Rural Communities: Government Support
Gregory Stafford Excerpts(2 weeks, 5 days ago)
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Gregory Stafford (Farnham and Bordon) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I congratulate the hon. Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) on providing the opportunity to discuss the Government’s plans for supporting rural communities with the Minister directly. I take this opportunity to highlight the infrastructure challenges facing my community across Farnham, Bordon, Haslemere, Liphook and the surrounding villages. Those challenges have a significant impact on the daily lives of residents and businesses in our towns. It is crucial that the Government recognise the issues, particularly ongoing gaps in health, broadband, transport, banking and infrastructure. I hope that we can work together across the House to find sustainable solutions that will support my constituents.
At the very heart of our rural villages lies the village pub. Only half an hour or so ago, I spoke in the debate on the Employment Rights Bill—another blow to the pub industry, which will severely impact the hospitality sector. On my pub crawl across my constituency, publicans and landlords pleaded with me to change the Government’s red-tape strangulation of these low-profit, high social value organisations, which are core parts of the community. Perhaps it is because the Government cannot nationalise the pub that they have no understanding of its social impact.
Likewise, banking hubs are essential for my constituency. There is now only one bank and one building society for the whole of my constituency of over 100,000 people. While I welcome the banking hub in Haslemere and the one we will get in Whitehill and Bordon, that is simply not enough for people who need to access cash.
Health infrastructure within the ex-military town of Bordon in my constituency is a real problem. Despite having written to the Secretary of State about that, and especially about the Chase community hospital, on numerous occasions—most recently on 28 January— I still have not had a response from the Department.
On transport infrastructure for rural areas, I hope that the Government continue with the previous Government’s promise to upgrade Hickley’s Corner. I make a plea to the Minister to fund the Wrecclesham bypass in years to come.
I will close there, but I would be grateful if the Minister responded to this: while investment pours into urban areas, rural communities are left behind to battle the infrastructure challenges I have mentioned. Does he share my frustration, and what are the Government going to do about it?
Mental Health: Farming and Agricultural Communities
Gregory Stafford Excerpts(4 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Aphra Brandreth
I am grateful to the hon. Member for mentioning those excellent organisations; I will note others later in my speech.
For all those reasons, this debate and the actions and commitments from the Minister are important. Women are an often overlooked group when we talk about rural mental health, particularly young women. There are inspiring examples of women who run farms and contribute a great deal to the agricultural sector. Of course, women are almost always involved in a farming operation, even if they are not always hands-on in the yard or fields.
Gregory Stafford (Farnham and Bordon) (Con)
My hon. Friend is making a powerful point. When I visited Pierrepont farm in my constituency, which has just been taken over by a new young female farmer, she talked about the stresses and problems that she is facing. They do not just affect young women, however, but families too; Mathias & Son Nurseries in my constituency equally has those problems. The issue that my hon. Friend is talking about affects established family farms and the new younger generation, and the policies of the new Government are hitting both equally. Does she agree that we need to look after the new young female farmers as well as our established family farms?
Aphra Brandreth
Absolutely; we know that mental health issues have an impact on people across the community. It is not just the individual who is directly affected, but those around that person.
The RABI survey found that women aged 24 to 35 had the worst mental health scores across the sample, so I ask the Minister to think about how policy can address that and how we can raise awareness of the mental health challenges facing all those in farming and rural communities.
I stress that there are some wonderful organisations, locally and nationally, that work hard to support our rural and agricultural communities and to provide support for mental wellbeing. I mention again the RABI and the role it plays in supporting farmers, and others such as the Farming Community Network and the Yellow Wellies’ “Mind Your Head” project, which help farmers when they need it most.
Those organisations, as good as they are, are not the long-term solution, nor can they find and prevent every tragic occurrence and consequence of suicide in the rural community. Any good doctor would say that prevention is better than cure. The cause of a significant amount of stress for farmers, particularly recently, has been Government policy.