent. At what point will DEFRA step in and recognise that the current situation is not working for the companies, the regulator or the poor customer?

We heard last week that there were plans to “water down” excessive fines, but a record £90 million was levied on Southern Water a few years ago, and that was not enough to convey the message. Rather than fines, can we therefore ensure that money is levied to force investment in the network, because current performance suggests that, so far, it simply has not worked?

[Rebecca Pow]

I thank my right hon. Friend for reiterating the situation that we have just witnessed with Southern Water, which was completely and utterly unacceptable, particularly following the incidents in December. I have communicated with the chief executive and I am asking again for an urgent meeting as a result of the situation last week.

My right hon. Friend raises some pertinent points about holding water companies to account. She knows that there is a system whereby water can be credited back to the billpayers, and I urge that that will be looked at and followed up. She also asked about the action plans for different companies. The Secretary of State and I had the five worst-performing water companies in before Christmas to talk about their failures, including leakages. We are taking swift action against them: they all have to produce an updated action plan to say what they are doing.

We have done a great deal to ensure that there is enforcement, which is critical, because everybody wants water companies to be held to account for what they do. The Environment Agency already has powers to issue unlimited fines through the criminal courts, but that can take a long time, as my right hon. Friend knows. It also needs data, but because of all the monitoring that the Government are doing, we are getting more of that, so we will be able to take more enforcement action. DEFRA is currently consulting on plans to raise the cap on fines and to make it quicker and easier to issue fines when we know things are not working correctly.

Kennels and Catteries: Economic and Social Contribution

Caroline Nokes Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Sara Britcliffe]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. Craig and Claire have done astounding work with councils across the country, lobbying on behalf of all their members.

We see a discrepancy in how councils have awarded discretionary funding. Grants in Hyndburn, for example, have been different from others across the country, which can range from thousands of pounds to hundreds of pounds.

The industry has a huge number of regulations on everything from licensing and welfare to safety and staffing, yet there is no accurate number of businesses in the industry as they pay their licensing fees to local councils, and the bulk of councils do not collate that information correctly or at all. All councils are meant to have an accurate, up-to-date list of licensed animal boarding establishments available to the general public. However, the UK Alliance’s research suggests that 75% of councils either do not have that or they have information that is incorrect or out of date. I spoke to constituents today who explained that, when they were given a grant by a local council, it called a cattery in someone else’s patch and a lady who had not had her cattery for 49 years was still on the council’s list. That goes to show the issue that we have.

We need to focus on the industry’s place within the wider economy—it clearly needs to be part of travel and tourism. It is also important to consider how it is regulated and where it sits in relation to oversight and regulation. We must ensure that councils are giving it the support that it needs and that support is consistent across councils.

My constituents have specific issues and asks of the Government that they have asked me to set out. First, there is no standard industrial classification code for animal boarding establishments. I am told that, at present, the nearest code is 01.62/1, which is farm animal boarding and care—except pets. The UK Alliance proposes that we follow the USA’s SIC and create a new subcategory under section A called “animal services, except veterinary” and include the following: animal shelters; boarding horses; boarding catteries; boarding kennels; boarding of other animals; home boarding dogs; home boarding cats; home boarding of other animals; breeding of animals—

[Caroline Nokes (Romsey and Southampton North) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Sara Britcliffe]

I give way.

[Caroline Nokes]

My hon. Friend is clearly setting out the complexities of the industry—I will refer to it as an industry. Does she agree that businesses such as the Longcroft Luxury Cat Hotel in my constituency want certainty and that, whether they are dealing with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the local council or their tax affairs, everything should be codified in one place so that they can understand what they are entitled to and what is available to them?

Back British Farming Day

Caroline Nokes Excerpts

Wednesday 15th September 2021 Westminster Hall

[Caroline Nokes (in the Chair)]

Before we begin, I encourage Members to wear masks when they are not speaking, in line with current Government and House of Commons Commission guidance. Please also give each other and members of staff space when seated and when entering and leaving the room. I call Theo Clarke to move the motion.

[Theo Clarke (Stafford) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered Back British Farming Day and the future of domestic agriculture.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Nokes. As co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for fruit, vegetables and horticulture, I am delighted to have secured this debate. I met my Staffordshire farmers last Friday, and having spoken to the National Farmers Union at the Staffordshire County Show last month, I am very conscious of the circumstances that farmers currently face while trying to feed our nation.

The debate could not be more timely. It should be clear from the sea of wheatsheaf pin badges, displayed on many colleagues’ lapels, that today is Back British Farming Day—a day to celebrate all that our farmers do to produce high-quality, nutritious and delicious food while also caring for our environment and maintaining our iconic British landscapes.

Fruit and vegetables are the staple of our diets, and we all know how important it is for our health and wellbeing to eat our five a day, so I read to my dismay that as a country we are only 16% self-sufficient in fruit and 54% self-sufficient in fresh vegetables. The coronavirus pandemic has reminded us all of the importance of good, sustainable, local food supply chains. My constituents in Stafford have definitely become more interested in buying products close to home. It goes without saying that there are always going to be some types of fruit and vegetables that we will not be able to grow in this country, simply because we do not have the right climate. Of course, we can all enjoy bananas and citrus fruits from other countries, but we should aim to produce much more of the fruit and vegetables that are good at growing here.

Last year, I sat on the Agriculture Bill Committee, where we scrutinised that very important legislation line by line. The Bill advocated the importance of food security, which is why I backed that landmark Government legislation.

--- Later in debate ---

[Theo Clarke]

I would like to make some progress in my speech, if that is okay, because I know that many colleagues are waiting to speak.

That story, I am afraid, was replicated for growers from across the country, including Dearnsdale Fruit in Staffordshire, which I heard from as co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for fruit, vegetables and horticulture when we hosted a roundtable on seasonal workers earlier this year. Access to labour is absolutely critical for ensuring the sector has the labour it needs. When it comes to perishable crops, such as strawberries, it is right that we have the workers that are needed at that moment. I commend the Government on the seasonal workers pilot scheme, which they expanded last year to 30,000 visas. It was a lifeline for many businesses and I thank the Minister for the role she played in getting the scheme set up.

Many colleagues would agree with me that there is uncertainty about the scheme. We need to know what it will look like in the future, so that farms can plan ahead. I urge the Minister to work with her colleagues at the Home Office to come up with a solution.

I move on to the environmental schemes in Stafford. I am a member of the Conservative environment network and am very supportive of the Government’s environmental agenda, particularly ahead of COP26 in Glasgow this year. Flooding is an all-too-frequent phenomenon in my Stafford constituency. I welcome that the new legislation works to incentivise farms and landowners to implement measures that will improve our environment and reduce the incidence of floodwaters entering people’s homes.

Part of the Agriculture Act 2020 is the environmental land management scheme, which is currently going through various trials in Staffordshire. I was dismayed to hear last week that some of my local NFU members are considering dropping out of the scheme. My constituency is predominantly made up of small farms. The farmers have told me that they find the costs associated with being part of the scheme prohibitive.

At this point, having talked a lot about fruit and vegetables, I should also say I wholeheartedly support our dairy and red meat sector. From correspondence with constituents and talking to them at the Staffordshire county show in the summer, I appreciate that bovine TB remains a highly emotive topic. I urge the Minister to work with DEFRA to come up with a long-term solution that means the lives of many animals will be saved in years to come, and that ensures my farmers’ livestock will be protected.

Last week I heard some pretty distressing stories about mental health from my farmers—the mental health of those living in rural areas is a subject I feel very strongly about. As a new MP, I set up the Stafford mental health network and we hold regular mental health roundtables. I am very pleased that my farming community is represented on that by one of their NFU members.

My farmers are concerned about the devastating impact of High Speed 2 on their farms and our rural areas. I want to share one shocking story. I heard last week that two farmers have been so severely affected by dealing with HS2 that they have had their shotguns removed, for their own safety, due to a mental breakdown because of not receiving compensation. To be frank, my constituents have been treated with absolute contempt by HS2. No one asked for their farms and villages to be cut in half by the proposed line. They feel they are being treated like an inconvenience. They have had land taken away and have not yet even had payment for it. Others are stuck in protracted negotiations.

It is fair that constituents should be paid the market value for their land or business, and I do not think that is something they have yet received. If HS2 has lessons for any of us, it is that compensation and right of access laws must be tightened to ensure a level playing field. It is a very practical example of where more action is needed to back British farmers.

I want to talk about increasing the volume of British food in public sector food procurement, which is a major opportunity to showcase British food’s high standards and environmental credentials to everyone. I was very pleased to sponsor the Food Labelling (Environmental Sustainability) Bill promoted by my right hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling). It would have required food manufacturers to better label their products to indicate the environmental sustainability of their origins, which would help consumers make more informed choices about the sustainability of the products they buy.

Supermarkets play a vital role in our local food supply chain and they have a very important role in ensuring consumers have the ability to make informed choices about the food they purchase. I have a policy idea to suggest to the Minister. All supermarkets should have what I am calling “an aisle for the British Isles”. Britain has some of the highest food standards in the world. I think the public want to buy food from British farmers. A recent survey said that 80% of respondents supported the increased procurement of British food in schools, hospitals and Government agencies. I totally agree.

The main reason people shop in supermarkets is for convenience. Would it not be a great idea for the consumer to know there was a whole aisle where everything in it was from the British Isles? There could be a local section or shelf for products from Staffordshire. I hope colleagues will support my idea of an aisle for the British Isles and that the Minister will commit to backing this concept, which would improve the situation for British farmers.

To conclude, although today is Back British Farming Day, I believe it is essential to back British farmers 365 days a year. To do that we need to deliver policies, not just in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs but across Government, that work for our farmers who go out in all weathers every single day to ensure that we are fed as a nation. Let us not take that for granted.

[Caroline Nokes (in the Chair)]

It will not surprise Members to hear that I am going to call the Front-Bench spokesmen from 10.28 am. Many of you are standing and I do not wish to impose a formal time limit, but I may have to, unless you are all capable of doing the maths for yourselves. I will start with Kerry McCarthy.

--- Later in debate ---

[Derek Thomas]

I welcome that intervention, but that is a slightly different issue because that work is—it is often 12-month work, and the resettlement status and various other things can help with that.

I talk unapologetically about the need in Cornwall, but we need people to be able to come and harvest the crops, which as my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth mentioned includes daffodils. The Home Office can help farmers by agreeing to our demands to continue access to seasonable agricultural workers next year and by addressing the urgent need facing Cornish MPs, particularly my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth, the DEFRA Secretary—it might be awkward for him—and myself. The truth is that we will be driving to London next January, February and March staring at fields covered in beautiful yellow flowers. I appreciate the view, as will anyone who comes to Cornwall on holiday, but as my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth said, £100 million-worth of daffodils are picked in Cornwall—we provide 86% and the UK provides 95% of the world’s daffodils—and to see those flowers sitting in the fields for us to enjoy is not fair on those in London and elsewhere who should also be enjoying them. It is also not fair on HMRC.

There is an urgent need to secure a workforce to harvest our daffodils. SAWS is limited, as we know, to edible crops. My ask, and that of my colleagues and Cornish daffodil growers, who produce almost 80% of the nation’s daffodils, is to simply extend the SAWS pilot to include daffodils. That would extend the visa to nine months, rather than six, to cover January to April and would include the harvesting of non-edible crops. If the Home Office is really concerned, it could just specify daffodils. We would be happy with that.

I have not heard any local dissent regarding the fact that citizens from overseas work in west Cornwall and on Scilly. If the Home Office is concerned about immigration numbers—I do not believe that this is not immigration, but seasonal agricultural work to meet a demand—the scheme to keep the 30,000 workers for nine months would suit its desire. This year we needed a further 1,000 daffodil pickers. The Home Office believes that a workforce is here in the UK, but my daffodil producers tested that. They increased pay, advertised widely and locally, and increased the hours available to work. Despite that, we lost 20% of our daffodils, and 274 million stems were left in the ground.

This is an urgent issue. I have spoken to the Prime Minister, the Chief Whip, DEFRA, a Home Office Minister and the Home Secretary about it. When I spoke to the Home Office Minister, he said that we need to demonstrate that the work is not poorly paid with poor accommodation. In fact, the producers increased the money to attract the pickers. The average hourly wage was £12.08. Some were earning £1,000 a week, and each year the accommodation is inspected by the migrant workers officer. Daffodil growers have rightly improved pay and conditions because they know they will lose their pickers to perhaps much more enjoyable work such as—dare I say it?—strawberry picking. It is amazing that strawberries in the sunshine are being left in the ground when it is so much easier to pick a strawberry than a daffodil.

I will leave it there, but this is a devastatingly important issue. I will finish with a quote from Churchill for the Home Office to hear. At the height of the second world war when ornamentals were not allowed to be picked, he said:

“These people must be enabled to grow their flowers and send them to London— they cheer us up…in these dark days”.

Let us do what we can to protect an industry that does so much to cheer up the nation.

[Caroline Nokes (in the Chair)]

I still intend to call the Front-Benchers from 10.28 am. Danny Kruger is next.

Oral Answers to Questions

Caroline Nokes Excerpts

Thursday 4th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[George Eustice]

As I said, we have seen, through the trade and co-operation agreement, a significant increase in quotas—25%, worth some £146 million. As we have left the single market and the customs union, there are some new administrative processes in place. That was challenging for the fishing sector during January, which is why we opened a fund to support it. Looking to the long term, however, we have regained control of regulations in our waters, which enables us to do conservation measures on places such as the Dogger Bank that were never possible as an EU country. It has also enabled us to ban pulse trawling in our waters. These are all things that could not be done while we were shackled to the common fisheries policy.

[Caroline Nokes (Romsey and Southampton North) (Con) [V]]

I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests stating that I am a trustee of World Horse Welfare. We have heard from my right hon. Friend this morning that lorryloads of fish are clearing the border in less than an hour, but Olympian Richard Davison tells me that horses that are used for dressage are taking between four and 10 hours to clear the border at Calais because of the requirement for equine health certificates. Please will the Minister tell me what the Government are doing to make sure that there is not a looming animal welfare crisis as temperatures increase and grand prix horses are left standing in lorries for hours on end? [R]

Pet Theft

Caroline Nokes Excerpts

Monday 19th October 2020 Westminster Hall

[Caroline Nokes (Romsey and Southampton North) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson. I add my congratulations to my hon. Friend the Member for Ipswich (Tom Hunt) on opening the debate and raising many of the points I would have made had I had the opportunity to make a long speech—people will be relieved that I do not.

Over the last few days I have been contacted by many of my constituents, asking me to speak in the debate. Interestingly, the vast majority of those emails came from Wherwell, one of the smallest villages in Test Valley. It struck me as being slightly odd that such a disproportionate number came from one place, but there is a very good reason for that. Although we have heard many heart-breaking stories—of Trigger; of Ruby and Beetle—I would like to add the story of one more dog: a small cocker spaniel called Cleo.

Cleo was four years old when she was taken from her owner, Mr Rudd-Clarke, an 85-year-old gentleman who lives in Wherwell. I hope that he does not mind me mentioning that he is 85. I told him I was going to speak this afternoon, but I did not tell him that I was going to say how old he was. Both Mr Rudd-Clarke and his wife very much enjoyed the company of Cleo. She was the dog that got them out of the house to exercise in the fresh air in Hampshire—interestingly, one of the most dog-friendly counties in the country. She has been their constant companion since she was a puppy, and she is a gorgeous blue roan—perhaps one of the prettiest dogs I have ever seen.

I have seen Cleo because she has her own Facebook page, and on pretty much every telegraph pole and tree in the village of Wherwell is a picture of Cleo. Her owners had done the right thing: they had ensured that she was microchipped, and that the chip was registered to their current address; she was spayed and she wore a collar with her name and address on at all times. None the less, Cleo went missing on 16 September on her routine walk. She is believed to have been stolen because she simply vanished without trace, despite the villagers of Wherwell going out with drones and thermal imaging cameras, and making appeals for dashcam footage. An entire community has pulled together to try to find this dog, and we are all making her disappearance as well known as we can, in the hope of making her too hot to handle.

Cleo was the sort of dog that came to a whistle. I really admire anybody who can make a cocker spaniel come to a whistle; I have certainly failed in my attempts with my beloved dog, Alfie. The assumption of those in the village, of the owner and of the police is that Cleo was stolen, and the charity DogLost concurs. What a wicked and despicable crime—to take a companion from an elderly gentleman. She was company, she was exercise and she was part of the family, and she had been spayed, so her monetary value was much less because of course she could not be used for breeding purposes.

We have heard this afternoon that stealing a pet is no different in law from stealing any inanimate object, but pets are not inanimate and the trauma of losing one is horrific. There needs to be a decoupling of sentencing from the animal’s value. I know that the Minister will tell us that dog theft is already a crime under the Theft Act 1968, carrying a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment, but of course that sort of sentence is very rarely handed down. I do not want to dwell on the reasons why a dog might be stolen—other Members have alluded to them—but they are horrific. Stolen dogs do not end up in the arms of a family that is going to love them in the same way that the one they have been ripped from does.

My hon. Friend is a good Minister, who cares passionately about this issue, and I know that she has the power to do something today. She can give us a steer that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will seek to amend the Theft Act, which is over 50 years old, and bring it into line with how 21st-century Britain, and the village of Wherwell, feel about their pets.

[Mr Laurence Robertson (in the Chair)]

With thanks to the next speaker for covering the first part of this sitting, I call Sir David Amess.