Rural Communities

Julian Smith Excerpts

Wednesday 7th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sir Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

Madam Deputy Speaker, as a Bradford MP you know how sparse North Yorkshire is. It has the largest rural road network in England, and it has historically had special funding for rural schools. Almost all employment comes from small businesses and hospitality.

Huge efforts were made by the last Government to save businesses and agricultural areas during covid through the bounce back loan scheme and other loans, but covid hit in the context of existing long-term pressures, with farming undervalued, village shops closing, rural schools consolidating or federating, post offices going and churches shutting. In spite of that, communities worked hard, both to fight those trends and to continue to maintain the fabric of their local societies through coffee mornings, clubs and support for older people.

In the shadow of covid, and with the other pressures facing rural communities, the new Government had a responsibility to tread really carefully with this part of our country. However, since the election we have seen a series of hammer blows to our rural communities, such as the farms tax, which is causing massive stress to small farms that rely on intergenerational leadership to survive. The Employment Rights Act 2025 places many more burdens on small businesses, disproportionately hitting areas such as North Yorkshire. Those businesses have fantastic ways of managing employee relationships—ways that are informal but robust, without the need for even more contractual arrangements. The rural services grant has been removed, and now the bad weather adjustment in the local government finance settlement has been removed too.

Turning to transport, fuel duty has been scrapped and the drink-driving laws are being changed. Public houses are also losing reliefs—the average increase in rates costs for pubs in North Yorkshire is £26,000—and the new Labour Mayor of North Yorkshire is hammering the tourism industry with a tourism tax. These places provide a place to meet in rural areas; they provide events for old people and fundraise for local causes. As we have heard earlier, they also provide jobs for the increasing number of people leaving college without opportunities.

Farmers, small businesses, pubs and hospitality venues are all just trying to make a reasonable turn using their private capital, but they are under such massive pressure from this Government. I urge Ministers to move quickly on the valuations issue; to triple-check parts of the local government settlement; and to reset the relationship with rural communities within Government and Whitehall, develop a cumulative impact test for these communities, and avoid the missteps we have seen over the past year.

Thames Water

Julian Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Steve Reed]

As I have said, the Government stand ready for all eventualities, should they be needed.

[Sir Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

I refer the House to my registered voluntary interest. Over a year ago, I spoke to one of the then biggest investors in Thames Water, and I was struck by the fact that they said they had never been in a room with the regulator, other investors or the Government. I know it is difficult commercially, but I urge the Secretary of State, in trying to resolve this issue rapidly, to use his good offices and do as much as possible in the background to bring all the stakeholders to the best result.

[Steve Reed]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question; I think what he is referring to, in the round, is the failures of the regulatory system and, indeed, the regulators. He will have seen that Sir Jon Cunliffe points to exactly the same problems in his interim report, published today. As we work towards the final report, published in about a month, Sir Jon is starting to point to solutions, and I am sure he will want to pay attention to the right hon. Gentleman’s comments.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Smith Excerpts

Thursday 8th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Solicitor General]

My hon. Friend is right to highlight the vital role that magistrates play in our criminal justice system. As we seek to reduce the intolerable court backlog that we inherited from the previous Government, I have absolutely no doubt that magistrates will continue to have a crucial role. It is essential that any new magistrates receive the right level of training, and I am happy to raise the matter that my hon. Friend has spoken about with colleagues in the Ministry of Justice.

[Sir Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

I refer colleagues to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Mediation and alternative dispute resolution are critical in reducing backlogs in the courts. I urge Ministers, in addition to holding the review, to look very carefully at the opportunities to use mediation more, particularly mandatory mediation.

[The Solicitor General]

The right hon. Member is absolutely right. I know from my days in practice that mediation and ADR have a very important role to play. It is critical that we get this intolerable backlog in our Crown courts down, and this Government are taking substantial action to do that. We have increased the number of Crown court sitting days. As I referred to, the Lord Chancellor has asked Sir Brian Leveson to conduct an independent review of our criminal courts, and we are also increasing the sentencing powers of magistrates courts.

Draft Flood Reinsurance (Amendment) Regulations 2025

Julian Smith Excerpts

Wednesday 26th February 2025 General Committees

[Dr Neil Hudson (Epping Forest) (Con)]

It is a delight and a privilege to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I thank the Minister for laying these important regulations.

I am pleased to say that His Majesty’s most loyal Opposition are happy to support this measure, which will help to ensure that Flood Re can continue to operate effectively. As the Minister articulated, the Flood Re scheme is vital. Since its inception in 2016 under the Conservatives, many people have relied on the scheme. We have sadly seen increasingly frequent extreme weather events in recent months and years, with the number of named storms continually going up, so it is important that people have coverage. When those extreme weather events cause flooding in the United Kingdom, they have brought horror and devastating consequences to many people’s livelihoods and finances.

The Minister and I have great mutual respect. We have talked a lot about the severe financial implications when floods hit, and about the human implications—the mental health impacts, the stress and anxiety of people who worry about being flooded and then the trauma when they are. The Flood Re scheme is vital to mitigating, to some degree, the things people go through. Enabling the effective use of Flood Re to support those affected by flooding will not only mean that people receive the financial support they need, but reduce harm to their mental wellbeing, because they know that some support is there when they need it most.

With that, and given that not having an effective Flood Re scheme may result in high-risk households being left without flood insurance, it is a clear and common-sense decision to support this statutory instrument. The increase in the levy is therefore a pragmatic decision, which I note takes into account inflation. According to the Government’s assessment, the cost of the increase in the levy, which will most likely be passed on to consumers through the premiums, is estimated to be about £1.60 per policy.

Although I welcome reaffirming the importance of Flood Re, I hope to see more ambition from the Government about the scheme’s future expansion—I have talked to the Minister about that before. There is potential to expand the scheme, and we have talked a lot about whether businesses can come under its umbrella. What discussions has the Minister had with businesses about the potential merits of expanding the scheme to include them? Equally, there are people who live above their business, so a composite home and business could be affected by flooding. Again, in the spirit of cross-party consensus, I hope the Government will move forward to help more people when floods hit.

Furthermore, the eligibility for Flood Re states that a home must have been built before 1 January 2009. Although I appreciate that regulations have since been strengthened to consider flood resilience, the Minister will be aware that properties continue to be built on at-risk floodplains. In the light of the central, top-down Government targets that are coming for house building, which may mean that more houses are built in at-risk areas, will the Minister ensure that homes built after 2009 have the security of flood insurance? Will she consider expanding the Flood Re scheme to include homes built after 1 January 2009? Labour Back Benchers have also called for that.

Helping people who are traumatised by flooding is above party politics. I have been calling for the expansion of the Flood Re scheme for some time. I hope that the Minister, her colleagues and her officials in DEFRA can look at its merits and talk to the Treasury about that too.

More broadly, as well as insurance, prevention is key. The last Government protected more than 600,000 properties from flooding between 2010 and 2024, and published a policy statement to make England more resilient, with 40 actions and five ambitious policies stemming from that. Furthermore, in March 2020, it was announced that the flooding budget would be doubled to £5.2 billion over the next six-year spending period to deploy more flood schemes. The Minister has confirmed that the Government will bring forward a flood resilience strategy. When can we expect it to be published, and will it include specific targets?

The Government have also launched the floods resilience taskforce. At the last count, we believe it has met only a couple of times recently—if it has met more than that, I stand to be corrected—despite the increase in drastic and devastating flooding. We want it to meet more frequently. Can the Minister assure us that it will meet regularly, and sometimes in advance as these frequent events come down the pipeline? We know flooding will happen in the winter months, so can the taskforce meet more regularly? What has the taskforce done to tackle flooding, especially after the storms that have recently hit the UK? How will it protect residents, farmers and businesses from the next set of storms that we know will come?

For properties that are sadly flooded, support is required. The last Government introduced the frequently flooded allowance, which was a ringfenced fund of £100 million to protect areas that had been affected by repeated flooding. The Government have yet to confirm whether that funding will continue and whether it will be ringfenced. Can the Minister enlighten us on the Government’s plans?

The support available to handle the aftermath of flooding, such as the Flood Re scheme that we are talking about today, has also included discretionary funding, such as the Bellwin scheme. Again, the Minister and I have had exchanges across the Dispatch Box on this issue. When such events happen, can she assure us that there will be cross-Government talks to make sure these support schemes can be activated on a pragmatic, compassionate and case-by-case basis?

[Sir Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that engagement must happen with councils as well? North Yorkshire has suffered very badly from floods recently, but the engagement with North Yorkshire council has often been lacking, from not only this Government but previous Administrations. That is largely based on cost, but that engagement is key.

[Dr Hudson]

I totally agree. There needs to be joined-up thinking at all levels of government, including local authorities. There also needs to be engagement with local emergency resilience groups, many of which are volunteers. When storms and floods hit, can people get the information they need? DEFRA could work with the Environment Agency, local authorities and emergency resilience groups to help people when they are flooded. There needs to be a co-ordinated effort that considers things such as planning, insurance, flood prevention, support and response. I hope that my questions are constructive in helping people when they experience dreadful flooding events. We support helping Flood Re to do its excellent work.

Water Companies: Regulation and Financial Stability

Julian Smith Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd October 2024 Westminster Hall

[Tim Farron]

I very much agree. Regulation is the key. Welsh Water is not for profit and Scottish Water is publicly owned, yet they both still face major problems with sewage discharges. As my hon. Friend is getting at, there is evidence that although ownership and finances matter, effective regulation is the key, and we simply do not have that at present.

[Sir Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

I thank my constituency neighbour for giving way. Does he agree that as well as regulation, commissions and the initiative proposed by his party, there is a massive breakdown of trust within the industry? I spoke to one of the major investors in Thames Water and asked them to tell me the last time that the regulator, the Government and the company’s investors were in a room together, and that had never happened. Among all these initiatives, does the hon. Gentleman agree that getting people together to talk about their different equities and priorities, and how they deliver for the consumer, is also key?

[Tim Farron]

I agree. Although I also think an urgency is needed that many people who own water companies do not demonstrate, and that is why the Government need to lead—but I do think it is right that we get people together to make things significantly better.

Over the past 33 years, for every pound that water companies have spent on infrastructure and doing their job, 80p has drained away to finance debt and pay dividends. That is an appalling waste of billpayers’ money and water company assets. The separation of operating companies from parent companies, where the regulated operating company racks up huge debts to allow the unregulated parent company to pay huge dividends, has been a disgraceful scam. I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Charlie Maynard) will say more about how that model has done such damage to the customers of Thames Water; suffice it for me to say that that model of ownership must cease. For the regulator to have stood idly by while that has happened is unacceptable, and for it not to step in as similar asset-stripping begins in other water companies is an abysmal dereliction of duty by it and the Government.

What is to be done? I just want our waterways to work and to be clean and safe. I am not convinced that renationalisation would be a good use of public money. It could mean putting taxpayers’ money into the pockets of those who have already made so much money out of them without a single extra penny going to improving infrastructure. We propose a radical move away from the current model: water companies should be community benefit corporations, ensuring that all revenue goes into keeping environmental standards higher and solving the long-term problems of our network. Given that 45% of all water company expenditure has gone on debt financing and dividends, that kind of ownership and governance reform should mean that there is more money available for infrastructure renewal.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Smith Excerpts

Thursday 12th September 2024 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Sir Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

1. What steps he is taking to promote innovation in the agricultural sector.

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Steve Reed)]

First, I add my congratulations to the Speaker’s Chaplain on her distinguished tenure, and to Terry Wiggins, who has been here much longer than all of us.

I thank the right hon. Member for his question. The Government recognise the importance of innovation in supporting farmers to boost Britain’s food security, drive productivity and improve nature’s recovery. The UK has world-class science and innovation capabilities. The Government will promote the UK as a great place for technology innovators, which will drive investment, economic growth and create high-skilled jobs, supporting farmers to embrace the latest technology and best practice.

[Sir Julian Smith]

One of the challenges for risk-taking farmers is the regulatory environment. Will the Secretary of State update the House on how he will bring together Natural England, the Environment Agency and other agencies to reflect and be much more responsive to the enterprise culture in farming?

[Steve Reed]

I share the right hon. Member’s interest in the need for effective regulation. I will soon make an announcement about our intentions to review regulation to ensure that it is fit for purpose across the Department and helps to achieve the priority objectives that we have set out as a new Government and ministerial team.

Northern Ireland Border

Julian Smith Excerpts

Thursday 3rd February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

I support the Government’s negotiations with the EU on improving the protocol, but will my right hon. Friend clarify that for the civil servants in Northern Ireland who are implementing the current rules his letter still stands? We cannot be a country that agrees an agreement and then does not stand behind it. In the absence of the Executive, which looks to be in a difficult position today, the British Government have to back the letter of 1 April and support the civil servants in Northern Ireland who are doing the checks.

[George Eustice]

My right hon. Friend was very involved in discussions on and elements of this matter and has a great deal of experience of navigating the politics of Northern Ireland and the community tensions there, but at this particular stage the officials in DAERA are taking legal advice, so we are not yet at the position of having to consider any kind of direction in the way that he suggests. In the first instance, we would all agree that it would be preferable if the Northern Ireland Executive reached a resolution to this issue on their own terms and found an ability to discuss it.

European Union (Withdrawal) Act

Julian Smith Excerpts

Thursday 10th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I will respond, but as the Chief Whip is signalling an interest in contributing, I am happy to hear the right hon. Gentleman.

[The Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Julian Smith)]

Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. Just to confirm, no decision has been made along the lines of what the right hon. Lady has said. The Government will do everything they can to ensure that the House is fully consulted in every eventuality next week, and the information that she has is not correct.

[Mr Speaker]

I am happy to respond to the point of order from the right hon. Lady, and I thank her for giving me notice of it. She has kindly shown me the press report to which she refers, but she knows that I have not yet had the opportunity to study it carefully. Moreover, it is not our normal practice to respond to any and every press report based upon a briefing from someone who perhaps thinks that he or she knows what the procedures are in this place but does not always fully do so.

It is true to say that the default position under Standing Order No. 16(1) is that debates pursuant to an Act of Parliament must be concluded after 90 minutes, flowing from which there tends to be a practical restriction on amendments because the time has lapsed, and therefore only one amendment in such a hypothetical situation would be taken. However, it is also true to say that such provision is often disapplied by an Order of the House.

I must emphasise that all of this is hypothetical at this stage, and I do not think it would be helpful to speculate on what may happen subsequent to the decision of the House next Tuesday. I can, however, confirm that the right hon. Lady is quite correct in saying that it is perfectly open to the Government, if such a situation were to arise, to provide for a much fuller debate. In those circumstances, there would predictably be a significant number of colleagues who would want to put their own propositions on the paper. I am extremely confident that if that hypothetical scenario were to arise, colleagues would assert themselves.

Dairy Industry

Julian Smith Excerpts

Wednesday 4th February 2015 Westminster Hall

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

The issue that we are discussing is a major one for Britain, but it is particularly acute for North Yorkshire. Since 2002, the region has lost 489 farmers, which is the second worst performance and loss in the country. Even farmers who are doing their best to invest in and build their businesses—such as Paul and Janet Bolland near Skipton, who recently invested £700,000 in their parlours and their farm—are struggling to pay interest on those investments. I do not find compelling the argument that we should look to Europe for reductionist intervention. My fear is that other countries that have higher production costs may soak up some of the subsidy.

I agree with many of the recommendations made by my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton (Miss McIntosh), and I pay tribute to her for all her work as Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee over the past few years. I add my support for the idea of greater teeth for the Groceries Code Adjudicator and for looking again at the voluntary contract. UK Trade & Investment needs to be a bit more robust and communicative about all the good work it is doing. I have not heard directly from it about whom I should introduce my farmers to, and how to communicate to them. It needs to get out there more and tell us what it is doing.

There are some short-term measures that I would like to see from the Treasury. HMRC could really help farmers with their monthly payments, perhaps by allowing some pooling of profits over several years rather than working on an annual basis. Above all, I think that the Minister, who has responsibility for farming, has done excellent work on the matter. I fear and suspect that were we talking about another industry such as the car industry, there would be a cross-Government task force, a committee and a cheerleader. We want that sort of focus for the dairy industry. We want somebody to take responsibility so that we know to whom we can go, across the whole gamut of Government intervention and help, to help this industry, which is in such need at the moment.

Avian Influenza

Julian Smith Excerpts

Monday 17th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that our facilities at Weybridge are world class. We have world-class experts on avian influenza, which is very important in being able to deal with this disease. They are discussing the outbreak with their counterparts in other countries, because there have been outbreaks elsewhere. At this stage, we do not know what the connection is with the outbreak in east Yorkshire. He is absolutely right that that vital facility is an important part of our armoury in dealing with animal disease.

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

The vet who turned up to the farm on Friday was clearly on the ball, and dealt with this outbreak efficiently and quickly. What more can we and the Department do to help the veterinary profession to ensure that everyone who goes out to farms is looking out for the symptoms of this disease?

[Elizabeth Truss]

The chief veterinary officer has been very active in working with the veterinary profession and the British Veterinary Association to make sure that we get such messages across. A lot of information is available on our gov.uk website for people to access. Getting the message across is very important, and vets have a very important role to play.