Rural Affairs

Patrick Spencer Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Patrick Spencer (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) (Con)]

This debate has been about APR, but I will talk about flood risk. Suffolk is, by its nature, a county at high risk of flooding. Large parts of my constituency are covered by rivers: we have the Rivers Deben, Orwell and Alde. We have tributaries that filter across low-lying land and clay soil, which apparently is not particularly permeable—I learned that during the general election campaign. That means that whenever there is heavy rainfall, streams and rivers become overburdened very quickly, creating bogs, waterlogged fields and eventually flooding across our fields. The water has nowhere to go. Roads are overwhelmed, as are irrigation and sewerage systems, and whole villages can find themselves under a foot or two of water after one night.

One year ago, Storm Babet did exactly that. We experienced an incredibly wet October. One month’s rainfall fell between 11 and 13 October, then 80 mm in the 24-hour period of 18 October. People were stranded in villages and cars were stuck on driveways. People living in Wickham Market, Needham Market, Framsden and Charsfield were forced out of their homes. Some are not yet back in. People were traumatised, exhausted and facing financial oblivion after insurance companies used small print to stop paying out on the damage caused by the flooding.

We do not want to see that again, but the reality is that our climate is getting more volatile and the risk of flooding is as high as ever. We must take preparedness seriously, which is why Suffolk county council, the Environment Agency and community groups have undertaken to clear rivers, improve water flow through pipes and guttering, dig trenches and develop overflow areas in case of higher than average rainfall. I am more critical than many people of Suffolk county council and the Environment Agency for dragging their feet at times. I am working with residents of Earl Soham who are trying to get the highways agency to clear pipes and drainage. Suffolk county council is just not reacting quickly enough to that.

I recognise that the funding is not there when it should be. The funding from the centre is not adequate, and responsibility over who should take control of the situation is confusing, which is why I support the private Member’s Bill by my hon. Friend Member for Mid Norfolk (George Freeman) to sort this out.

I want to talk about something else that I believe is a real reason that flood risk has increased, and to remind the House that we have the option of reducing it in future. One of the reasons that flooding has worsened in recent years is the development of vast numbers of housing units in areas of high flood risk. Each development not only puts more homeowners at risk of flooding, but compounds that by increasing the risk of surface water run-off.

I know deep down that the decision to reform APR and increase the inheritance tax liability for small farms is fundamentally about releasing land in rural areas so that developers can build more houses on it. There is no justification whatsoever for it from an economic point of view. There is no way the Government will raise enough money to support public services, as various Members have said today. The only viable reason that I can understand for the Government introducing APR on small farm holdings is because they want to release land for development. If we continue to concrete over fertile farmland, of any soil type, we will increase that risk.

[Sam Rushworth]

The Daily Telegraph, which I know is the paper of choice for more respectable Conservative Members, reported last year that wealthy investors are “hoovering up” agricultural land to avoid inheritance tax, a situation that it said meant more land was falling into the hands of private and institutional investors.

[Patrick Spencer]

Let me take a moment—Members throughout the House have an opportunity to watch—to address that exact case. The Labour party wants to tackle big landowners like James Dyson and the Grosvenor Group; I have two points. First, take for a moment the incredible work done by Dyson Farming on food technology, which is increasing the productivity of our land and the standard of food production on his farms. Think of what the Grosvenor Group has done in the moorlands and peatlands of the north-west—it is a protector of our environment and has supported our natural environment and increased the ecosystem.

Secondly, do the Government think for a moment that either of those two people are going to go to bed worried about the IHT change? No, they are not. They will dodge it, much like many of the well-heeled business people always do with taxes. The people who will bear the brunt of the Labour party’s tax policies are small farms—family farms—that do not have a huge amount of capital. When we try to tax and demand liquidity from an illiquid source, we force people to fire sale their capital. It will not work. We have to understand the economics.

The risks are real. In Needham Market, Hopkins Homes built the St George estate at the base of a hill in an old disused quarry close to sea level, and right next to an area considered at high risk of flooding.

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Patrick Spencer]

I will not, because I do not have long.

In Framlingham, developments either side of Station road have increased the risk of surface flow in an area that is, again, at high risk of flooding. All these places were hugely impacted by Storm Babet, and I believe the impact was made exponentially worse by huge housing developments cluttering our countryside. Between 2001 and 2021, Framlingham’s population increased by 1,200, which is nearly 50%. The population in Debenham increased by 16%. Great Blakenham has more than doubled in size. If we continue to use the Suffolk countryside to solve our housing crisis, the consequences will be disastrous.

Mental Health: Farming and Agricultural Communities

Patrick Spencer Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Aphra Brandreth]

The hon. Member makes an important point: this issue impacts every part of our Union. I will refer to the impact on young people later in my speech.

To go back to the RABI survey, the report found that the farming community has lower than average mental wellbeing compared with the wider UK population. A point of concern is that over a third of those who completed the survey had significantly low mental wellbeing scores. Worryingly, a similar number said that they were probably or possibly depressed. Nearly half of respondents said that they were experiencing some form of anxiety. Tragically, one in five respondents knew someone who had attempted to take their own life. I remind the House that the survey had 15,000 responses, so that is a shockingly high statistic, and I hope that its gravity hits home with Members across the House.

Since the report was launched in January 2021, things have not become any easier for farmers and the rural community. Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and its consequences for energy and fertiliser prices, and for the flow of commodities such as grain and oilseeds, have caused farmers a great deal of concern. Economic factors such as inflation have also hit farmers hard, and like several places across the country, we in Cheshire have had a particularly bad year with regard to rainfall. Those problems all compound existing challenges, thereby putting a significant strain on farmers who are already under huge pressure.

[Patrick Spencer (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) (Con)]

I thank my hon. Friend for securing this debate and for giving way. Just last Friday, I visited a farm in my constituency. It is a family farm: David runs the construction side of the business, Robert runs the farm, and their sister Sharon runs the books. By any measure, it is a successful farm. That family has owned the property for a long period of time, but when they spoke to me, they talked—as my hon. Friend has said—about high energy costs, high interest rates, tougher international competition, tougher regulations on pesticides and the use of chemicals, and a volatile climate. Then, to raise the issue that was the subject of our last debate, they talked about the new rules on inheritance tax. Is it any surprise that many people in the farming industry feel stressed and under pressure, considering the policies introduced by this Government?

[Aphra Brandreth]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that issue. The sector faces a wide range of challenges, and of course, the decisions that the Government are making will contribute in part to some of those challenges. Some are outside the control of all of us, the weather being one example.

I represent Chester South and Eddisbury, a constituency with a large rural area. Because of the nature of Cheshire’s ground and topography, dairy is the predominant mode of farming locally. That brings additional challenges through the risks of animal disease outbreaks, and their financial and emotional consequences.

I would like to take a moment to share some of the very real stories that demonstrate why I have asked for today’s debate, because behind every statistic is a personal story. There are families, loved ones, friends and communities who are deeply affected. Those of us who represent rural and agricultural communities know that the suicide rate among farmers is tragically high. Sadly, even in the short time that I have had the privilege of representing Chester South and Eddisbury, I have had examples in my constituency that have caused a great deal of pain to the families and the surrounding area. When something like this happens, it rocks a tight-knit community to its core, and the impact is felt by many.

Only last week, I heard of a tragic incident where a daughter found her father after he had taken his own life in one of the barns on their family farm. In a tribute, the daughter wrote of how her father worked so incredibly hard, and how proud he was to have increased the acreage and yield of the family farm during his stewardship. He was immensely proud of the operation he had built. His daughter summed up the vocation of farming in her online tribute:

“Farmers work harder and longer than most other trades and earn significantly less. We love what we do, or we wouldn’t do it. We feed the nation to the best of our abilities”.

I cannot begin to imagine what the families of those two farmers are going through, but as I said earlier, such cases are too common. Members from right across the House will have heard other stories like these in their own constituencies.