Huw Irranca-Davies
Main Page: Huw Irranca-Davies (Labour - Ogmore)Department Debates - View all Huw Irranca-Davies's debates with the Leader of the House
(9 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Hague
Steps to promote independent retail were debated in Westminster Hall last year, but my hon. Friend raises the wider issue of supermarkets, and the grocery market is obviously undergoing a great deal of structural change. A further debate would allow the Government to give further details of our support for high streets and market towns—for instance, the £2.3 million that we are providing for the 27 Portas pilots and 330 town teams across England, the £10 million high street innovation fund, and our work on business improvement districts—so it could indeed be very beneficial.
Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)
Today, in Nottingham, Rural Community Action Nottinghamshire will celebrate 90 years of partnership work in rural communities, and celebrations will continue throughout the country this year. Much of that work depends on rural community councils, and much of their own work depends on advice, support and funding from the rural community network organisation Action with Communities in Rural England, or ACRE. However, ACRE has been informed out of the blue, with no notice, that its funding will be discontinued from this March, and the decision may be made by Ministers behind closed doors as early as next week.
Will the Leader of the House urge the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs—who is in China at the moment—or other Ministers in the Department to provide the House with a full impact assessment before any such decision is made, and to make a statement to the House? A decision that could cause as many as a third of rural community councils to shut up shop and a further third to restrict their activities should not be made behind closed doors.