Rural Communities: Government Support
Ian Roome Excerpts(3 weeks ago)
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Ian Roome (North Devon) (LD)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) for securing the debate.
My constituency covers nearly 1,100 sq km, which raises some unique challenges for rural services that will be familiar to many hon. Members. The most pressing of those challenges is equal access to local health services, due not just to geography, but to an ageing population; more than a quarter of residents are over 65. My constituents, and many in neighbouring constituencies across Devon and Cornwall, must travel some distance to the remotest acute hospital in mainland England: North Devon district hospital.
That pattern can be seen across the UK: 97% of urban households live within 8 km of a hospital, but only 55% of rural households can say the same. Astonishingly, 98% of the urban population also live within 4 km of an NHS dentist, compared with just 57% of rural residents. Government figures from November suggest that there are 460 more people per dentist in rural areas than in urban areas.
After the removal of the rural services delivery grant, North Devon council highlighted to me the fact that pockets of intense deprivation in the poorest rural and coastal communities can easily be lost in Government statistics for wider areas. According to Government statistics on rural England published last month, when talking about the roll-out of gigabit broadband, Ofcom and DEFRA even use different definitions of “rural” and “urban”, defining rural areas as settlements of under 2,000 or under 10,000 people respectively. By those measures, I have either two urban centres in my constituency, or nine, depending on whose maths I use.
We need a reliable picture of just how isolated some people in rural and coastal communities are and how much support they need. Will the Minister tell us what the Government are doing to ensure that publicly funded support for rural areas is targeted effectively, especially in pockets of deprivation?
Storm Bert
Ian Roome Excerpts(4 months, 1 week ago)
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Ian Roome (North Devon) (LD)
I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Will the Secretary of State join me in thanking firefighters from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, who have attended over 420 water incidents during Storm Bert, including many across my constituency in North Devon? Does he agree that community resilience for severe weather incidents should be a statutory duty in England, with accompanying Government funding, as it is in the devolved nations?
Steve Reed
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments and I share his gratitude to those in the Devon and Somerset emergency services who are keeping people safe at this very difficult time. We will look, with colleagues in the Home Office, at whether further duties are required to ensure that communities are safe when circumstances like this happen.