Rural Economy

Earl of Courtown Excerpts

Thursday 3rd July 2014 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Courtown (Con)]

My Lords, I join other noble Lords in thanking my noble friend for instigating this important debate on this subject, which, if anything, we should have the opportunity to debate more frequently.

I realise that there is no intention, but sometimes those in the countryside feel let down by the urban majority. If we had had this debate 20 or 30 years ago, it would have concentrated largely on forestry and agriculture. Now, for example, where I live in a rural area of Gloucestershire, we have tourism, manufacturing, IT service industries, mineral extraction and even, in one of our old air bases, the breaking up and recycling of old airliners. This raises the question of whether the rural economy is any different from more urban or traditional manufacturing industrial areas. I would argue that, apart from the environmental capital and the stewardship of agricultural land by the farming community, there is very little difference.

Much has been covered by other noble Lords, so I will try not to repeat too much of what has already been said. We have spoken at some length about broadband. In the past, when we have debates on the economy or the rural economy, I always have asked local businesses what is at the top of their shopping list of what they require for a correct environment in which to make money. In the past 10 years, they have found borrowing difficult or unavailable. Finance has been the big problem. This has prevented investment in SMEs, the backbone of our economy. My right honourable friend the Chancellor’s economic plan is helping these SMEs to thrive. However, the difficulties with access to broadband cannot be underestimated. This morning, I read about a business in Somerset that sells cut flowers and uploads its photos on to the internet. The lady in question was up at 5 am today because it was the only time when she could upload these pictures. I know that supplying faster broadband is a priority for the Government, but where the infrastructure is outdated it will be some years before we gain from faster broadband. This is the key to many of the problems in rural areas. I do not think that there are any plans to renew our local telephone exchange, but I gather that that is one of the reasons why we have very poor broadband at home.

Also mentioned has been the factor of mobile phone coverage. Businesses operating anywhere these days must have mobile phone coverage. Why on earth can I get perfect mobile phone reception at the top of an Alp in Switzerland but if I am on the road between Cirencester and Lechlade, there is no coverage whatever?

The other important thing is logistics, and I have been looking at the transport situation. Where I live we are served well by two motorways and a pretty good train service but, in addition, there is a trans-European road network that stretches from the south of Spain to Ross-on-Wye. Apparently, there is only one two-mile stretch on the whole of that journey that does not have a dual carriageway, between a place called Nettleton Bottom and Birdlip. Here there are daily delays in traffic and, sadly, crashes and fatalities on many occasions. Can my noble friend the Minister update me on any plans for the building and construction of what is known locally as the “missing link”?

Another aspect that has been touched on is tourism and how important it is. It came to my attention earlier today that a family of wild beavers can now be found in Devon. I gather there are plans to move those beavers to an animal park. Surely it would be better to leave them to be examined and used for research in the wild, and to aid tourism in future.

I will finish now, but I look forward to hearing the responses of my noble friend the Minister.