Flood Preparedness: Norfolk

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Wednesday 20th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[Steff Aquarone]

I thank the hon. Member for his work on flood prevention, and I absolutely echo his sentiments. I will be quoting Henry Cator in just a moment. He was on the panel I mentioned, and I pledged to him and others that I would support them in tackling all of this. That meeting allowed the agencies to hear directly from local residents about their experience and knowledge of the area, developed over decades, and to factor it into their plans and ensure that the community and relevant agencies work in lockstep as they bring forward a more flood-resilient future for the affected broads villages.

Residents of North Norfolk have endless stories of how flooding has impacted them and their community. I heard from a business owner in the boating industry who has spent £40,000 fixing the impact of flooding on the marina that she manages. Another local business estimates that it lost out on £140,000 of revenue during a period when it could not operate because of flood damage. Even the most basic things are made harder: one resident apologised to me that their response to my invitation to the meeting I mentioned was delayed because their driveway was flooded and impassable for the postman.

In the short term, we must look at the fundamental issues across all levels of government that have allowed the situation to get as bad as it has. The agencies I met with are working incredibly hard, but they can only work with what they have. A major issue that many of them face is that their funding settlements are rarely delivered more than one year ahead.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. I also live far away from Norfolk, but Somerset obviously has a record of flooding—in fact, it is named Somerset because it was the county where people lived in summer. Environment Agency data shows that 2,692 properties in my constituency are at risk of flooding, and unless basic maintenance is conducted on drainage and flood-defence systems, the figure will continue to rise. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is wrong for the Environment Agency to have a £34 million deficit in its maintenance budget?

[Steff Aquarone]

I totally agree. Lots of money is already there, not to mention the stuff that is missing, but we have to use it in a more joined-up and strategic way. I could go on, but I will return to my speech.

The projects that need to be undertaken to make a real difference will take time, but they will have a huge payoff. Being forced into short-term thinking means that the responsible agencies cannot make secure plans to take the strategic actions they need to. I hope that the Minister will consider changing the arrangement to give the responsible agencies the ability to set longer-term budgets. That would be a huge boost to their medium and long-term planning, and could get off the ground so many vital flood-alleviation projects that are being stalled by the current funding set-up. As the chair of the Norfolk Strategic Flooding Alliance succinctly put it to me:

“Prevention is a lot less expensive than flooding.”

In fact, every pound spent on prevention prevents a further £14 of damage. I hope that the Minister will seriously reflect on that, particularly in the light of the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Glastonbury and Somerton (Sarah Dyke).

Frustratingly, in many cases, it is not just the money that is lacking, but the necessary power to make change. The responsibilities and powers are broken up and siloed across councils, agencies and statutory bodies; all of them have expertise and experience, but it cannot be easily shared between them. I ask simply but kindly: why does it take nine months and two public meetings to decide what to do and how to spend the money we already have? I would love to tour my constituency bringing the kind of meeting I mentioned to every community, but that is simply not the most effective way of delivering the action that residents are crying out for.

The Netherlands has a Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management: a clearly responsible Department with the power to tackle an issue that is fundamental to that nation. We must accept that Britain floods—it always has done. A joined-up approach, with a clearly responsible body, is the only way we can ensure that powers are collected sensibly to allow for funding and direction decisions to be made in the best interests of communities.

Let us take a look at how flood prevention actually functions in the area that I and my Norfolk colleagues represent—I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, as I am a Norfolk county councillor. Norfolk county council is the lead flood authority, but it does not have the money to tackle the issues that it reports on. The council’s scrutiny committee considered that just yesterday, and concluded that there needs to be a focus on legislation to make it fit for purpose. After every serious event, it writes useful, sensible and impactful flood prevention reports, which outline how to prevent flooding from happening again, but once it finishes its reports, it has nowhere near the necessary money to implement any of its own recommendations.

That set-up would be utterly farcical if it were not so serious. It seems that my residents need all the stars to align to make anything happen, and that will not cut the mustard as water pours into their front rooms and destroys their belongings.

Global Plastics Treaty

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Wednesday 20th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[Dr Simon Opher (Stroud) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the Global Plastics Treaty.

I thank you, Dr Huq, for chairing this debate, and the Minister for attending. Plastic pollution is putting all of Earth’s systems under stress. There is no corner of the world, from the top of Mount Everest to the bottom of the ocean, that is untouched by plastic pollution. Microplastics are accumulating in our bodies, in our vital organs, and in breast milk and placentas, and current levels of plastic production expose us to more than 16,000 harmful chemicals daily and to increasing volumes of microplastics.

Plastic pollution is putting the Earth’s ecosystems and natural processes under serious strain, worsening climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification and land use—and if you think the situation is bad now, it could be much worse in decades to come. Plastic production, which is already far too high for our planet’s systems to cope with, is set to triple by 2050. The impact on climate change will be monumental. In its current state and with its current growth trajectory, plastic production will make achieving net zero impossible.

Plastic production already has a global warming impact four times greater than that of the aviation industry, with 90% of emissions coming during the production process. By 2050, half of global oil demand will come from petrochemicals. Plastic production is out of control, and everyone agrees that there is a problem. In 2022, 175 countries agreed to come together to hammer out a global treaty to address plastic pollution, but after two years and with four out of five scheduled rounds of negotiations completed, we are still in the dark about what the treaty will really look like.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

I thank the hon. Member for bringing forward this important debate. The last Government oversaw soaring rates of plastic incineration, and delays to modest waste reforms such as deposit return schemes, while also refusing to support proposals to cut plastic production by 40% by 2040, which were put forward at the last round of the treaty negotiations. Does the hon. Member agree that the new Government must raise their ambition levels, and that the best way to do so is to deliver a global plastics treaty that meaningfully cuts plastic production?

[Dr Opher]

I certainly do agree with you, and it is one reason that I am delivering this speech; thank you for that.

It might seem obvious that plastic pollution cannot be addressed without significant cuts to the production of plastics, but that is the most controversial and politically challenging aspect of the treaty. Those involved want us to believe that we can recycle our way out of this crisis—something we know not to be true. Plastic can be recycled only a finite number of times, simply delaying the inevitable moment when it is burned or dumped in landfill, or even escapes into our environment. The fact is that oversupply of virgin plastics at ever lower prices is undermining the UK’s ambition to create a circular economy here in the UK.

Earlier this week, the BBC reported that a recycling site in Avonmouth, near Bristol—which is near my constituency of Stroud—is closing down due to low recycling rates and challenging market conditions. Last month, the industry body Plastics Recyclers Europe raised the alarm about a downward trend in plastics recycling as a result of the global glut of cheap virgin plastics. Flooding the world with cheap plastic allows no space for reuse and refill systems, and the recycling industry, to develop.

Here in the UK, we deal with an excess of plastic waste by burning it and dumping it on poorer countries that do not have the infrastructure to deal with it. Both practices were allowed to increase under the previous Government, as the hon. Member for Glastonbury and Somerton (Sarah Dyke) said, and the public are rightly outraged. That is why many of my constituents have written to me about plastic pollution, and more than half a million people have signed a petition calling for a strong global plastics treaty.

Earlier this year, over 220,000 people decided to take part in the Big Plastic Count—a massive citizen science project where individuals count every piece of plastic waste that they dispose of for a week. The results showed that the UK throws away 1.7 billion pieces of plastic each week, with 58% of that being incinerated, producing toxic fumes and greenhouse gases. Incineration is the UK’s dirtiest form of power generation, and incinerators are three times more likely to be placed in poorer neighbourhoods, as was the case with the one built recently in the Stroud area.

Fortunately, the new Government have taken bold steps to tackle plastic pollution. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has made zero waste one of the Department’s core missions, and has set up a circular economy taskforce.

[Sarah Dyke]

My constituent Catherine Conway is the founder of GoUnpackaged, the world’s first modern zero-waste shop, which is hugely reducing the use of single-use plastics. She is also part of the Refill Coalition, which is developing and testing a standardised solution to deliver refills at scale in store and online. Does the hon. Member agree that zero-waste solutions such as these have a big role to play in accelerating the transition to a more circular economy that maximises the recovery, reuse, recycling and remanufacturing of products?

[Dr Opher]

Thank you—

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Hardy)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairwomanship, Dr Huq. It is lovely to see you here. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) for securing this really important debate, and Members on both sides of the House for their valuable contributions. This is an important topic that people really care about.

This week, I had the most effective lobbying I have ever had; I was lobbied by 12 primary school children who came with a message in a bottle—they literally brought a bottle with a message and a petition from Greenpeace calling on me to do everything I can to secure plastic reduction. They too had taken part in the Great Plastic Count, and even the youngest, who was only seven years old, told me about all the plastic that they had. I just wanted to give a special mention to those children from Bonner primary school. This is Parliament Week, when we encourage young people to get involved in politics and understand how Parliament works, so it is a good time to engage with everybody across the country on this important issue.

[Sarah Dyke]

Carymoor Environmental Trust in my constituency runs fantastic plastic sessions and has educated over 58,000 children in Somerset about the environmental impact of plastic and about ways to avoid single-use plastic. Does the Minister agree that the best way to avoid single-use plastic is to deliver a global plastics treaty that meaningfully cuts plastic production?

[Emma Hardy]

Absolutely. The global plastics treaty, which I will talk about in more detail, is crucial, and it is really encouraging to see how everybody is getting behind it.

Mental Health: Farming and Agricultural Communities

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Aphra Brandreth (Chester South and Eddisbury) (Con)]

I am grateful to have secured a debate on the vital and pertinent issue of mental health in farming and agricultural communities.

It is sadly no exaggeration to say that we have a mental health crisis in our rural and agricultural communities. In January 2021, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution launched a large research project called the big farming survey. The audience of the survey was 15,000 farmers, contractors and their households, and its aim was to achieve a better understanding of the health and wellbeing of the farming community in England and Wales. 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, according to NHS thresholds.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

I thank the hon. Member for giving way and congratulate her on securing this important debate. The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution’s big farming survey also found that 52% of farmers experience regular pain and discomfort, while one in four has mobility problems. Does she agree that we must recognise that physical health has an impact on mental health, and ensure that the NHS, GPs and mental health services are joined up?

[Aphra Brandreth]

The hon. Member, who is an excellent champion for farmers in her community, makes an important point on physical health.

Rural Affairs

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

Yesterday, I spoke to Ian, who has a beef enterprise and grows cider apples on his farm in Glastonbury. Now 74, he has worked his entire life to buy back his family’s 100-acre farm. He has finally done it, but the Government’s changes to the APR will soon tear it apart again, undoing his life’s work and leaving the farm unviable.

Sadly, Ian is not alone. During the debate, I read an email from a farmer in Charlton Musgrove who says that her family are shell-shocked by Labour’s attack on family farms. The farming sector has experienced one shock after the other in recent years, from Brexit to energy prices, the war in Ukraine, rising feed prices, the Conservatives’ terrible trade deals and mismanagement of the economy, and the botched transition from the basic payment scheme to the environmental land management schemes. Farming is in crisis, and here we are yet again with a misguided policy that hits the future sustainability of family-run farms.

We cannot allow this to continue as a sterile policy debate about optimal tax rates and allowances. This is about people’s lives, food security and the future of our countryside and the natural environment. It will not be wealthy landowners who suffer under the Government’s new family farm tax; it will be farming families barely able to make a living and, sadly, those who are left behind when a farmer dies unexpectedly, and who do not have access to clever accountants or special consultants. Not only will they have to deal with the emotional trauma of losing a parent or a partner; they may be at risk of losing the farm—their home.

The Government must abolish this family farm tax or, at the very least, raise the threshold to limit its impact on those who should not have to and cannot afford to bear the brunt. The Government must look closely at loopholes that allow wealthy landowners who are not farmers to use land as an inheritance tax loophole.

Agriculture is the most dangerous in industry in Britain. When we talk about farmers, many will assume that we are talking about males, but many women work in agriculture, and they are 10% more likely to suffer with depression and 15% more likely to suffer with anxiety. Women make up 55% of the farming workforce in England and Wales, so there is an urgent need for targeted interventions, particularly at key points in their lives, when they are most vulnerable to mental ill health, such as during extreme weather or disease outbreaks.

This family farm tax is another example of gender stereotypes and outdated assumptions about modern farming. Modern family farms are not always run by traditional families, so many will not be able to take advantage of the extra relief. The Government’s claim that 75% of farms will be unaffected relies on the assumption that every farmer is married and will benefit from twice the basic allowance.

Budget: Implications for Farming Communities

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Monday 4th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Daniel Zeichner]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right; many people in this country, and many farmers in particular, are struggling to get by. That is why it is very important that in this Budget we maintained the budget for the support schemes that people are getting used to; it is interesting to note that they are now being subscribed to in much higher numbers. That support will be available to help people to make the transition and to go on supplying food for this country, which is so important.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

It has now been more than 10 years since devastating floods wrecked the Somerset levels and moors, causing untold damage. At the time, affected communities were told that money was no object when it came to protecting the area, but now, deep in the Budget document, there is a hint that the farming and flood defences budget might be cut. Can the Minister explain to my farmers in Glastonbury and Somerton, who are terrified of more flooding devastation this winter, how the Government aim to protect them?

[Daniel Zeichner]

I remember those awful times very well. “Money is no object” is not something that was said by my party, I can tell her; it was said by the now Opposition, and perhaps it was not exactly the right way to put it. Extreme weather events are a challenge for all of us across the country. My colleagues and I will work with everyone to find the best ways to resolve them, but let us not for one moment imagine that this is a simple issue to solve. The flooding challenges are very real and we are working on them. I look forward to further discussions with the hon. Lady.

Water Companies: Regulation and Financial Stability

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd October 2024 Westminster Hall

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the regulation and financial stability of water companies.

It is an absolute pleasure to serve under your guidance this afternoon, Mr Pritchard. It is a real honour and privilege to have secured this debate on a matter of enormous importance to my constituents in Westmorland and Lonsdale and, quite clearly, to many around the room and beyond.

I wonder whether, in the aftermath of the 2019 general election, many pundits or politicians would have predicted that by the 2024 election water quality would be one of the top three doorstep issues, and a subject of discussion here and in the main Chamber within an hour or two of each other, and indeed within the same week as in the other place. That is exactly what has happened, and there are a number of reasons why.

First, leaving the EU meant that we needed to introduce our own legislation to replace what went before. In doing so, people, including MPs, looked under the bonnet, so to speak, for the first time and were horrified to see what was there: the sewage outflows into our rivers, lakes and coastal areas that had been long permitted.

Secondly, the last Government failed to take effective action to limit those outflows, allowing excessive dividends and bonuses on the one hand and inadequate infrastructure investment on the other.

Thirdly, the situation is objectively getting worse. Climate change, higher rainfall, inadequate regulation and failure to invest in infrastructure renewal means that 2023 saw a 54% increase in sewage spills compared to the year before.

Fourthly, and just as importantly, this issue has emerged because community campaigners across the country have resolved that they will not accept this appalling situation and have led the way in holding water companies, regulators and the Government to account. Organisations in our Westmorland communities, such as the Clean River Kent Campaign, Save Windermere and the Eden Rivers Trust—and many more, both in my communities and around the whole UK—have engaged in citizen science, heightened awareness and galvanised public opinion.

The Liberal Democrats have made this issue a priority, too. Water is so important to us that my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey) spent most of the general election campaigning about it—and, indeed, spent quite a lot of time in it! Having led my party through a previous general election, I know exactly how it feels to spend one’s campaign in deep water, and even, on occasions, up to one’s neck in poop.

I have the immense privilege of serving Westmorland and Lonsdale and being MP for, among others, Windermere, Ullswater, Coniston Water, Haweswater, Rydal Water, Grasmere, Brothers Water, the River Kent, the River Eden, the River Lune, many other rivers, and much of Morecambe bay. For us, water is deeply personal; it is precious to our biodiversity, our heritage and our tourism economy.

Failure to tackle the issue rightly raises passions, but the fault lies in the system. We have an industry financing model and a regulatory framework that are simply not fit for purpose. However, I do not want to demonise the people who work for water companies. Good, competent and decent people work for United Utilities in my community and for other companies across the rest of the country, on the ground and indeed underground. The same applies for those who work for the Environment Agency and Ofwat. They are good, hard-working and professional people working within a system that is badly broken, and that broken system has an appalling impact on communities in the lakes and dales of Westmorland.

I have a few figures to demonstrate the situation, courtesy of the Rivers Trust. Last year in Appleby, combined sewer outflows into the River Eden saw 46 spills. At Kirkby Stephen on the River Eden, there were 135 spills. At Staveley on the River Kent, there were 283 spills. At Tebay on the River Lune, there were 124 spills.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Tim Farron]

In one second. At Greystoke on the River North Petteril, there were 146 spills. I could go on, but I will give way to my hon. Friend.

[Sarah Dyke]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on his excellent speech. Data from Thames Water shows that Glastonbury and Somerton was the 16th worst constituency in England and Wales for sewage overflows. Does my hon. Friend agree that the commission should consider establishing pollution baselines and reduction targets?

[Tim Farron]

I absolutely agree. That reminds us that, of the over 464,000-plus spills that took place in 2023, most were legal and permitted—and most of them should not have been. We juxtapose this failure with the reality of money leaking out of the sector in the form of dividends and bonuses. Since privatisation, £78 billion has been paid out in dividends and, in the last four years, we saw £62 million paid out to company executives in bonuses.

Oral Answers to Questions

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Thursday 12th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

Somerset is home to 8,500 farmers and food producers, which is more than any other county in the UK. They are worried that the £130 million of support will be stripped from them because the previous Government replaced the basic payment scheme with systems that were too complicated for many farmers to access. Notwithstanding the previous comments, will the Secretary of State confirm that he will not be slashing their funding, and give farmers the confidence that they need to be able to invest in the future and secure the nation’s food security?

[Steve Reed]

I am delighted to congratulate those farmers, producers and growers in Somerset. It is a fine county and they do an incredibly good job, of which the hon. Lady is rightly proud. I hope she will understand that I cannot make comments about the Budget in advance; I would be in deep trouble with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which is something I wish to avoid. At the appropriate time, we will make absolutely clear what we intend to do. My intention is to fight the corner of farmers through the spending review process so that we can make sure they receive the resources they deserve.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

Just one in 83 rape offences recorded by Avon and Somerset Police last year resulted in a charge or court summons. Compared with other police forces in the south-west, that represents a significant increase in 2023-24 for rape and sexual offence crimes. Does the Solicitor General agree that more needs to be done to strengthen the justice system as a whole to properly deal with sexual violence and domestic abuse, not just in Avon and Somerset but across England and Wales?

[The Solicitor General]

I entirely agree with the hon. Member that this needs to be an absolute priority and that we need to drive improvements in conviction rates. That is why there is a commitment to introduce specialist rape courts, working to fast-track rape cases and driving down wait times, and why it is important, at the start of the system, to put domestic abuse experts in 999 control rooms. It is that whole suite of measures that will lead to the improvements that we all want to see.

Sheep Farming

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Wednesday 4th September 2024 Westminster Hall

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Huq, and I thank the hon. Member for Hexham (Joe Morris) for securing this important debate. Livestock, including sheep, are a big contributor to the south-west rural economy, but the sector is facing several challenges. Food production is worth more than £500 million in Somerset, and the industry provides employment for 8,500 farmers and food producers, which is the highest number for any UK county.

Farming, by its very nature, cannot be as responsive as other industries. Crops take time to grow and animals take time to rear. That means that farmers need the certainty to be able to create long-term plans and invest in their businesses, rather than making changes on the hoof, but the previous Government failed to provide that stability. From U-turning on actions to take land out of food production to the botched trade transition, and from direct payments to environmental land management schemes, their policies undermined farmers and have led to a collapse in their willingness to invest in their businesses.

Farmers need to be able to run their businesses with certainty. They need to know what funding is available, what standards are to be met and what support they are going to receive from the new Government. It is regrettable that this Government seem to have decided to continue in the Conservatives’ footsteps by refusing to commit to the agricultural budget. With over 55,000 agri-environment agreements in place this year, a big part of the industry has been encouraged to become reliant on Government payments. Unless the Government commit to the agricultural budget, those farmers will not hear whether those payments will continue at current rates until the spending review in the autumn, impacting on their ability to plan. It is no surprise that the National Farmers Union found that short and mid-term confidence is at its lowest level since records began in 2010.

I have spoken before in this place about how many farmers are leaving the industry because they do not have the confidence to continue and about the impact that that is having on their mental health. Ninety-two percent of farmers under the age of 40 say that poor mental health is the biggest hidden problem that farmers face today, and those pressures will likely be compounded further by yesterday’s report that the Government are going to slash the nature-friendly farming budget. Not only would that seriously threaten many farmers’ livelihoods, but it would result in at least 239,000 fewer hectares of nature-friendly farmland, according to research by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The National Trust, the RSPB, and the Wildlife Trust warned before the election that the nature-friendly farming budget had to increase if the UK is to meet its legally binding nature and climate targets. Cutting it would be tantamount to ignoring our legal targets.

Livestock play a central role in my Glastonbury and Somerton constituency, so my constituents are particularly worried about the threat of diseases such as bluetongue and Schmallenberg. As the proud owner of a small flock of non-commercial pedigree Shetland sheep, I share those concerns. The pandemic showed us that Britain is capable of being a vaccine superpower. I call on the Government to again work with industry to prevent us from experiencing an outbreak of bluetongue like those we have seen in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. It is essential that DEFRA and the Animal and Plant Health Agency have learned lessons from the covid inquiry and previous inquiries into the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak, and have robust and tested traceability data processes in place to enable effective disease response.

There are also smaller, cost-free changes that would improve our ability to trace livestock and reduce the amount of bureaucracy that farmers face. For example, although farmers can report sheep movements electronically, they also have to use paper passports with the exact same information. If we want accurate tracking, which is essential for proper biosecurity, we need to incentivise the use of digital reporting and remove that outdated requirement. That small change would be a step in the right direction to transform livestock information services into a system that is fit for purpose and fit for the future.

The previous Government were woefully irresponsible for failing to protect British agriculture from Brexit and the botched trade deals. The new Government must give British farmers the tools they need to seize new trade opportunities and must introduce robust policies to protect them from uncompetitive imports.

Since leaving the EU, the food and drink industry has been burdened with additional friction and cost, often paying for checks on goods that have never taken place. It is essential that we give our farmers the ability to trade with our European neighbours with minimal need for checks by negotiating comprehensive veterinary and plant health agreements. The Government should support the country’s largest manufacturing sector by expediting their talks on this issue and improving our working relationship with our largest trading partner.

Similarly, the Government must ensure that sheep farmers can export breeding stock without delay by providing additional capacity for border control. We need to protect our markets from lamb and mutton from countries that have less rigorous animal welfare and environmental standards. If we do not, we risk undermining our farmers and the faith that consumers have in our meat.

As a Liberal Democrat, I believe that there needs to be fairness throughout the supply chain. Our ability to produce world-leading lamb and mutton is being constrained by a bottleneck at slaughterhouses caused by vet shortages. The British Veterinary Association believes that those shortages are worst in rural areas such as Glastonbury and Somerton. I am concerned about the impact that that will have on food prices, animal welfare, Somerset’s rural economy and vets’ mental health.

I have always been proud to represent this industry because we have a world-leading animal welfare system, but we need vets to maintain that. We have some of the best vets in the world, but the Government need to focus on retaining them. The UK’s chief veterinary officer, Dr Christine Middlemiss, said that almost half of vets who are leaving the profession have been there for less than four years. We must rise to that challenge by increasing the UK’s training capacity, which will require an increase in the amount of funding available per student and the introduction of a regulator.

We have many more Liberal Democrat MPs representing rural constituencies than ever before, because rural communities know that we understand them and will always fight for them. Farmers trust us to have their backs because of our track record and our policies, which include properly funding ELMs with an additional £1 billion a year, renegotiating the Australian and New Zealand trade agreements, and making the supply chain fairer by strengthening the Groceries Code Adjudicator. With farmers facing new challenges, there is a huge amount of uncertainty across all agricultural sectors, including sheep, and the new Government must take clear steps to support them.

Fly-tipping

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd September 2024 Westminster Hall

[Deirdre Costigan]

I certainly agree. I will return later to my hon. Friend’s point about making the polluter pay. Currently it is certainly not worth councils’ time or money in many instances to take fly-tippers to court because the fines, and indeed the sentencing, do not act as a deterrent. Some people feel it is okay to leave their rubbish at the end of the street because the council will pick it up. This is a vicious cycle and we need to break it.

Secondly, in the small number of cases that do go to court, magistrates do not take the issue seriously enough or understand how fly-tipping blights the life of local communities. The sentencing just is not enough to make people think twice. The criminals who make a pretty penny by offering to take away waste for 20 quid tell the court they are unemployed, so they get away with not having to pay. The waste carrier licensing system is also so lax that it is hard for someone to lose their licence, even if they have broken the rules and been convicted.

Thirdly, there is a problem with housing in London. We know that there is not enough of it and that is why this Government have committed to building 1.5 million new homes. Right now, in Ealing Southall, there are people living in overcrowded accommodation, where there is often not enough space for a bin. I have also been told by many of my constituents that tenants sometimes illegally sub-let a room, but insist that the new tenant does not use the rubbish bins so that the landlord does not find out.

Finally, there is just too much waste in the first place. As a nation, we are drowning in unnecessary packaging, single-use drink containers, and household items that are difficult and expensive to recycle. We have to be honest about fly-tipping. In a Keep Britain Tidy study, one in five people in London admitted that they had fly-tipped themselves—this is often black-sack fly-tipping. It is simply not an excuse that the council is not doing enough because every council in London offers a free kerbside collection for black-sack rubbish. However, people often do not see this as fly-tipping, and it is very difficult to change their behaviour. No amount of education seems to work.

Trying to stop people from fly-tipping is a huge challenge. Keep Britain Tidy has piloted a number of schemes, including in Newham, that have had some success, but the schemes often simply move fly-tipping to the next road. Some councils have tried community skips, including my neighbouring authority of Brent. However, despite the council’s hard work, Brent sadly still has the highest fly-tipping rate in London, at 34,000 incidents a year. Although residents like the community skip, it does not stop people from fly-tipping.

The recycling charity WRAP has found that there is no evidence at all to link free bulky waste disposal with a reduction in fly-tipping. Even the Conservative Hampshire County Council acknowledged that fly-tipping did not increase when it started to charge for DIY waste. Just as it is clear that there is not one cause of fly-tipping, so it follows that there is not one answer.

This is a complex problem that needs a number of different approaches. Crucially, it needs to be led by Government, not by cash-strapped councils. We need a national strategy to combat fly-tipping, which will bring together the Environment Agency, councils, Keep Britain Tidy, waste disposal authorities and other stakeholders to crack this problem once and for all.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

I thank the hon. Member for securing this important debate. The Environment Agency found that 86% of farmers have been affected by fly-tipping this year. However, many of those incidents are not reported because the reporting process is time-consuming, confusing and frustrating, and it does not stack up for farmers to do it. So they clear the waste themselves. Does the hon. Member agree that a single reporting mechanism needs to be developed to help farmers and land managers? I appreciate that the hon. Member is leading a very urban debate, but I think that the mechanism is important. A single mechanism should be in place so that a fly-tip should have to be reported only once.

[Deirdre Costigan]

I thank the hon. Member for her intervention. As she has said, Ealing Southall is certainly not a rural area of the country. However, my father’s family are from Tipperary, and they were farmers; I do appreciate, and am well aware, of the cost of fly-tipping to farmers in particular. As it is on private land, they are, in most cases, liable for the costs of removal themselves. It is a massive issue, and I do hope that we will hear from others today on that issue. Certainly, there is more that we can do on reporting because, as I said earlier, the reports that we currently have are only the tip of the iceberg as a lot of communities just do not report.

Having gone through the problems and realised that the solutions are complex, what solutions do I feel should be included in the national strategy? To combat the organised criminals, we need a national fly-tip investigation team. Why should environmental crime not be taken as seriously as other types of organised crime? We need national financial investigators who can use proceeds of crime laws to go after the assets of these criminals and hit them in their pockets, where it really hurts.

We also need sentencing guidelines to be reviewed so that the courts do not continue to allow fly-tippers to get away with it. We need to reform the waste carrier licensing scheme so that it is worth the paper that it is written on. We need stronger rules for bins when houses are broken up into flats; I am delighted that Ealing council is introducing a new requirement for planning permission for HMOs—houses in multiple occupation. But we need to ensure that waste facilities are rigorously assessed as part of landlord licensing schemes and before permission is given for flat conversions, and that councils have the funding to carry out those inspections.

Flood Defences: West Worcestershire

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Wednesday 24th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Dame Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Madam Deputy Speaker, and what a pleasure you have had in listening to such an excellent array of maiden speeches this afternoon. I thank Mr Speaker for allocating me one of the first Adjournment debates in this new Parliament.

My speech will be more of a reiteration of certain points and less of a novelty, as I was lucky enough to get an Adjournment debate on the same flood defences at the beginning of the last Parliament. During that winter, we suffered not only from coronavirus but from Storms Ciara and Dennis.

I congratulate the floods Minister, the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice (Emma Hardy), on her appointment. She and I were colleagues on the Treasury Committee, and I know how passionately and genuinely she cares about flooding issues, so I look forward to working with her.

My constituency is in a part of the world that floods frequently, and we realise that we will flood a lot in West Worcestershire. We have the River Severn running through the middle of the constituency, and the Rivers Avon and Teme flow into the Severn just south of Worcester, so we accept that flooding is a part of nature and part of what we have in West Worcestershire.

In the years that I have been fortunate enough to represent the area in Parliament, and before, I have tried to mitigate some of the problems that arise from being in a very flood-prone part of the world. Last winter, we again saw how difficult it can be when there is a very wet winter. Many local farmers, residents and businesses were very grateful for funding from the flood recovery fund after Storms Babet and Henk.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

Rural areas are often the worst impacted by flood damage, yet they are often deemed less of a priority for flood defences than urban areas. Does the hon. Lady agree that the flood defence grant in aid cost-benefit analysis must be reviewed to ensure it sufficiently values agricultural and rural communities?

[Dame Harriett Baldwin]

The hon. Lady highlights something that I have grappled with throughout my time as a Member of Parliament.

I will now move on to the situation in Tenbury Wells in my constituency. Seventeen years ago this month, in the middle of summer, we had the most severe flooding for many, many years. It caused massive damage and misery across West Worcestershire. In fact, it was the right hon. Member for Leeds South (Hilary Benn) who was the Environment Minister at the time. In 2007, he came to see the devastation in Tenbury Wells. It was at that time that I first started to look into these cost-benefit analyses and the formula that the hon. Lady raised. While accepting that, in West Worcestershire, we will flood regularly, I think that there are many things we can do to mitigate the misery of being flooded, and of being flooded regularly.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dame Harriett Baldwin]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. He points to a fact that I acknowledge: cumulatively, we have become more resilient to flooding in West Worcestershire over the last 14 years, but there are still these two schemes. That was going to be my next question to the Minister: will she confirm that the new Government will continue with the same level of spending that my hon. Friend mentioned? Is there anything that I could do, other than leading debates such as this and meeting with the chief executive of the Environment Agency, that would help locally to unblock any of the issues?

I know that these schemes, particularly the one in Tenbury Wells, are complicated. I just want the Environment Agency to be able to find its way through the obstacles. The local community knows that in order to make the omelette that is the flood defences of Tenbury Wells, a few eggs will need to be broken, with a few road closures at times and potentially some loss of road space down some side roads. I just want to say on behalf of the community that it is prepared to put up with that level of inconvenience and some traffic disruption for a while in order to protect its beautiful town. As can be seen from the other examples in West Worcestershire that I have mentioned, particularly Upton upon Severn, the long-term benefit of protecting the town is immeasurable.

Will the Minister join me in an effort of shared persistence and determination to protect these two communities by finally getting the two schemes built, preferably before the inevitable arrival of the next serious floods? Finally, will she confirm that she will press ahead with the expanded offer of the farming recovery fund? Farmers in my constituency and elsewhere think it is very important that the offer includes those who experienced damage due to extreme rainfall, and not just those who experienced flooded land.

[Sarah Dyke]

On that point, will the hon. Lady give way?