Rural Affairs

David Taylor Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[David Taylor (Hemel Hempstead) (Lab)]

It gives me enormous pride to be stood before you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and to make my maiden speech as Hemel Hempstead’s MP. I pay tribute to my hon. Friends the Members for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury) and for Stirling and Strathallan (Chris Kane). I know Stirling well through my involvement in the Make Poverty History campaign; it is a very beautiful place.

I am grateful to make my maiden speech in the presence of the Secretary of State, who was generous with his time in my constituency during the election. I am humble enough to accept, however, that the primary reason for his presence was usually the fact that his mother resides in Hemel Hempstead and is a member of the local party.

In this debate about rural affairs, I want to start by paying tribute to the beautiful countryside that surrounds our town, and to the villages that are part of the constituency following the changes to the boundaries at the last election. From St Lawrence’s church in Bovingdon, where I was this morning to mark Armistice Day, to Chipperfield cricket club and the Green Dragon pub in Flaunden, we are blessed with many picture postcard scenes—and my dog, Albert, is particularly fond of chasing squirrels on Chipperfield common.

Turning to Hemel itself, the old town is so picturesque that one local council official jokingly referred to it as Hemelwood, such is its popularity as a filming location for local TV and movies. We were once home to the site of a major Roman villa on the River Gade, which supposedly had the biggest Roman bath outside Bath itself.

When Hemel town council was amalgamated into a new district council, exactly 50 years ago this year, the then Labour leader of the council, Gordon Gaddes, who is still a stalwart in our community even though he is now in his 90s, chose an old Latin name for the council—Dacorum, which means “of the Dacians”, referencing a period in Saxon times when Danish law applied due to the presence of the Vikings. We also have a long-standing connection to Henry VIII, who in 1539 granted the town its market charter. Because of him, the mighty Hemel Hempstead Town FC are nicknamed the Tudors.

Like many others, my family’s connections to the area come from the creation of the new town after the second world war. This new town was one of Labour’s finest achievements, providing families with decent housing, good-quality factory jobs, education and healthcare. From Chaulden where my dad grew up to Highfield where my mum did, and Adeyfield where my nan lives now, council housing surrounded a square with amenities such as shops, a community centre, a place of worship, a GP surgery and schools. I therefore welcome our new Government’s commitment to build genuinely affordable housing and new council homes, while also ensuring that the right infrastructure accompanies them. As we seek to build new towns around the UK, I would be happy to show Ministers the virtues of our ingenious, and often misunderstood, magic roundabout.

I pay tribute to my predecessor, Sir Mike Penning. It was not just our community that he served with loyalty, but this nation: Sir Mike was a distinguished Grenadier Guardsman in the British Army and subsequently served as a firefighter in Essex. In his maiden speech he said that when he left this House he wanted to be known as a good constituency MP. He certainly was, doggedly taking up his constituents’ individual cases when they needed him.

I also pay tribute to our two previous Labour MPs: Tony McWalter, who was kind enough to take me under his wing when I was a member of the UK Youth Parliament, and Lord Corbett. Sadly, I never had the opportunity to meet Robin, but I know from my friendship with his widow, Lady Val, that he was a wonderful, warm and kind man who served his constituents with compassion.

That leads me to the points that I will prioritise as I serve the people of Hemel Hempstead. First, I will strive to improve local healthcare, including by pushing for a new community hospital. In line with this Government’s commitment to neighbourhood-based care, and enjoying the support of the local NHS trust, the local council and my predecessor Sir Mike, I will push hard for the project to advance in the most ambitious way possible, as well as ensuring that access to GPs and dentists improves.

I will make sure that children in Hemel Hempstead, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities, get the best possible education. The SEND situation, not only in Hertfordshire but in Dacorum itself, is particularly bad; the issue came up repeatedly when I was talking to voters as a candidate, and it is at the top of my postbag now as an MP. At one of my most recent surgeries one parent, Natasha, told me that her son Alfie had been diagnosed with autism aged five, yet he has been repeatedly refused an education, health and care plan and has been waiting for a specialist appointment for almost two years. Sadly, her story is one that Members of this House will know all too well. I am glad the issue is an area of priority for our new Government, and I will continue to work on it on a cross-party basis as a member of the all-party parliamentary group on SEND.

I will also prioritise combating crime. Recent stats show that Hemel was the one of the worst towns in Hertfordshire for antisocial behaviour—indeed, it was the worst major town—while vehicle crime is at 105% of the national crime rate. I have seen that at first hand when I have had the opportunity to go out with local bobbies on the beat. I will work hard to make our community safer, whether by getting more police officers in our town or by working to reopen the front desk at Hemel police station.

I know that the cost of living crisis is hurting people locally. Food bank use has gone up 1,000% in the past 10 years in my constituency. I applaud the work that local charities such as DENS, Community Action Dacorum and Hemel Hempstead Community Fridge are doing to help. I am doing everything I can to stand alongside them, but I also pledge to push for better decisions to be made here in Westminster to ensure that food banks do not need to exist at all.

In concluding his maiden speech, Sir Mike paid tribute to the person who brought him into politics, the late Sir Teddy Taylor—no relation; it is a common name—and it is only fitting that I do the same. After taking part in the UK Youth Parliament, I thought long and hard about which great cause I wanted to focus my time and energy on. I got involved with the Make Poverty History campaign; I still have the wristband around my wrist. I attended a rally exactly 20 years ago outside the Labour conference, where I heard the then Chancellor Gordon Brown speak in thunderous terms of our duty to help those less fortunate than ourselves. A few years later, I had the enormous privilege of working for him, with my newly elected hon. Friend the Member for Midlothian (Kirsty McNeill). Many within these walls and beyond will recognise his—and her—unrelenting dedication and drive to improve the lives of others, which inspires me to this day.

Finally, I add my name to those who have paid tribute to Jo Cox in their maiden speech. With the Labour Campaign for International Development, and now as a member of the International Development Committee, I remain committed to taking forward her legacy, particularly on the responsibility to protect civilians, which is so urgent everywhere from Ukraine to Syria to Sudan.

As Gordon said on the eve of the poll back in July, we have a choice in the UK and around the world: to succumb to pessimism or to embrace hopefulness and remember that, in Jo’s words,

“we are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us.”—[Official Report, 3 June 2015; Vol. 596, c. 675.]

I will do my utmost, as long as I have the honour of representing the people of Hemel Hempstead, to push for a more hopeful future in our community, our country and our world.

[Several hon. Members rose—]