Public Services: Rural Areas

Chris Bloore Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Chris Bloore (Redditch) (Lab)]

Quite often, I do not know how to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee) and his thorough remarks. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North Northumberland (David Smith) on securing the debate. I have known him for only a short time, but I know how dedicated he is to his rural constituency and how passionately he feels about these issues. I listened to his four points and the interventions.

I am very fortunate. The Boundary Commission has changed my constituency many times, but it has not changed the names of the many villages that it encompasses: Astwood Bank, Inkberrow, Harvington and Norton. Most people think of Redditch as a very urban area with some significant deprivation and economic challenges, but the challenges and the deprivation in the rural parts are often forgotten. We hear the old adage, “Don’t go knocking on those doors. They are wealthy in those areas; they have no problems.” However, some of the biggest problems in my casework folder come from rural areas where there are no transport links and no access to dental treatment or healthcare. My constituency also faces some of the most significant challenges in relation to truancy and, I have said, transport links.

This debate has provided an excellent opportunity for us to focus on issues affecting rural communities, but I ask the Minister, as the Government move forward, to ensure that we take on the challenges in areas that are deemed to be affluent but actually face some of the biggest social and economic challenges in our constituencies.