Oral Answers to Questions

David Heath Excerpts

Wednesday 5th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

It is important to tackle the issue of food waste. A number of important debates on the issue have been held in this Chamber and in Westminster Hall. When it comes to helping people with weekly budgets, the most important thing is to make sure that we keep growing the economy, getting people back to work and creating jobs. Also, if we keep people’s taxes down, they will have more of their own money to spend as they choose.

[Mr David Heath (Somerton and Frome) (LD)]

Q7. Over the past few months in Somerset, we have had a deluge of press, media and film cameras, which has now ebbed and receded and is now barely a trickle, but the floods are still with us. This week, we will have produced the local strategy, which shows that long-term local management of the rivers cannot be met within the constraints of local government finance. Will the Prime Minister commit to me that whatever needs to be changed will be changed in order to give us sustainable management for the future?

[The Prime Minister]

I commend all the Somerset MPs for working together extremely well, bringing together the local agencies, including the Environment Agency, local councils, farmers and others to try to come up with the right long-term solution for the people of Somerset. I agree that the cameras and the press have now departed, but it is important that we do not take our eye off the important issue of draining the Somerset levels. I am getting regular reports, and I look forward to seeing the report from my hon. Friend and other colleagues about what needs to be done.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Heath Excerpts

Wednesday 4th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr David Heath (Somerton and Frome) (LD)]

Q7. The rural equivalent of waiting for Godot is waiting for high-speed broadband, but we had the really good news in Somerset this week that 82% of premises in my constituency will be connected by the end of 2016. The sad fact, however, is that more than 8,000 properties in the so-called last 10% will not be connected. Will my right hon. Friend now commit to deploying the funds set aside to finish the job? We do not want complex bidding systems or match funding, which will not exist; we just want the job done.

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

We are investing, as my hon. Friend knows, over £33 million already in extending the coverage of superfast broadband in Devon and Somerset, as part of the current rural broadband programme, and roll-out is finally accelerating. More than 10,000 premises are expected to be covered by the project by the end of the year and 74,000 by next July. On his point about the so-called final 10%, we announced back in June a quarter of a billion pounds of new money to extend superfast broadband coverage further by 2017. I hear what he says, and the plans will be set out in further detail shortly.