Hedgerows: Legal Protection

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Wednesday 24th January 2024 Westminster Hall

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

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Elliott. I thank the hon. Member for North Devon (Selaine Saxby) for securing the debate, and the hon. Member for Copeland (Trudy Harrison) for her beautiful words about hedgerows and the joys of walking around the countryside. She really brought the scene to life.

My constituents know that I am proudly from a farming family. I am able to trace my ancestors back to North Cadbury, in my constituency, as far back as 1763. My family are rooted in the soil we live on. Like other small family farmers up and down the country, they are guardians of our beautiful countryside.

Hedgerows provide wildlife corridors and stimulate predators, which can reduce the need for pesticide use, improve soil health and sequester carbon. They may be artificially created, but they house and shelter some of the most enigmatic and endearing animals, from natterjack toads and horseshoe bats to tawny owls and hoverflies. The People’s Trust for Endangered Species recently counted 2,070 different species of plants and animals in one hedgerow in Devon. It recorded an average of 3.6 woody plant species in 885 km of hedgerows nationwide. Some 84% of birds found in UK farmlands need hedgerows. Over half of them live there primarily, along with 500 native plant species and over 1,500 insect species.

I have spoken before about the importance of cider in my part of Somerset, and one of the best pollinators for cider apples are red mason solitary bees, which need hedgerow shelter to thrive. I recently spoke to a farmer who told me that he had seen the first nightingale on his farm in living memory in the last few weeks, and that he regularly enjoys seeing barn owls patrolling his hedgerows. We must dismiss the myth that farmers want to tear up our hedgerows and destroy key habitats. Encouraging farmers to actively manage and preserve hedgerows is vital for future conservation and the associated benefits but, as of 31 December, there is no cross-compliance in place.

Another farmer told me:

“It’s all voluntary, it’s all optional—I personally can’t spend the required time submitting the silly forms.”

The RSPB figures show that the arrangements could risk the management of 120,000 km of hedgerows. It is rarely a lack of community spirit or ecological sympathy that prevents farmers from conserving hedgerows; instead, it is because of the lengthy and laborious digital system, which is beset with flaws, and a poor return on investing time in maintaining hedgerows.

I commend the Department for the generous payments for planting new hedgerows, but £3 per 100 metres to assess hedgerows, or just £10 per 100 metres to manage them, is ludicrous. My brother recently shared some of his calculations with me. He estimates that assessing 100 metres of hedgerow would take him 10 minutes of his time, not including the travel to the site across the farm or recording the data. Admittedly, recording the data has been made a bit easier because we are lucky enough to have fibre broadband on our farm, but that is not the case for many. Managing 100 metres of hedgerow would take approximately 20 minutes. Going back to his calculations, if he valued his time at £50 an hour, he reckons that he would receive just half of what he should be paid. He said:

“The costs far outweigh the payments…SFI rates just do not compensate for the time that is required to do a proper job.”

It is a shame that the Government did not include hedgerows in their welcome improved payment rates, which were announced recently at the Oxford farming conference. We all know that farmers are the most qualified and experienced people in this country to manage our hedgerows. However, we cannot take for granted farmers or, indeed, the volunteers in citizen science projects such as the Somerset Hedge Group. We need to increase sustainable farming incentive rates for surveying and maintaining hedgerows and have all digital and data issues ironed out with a dedicated support team.

Our hard-working farmers are going through some of the toughest times of their lives. Yes, we need legal protections for our network of hedgerows, but we also need appropriate, accessible and worthwhile accompanying incentives to actively support our farmers to preserve hedgerows, thus contributing to landscape conservation, biodiversity and sustainable agriculture.

Groceries Supply Code of Practice

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Monday 22nd January 2024 Westminster Hall

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

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Murray, and I thank the hon. Member for Neath (Christina Rees) for opening this crucial debate.

We need to get fair about farming, because farmers are often disenfranchised in the agrifood supply chain. It requires a concerted effort to tackle the systemic issues, promote equitable relationships and ensure a sustainable and fair system so that British farmers can produce high-quality food for our tables. I rise on behalf of the many farmers in Somerton and Frome, who, like many others across the constituency, are key drivers of the rural economy. They are also the custodians of our natural environment. We must therefore ensure that they get a fair deal for the work that they do and the food that they supply.

The public agree. Polling from More in Common shows that 88% of the public think it is important that farmers are paid fairly for their work, and they would even pay a little more if they knew the money went to support British farming. However, food does not need to be expensive; just a bigger proportion needs to go back to the farmer. Tackling contractual unfairness in the agrifood supply chain is central to ensuring fairness. Farmers are operating in a marketplace where they have little control or say over who they sell their produce to.

Research from Sustain shows that producers receive less than one pence in the pound of the profit that they produce. Forty-nine per cent of British fruit and veg farmers fear that they will go out of business within the next 12 months, with three quarters of them stating that supermarket behaviour is a significant factor. To highlight the stark reality of the issue, Riverford Organic Farmers placed 49 scarecrows outside Parliament earlier today, representing those farmers. As well as farmers in my constituency, farmers in Totnes have said that the Government are not listening to them over subsidies, have let them down on the Australia trade deal and should do more to ensure fair pricing from supermarkets.

[Mrs Sheryll Murray (in the Chair)]

Order. Can the hon. Lady confirm that she spoke to the hon. Member for Totnes (Anthony Mangnall)?

[Sarah Dyke]

Yes, Mrs Murray. My office contacted the hon. Gentleman’s office an hour before the debate.

One farmer described the Government’s trade deal with Australia as a “disaster”, and another as “criminal”. Another said it would

“only benefit Australia, New Zealand and the UK supermarkets”.

It seems that the strong arm of the supermarkets is leaving farmers stranded at the bottom of the supply chain. The imbalance needs to be equalised if we are going to ensure food security in the UK. Many farmers are on the brink, but that is nothing new. The decline has been a long time coming, with 110,000 farms lost since 1990. Growing up in a farming community, I know how damaging that has been to my family, friends and neighbours. Our hard-working farmers know that quality food should not cost the earth, either for the consumer or our precious environment.

Our farmers are the guardians of the countryside. They know that farming and the environment are intrinsically linked. They are responsible for keeping our natural biodiversity flourishing. If we drive family farms out of business, they will be replaced with larger, industrial farms that will be less entrenched in our communities and care less about protecting biodiversity. A Guardian article from 2021 summed it up perfectly when it said that the alternative could be “factory farming with a” thin “green veneer.”

I cannot emphasise this point strongly enough: if we want to maintain our beautiful British countryside, we need to protect our farmers. Farmers need to be able to plan ahead. They need commitment from others in the supply chain, but all too often, that trust is broken as supermarkets vie for cheaper food, reject produce at short notice or simply change their minds, leaving farmers without a market, without an income or security, and so often without a future.

Some farmers are able to avoid selling to supermarkets, but many are left exploited on an industrial scale. Most often, the exploited farms will be small family farms struggling to produce food to suit the ever-changing demands of the supermarkets, whose focus is the pursuit of ever-cheaper food at any cost.

As I have said, the public want farmers to be paid fairly, and they want to be able to access healthy, quality food, but the current system does not allow that to happen. As Liberal Democrats, we want to give the Groceries Code Adjudicator more teeth to address unfairness in all supply chains, not just the transactions related to those who directly supply retailers. Alongside my Liberal Democrat colleagues, I am calling for the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate any profiteering that has taken place among the big supermarkets and food multinationals, and for tougher rules to prevent them from raising food prices more than they need to.

This disenfranchisement among farmers in the agrifood supply chain is complex, with significant social and economic implications, but so many of the Government’s decisions are made in silos, all the while leaving farmers facing financial hardship and food rotting in the fields. The Liberal Democrats listen to farmers, and we know they need a fair deal. We want to give an extra £1 billion boost to British farms to enable more sustainable family farming and to allow them to continue providing the public plate with high-quality, locally sourced, seasonal food at a fair price.

Storm Henk

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Monday 8th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Robbie Moore]

During extremely heavy rainfall, which we have seen from not only Storm Henk, but Storm Babet and during the winter period, water companies have worked tirelessly to minimise the impact on customers and the environment. While the sheer volume of rainfall has meant that some storm overflows have automatically activated, the Government and the Environment Agency continue to monitor the situation closely. I make the point that back in 2010, only 7% of storm overflows were monitored; we are now at 100% storm overflow monitoring, which better enables us to ensure that our resources are targeted where they are most needed. That is the reassurance I want to provide to my hon. Friend and the House.

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

Somerset is once again experiencing the effects of climate change at first hand, and Storm Henk was the latest catastrophic event to result in flooding across my constituency. Will provisions be introduced to help communities create their own bespoke extreme weather resilience plans in identified catchment areas?

[Robbie Moore]

It is important for all communities to work together closely, and during my visits over the last two weekends I saw some great examples of local authorities working closely with their communities. However, the Government are also taking action very quickly. We are working with the Environment Agency and with local authorities that have been affected, and through the flood resilience forums. That is how we are able to communicate as swiftly as possible with the affected communities, and how we have been able to make rapid decisions to ensure that we roll out the necessary support. The flood recovery scheme and fund have also made that possible this weekend.

Sustainable Farming Initiative

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Tuesday 19th December 2023 Westminster Hall

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

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the matter of transitioning to the Sustainable Farming Initiative.

It is an ongoing pleasure to continue serving under your guidance this morning, Dame Maria. I welcome hon. Members to their seats and the Minister to his. I start by wishing everyone merry Christmas, in the spirit of the debate we have just had.

The sustainable farming incentive is a cornerstone of the Government’s environmental land management schemes. The hallmark of SFI in particular, and ELMS in general, is that public money should support our farmers for delivering public goods. The principles underlying that transition are supported by farmers across the country, by environmental groups and, for what it is worth, by me. The point of this debate is to issue a plea to the Minister, the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister that they start listening to farmers and acknowledge the damage they are doing to farmers, food production and our environment by the way they are managing the transition from the old scheme to the new.

The Conservative manifesto promised £2.4 billion to English farming, yet in the past year the Government spent only £2.23 billion on various schemes and, crucially, only £1.956 billion of that went into farming. The Government have, therefore, broken their promise to farmers to the tune of £444 million last year and, with the phasing out of the basic payment scheme stepping up, they are set to break their promise to farmers to an even greater degree next year.

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

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. Recent figures show a remarkably low uptake of the sustainable farming incentive. Does my hon. Friend agree that it simply does not have enough incentive for farmers to join?

[Tim Farron]

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point; I will come to that in a little while, because I think that does explain a lot of why that underspend has happened. It is easy to see how it has happened; it is not a mystery. It is down to two things: first, the Conservative Government have been very good at phasing out the old BPS, and secondly, they have been relentlessly incompetent at bringing in the new schemes, including for the reason that my hon. Friend set out.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs figures show that around £460 million has been removed from farmers’ pockets in the form of the BPS phase-out, which eclipses the increase in environmental payments of around £155 million. Much of that has not even gone to farmers. It has instead found its way into the very deep pockets of large landowners, including new entrant corporate landowners, looking to do a bit of greenwashing at the taxpayer’s expense.

In the spring of 2021, the Government promised to spend £275 million on SFI schemes in the 2022-23 financial year. Yet, in reality, excluding the pilots, they spent literally nothing—zero pounds, zero pence. This year, the Government plan to spend just shy of £290 million on SFIs. One question for the Minister is: how much of that money will actually go to farmers in this current financial year?

--- Later in debate ---

[Tim Farron]

My hon. Friend makes a really good point, and that also happens in my constituency. Accidentally, the Government are acting in a counterproductive way when it comes to the environment.

Others at that meeting in South Westmorland near Kendal told me that they are putting off investing in capital equipment because the loss of BPS and the lack of replacement income means that they do not have the cash flow to invest in a long-overdue new dairy parlour, a covered slurry tank or other things that would increase productivity and improve environmental outcomes. The Minister will say that many grants are available to farmers to help them in that respect, and in some cases they absolutely can, but not if contractors need to be paid up front as DEFRA expects farmers to demonstrate that they have the money in the bank to do that before releasing those grants.

DEFRA’s own figures show that upland livestock farmers have lost 41% of their income during this Parliament, and that lowland livestock farmers have lost 44%. One famer near Keswick told me, tongue in cheek, that he had calculated that the fines he would receive for committing a string of pretty terrible crimes would not amount to what he lost in farm income thanks to this Government.

[Sarah Dyke]

My hon. Friend is making a very good point. Does he agree that financially aware farms help make financially secure farms, which build food security for the country?

[Tim Farron]

Absolutely. If we do not give people stability of income and certainty, how can we expect them to provide the food and the environmental gains that we need?

I challenge the Minister to come up with any industry that has been penalised as badly by the Government over the past four years as our farmers. To be fair, I do not think the Government actually intended to do so much harm to farming and farmers. I do not believe they sat down and decided to break their promise to farmers and make a net cut of more than a sixth in farm spending, but those cuts have happened all the same because of flaws built into the system either by accident or by design, which have led to predictable and ever-increasing sums of money being taken out of farming, while smaller and less predictable amounts have been introduced.

Let me set out some of the flaws, in the hope that the Minister will address them. First, the system has built-in perverse incentives, as my hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) said, which mean that farmers at the forefront of environmental work are penalised. Farmers who are in an existing higher level stewardship or uplands entry level stewardship scheme lose their BPS—by the end of this month, they will have lost between 35% and 50%—yet they cannot fully access SFI. In other words, farmers already doing good environmental work can only lose income from this process. That is especially so in the Lake district, the Cartmel peninsula, the dales and the Eden valley—some of our most treasured and picturesque landscapes. In upland areas, basic payments typically make up 60% of financial support. Farmers in those beautiful places, which are so essential to our heritage, our environment and our tourism economy are stuck. They are already in stewardship schemes, but their BPS is being removed and they cannot meaningfully access SFI.

The Lake district is a world heritage site. If the landscape changes dramatically for the worse in the next few years because of the Government’s failure to understand the impact of their error, that world heritage site status is at risk, and its loss would cause huge damage to our vital hospitality and tourism economy in Cumbria, which serves 20 million visitors a year and sustains 60,000 jobs.

The Government’s failure to allow farmers to stack schemes to deliver more for nature is foolish and bureaucratic, and it means that they were always going to be taking more away from farmers than they could ever give back.

Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 18th December 2023 Commons Chamber

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

Although I very much welcome the return of this Bill, I wish it had not been an afterthought. I wish this was not another U-turn, albeit a partial U-turn, designed to paper over the cracks of 13 years of Government failure. More than anything, I wish this Government showed the same concern for the welfare of those who care for our livestock.

Farmers and farms are facing huge deficits in their finances. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has cut, cut, cut funding to our farms. This Government have failed to create a system that is equitable, as the reformed system still disproportionately benefits large landowners. The take-up of the flagship environmental land management policy, the sustainable farming initiative, is very low: only 82,000 eligible farmers are currently signed up. All the while, DEFRA figures show a cut in departmental communications at a time when farmers are the least financially secure in 50 years.

Farmers are being sent like lambs to the slaughter by this Government, and have been betrayed and undermined by the botched Tory Brexit deal and the shambolic lack of planning that has devastated farm finances, leaving many farmers on the brink. Farmers have been let down by trade deals with countries that have far lower animal welfare standards than our own, flooding the market with cheap and lesser-quality produce, and markets continue to narrow further.

I must declare an interest at this point. I may be merely a spring lamb in this place, but I am from a farming family, my neighbours are farmers and my friends are farmers. We are the custodians of the countryside and we care about the welfare of our livestock, so I am keen to shed light on how this Government’s policy, or lack of it, affects farmers. National Farmers Union polling data from August shows that 87% of dairy farmers in England are seriously worried about the effect of Government regulation on their finances. Farmers make up 1% of the UK population, but they account for 14% of workplace incidents, a rate 20 times higher than the UK industry average. Unfortunately, last year, 36% of those were suicides.

[The Minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries (Mark Spencer)]

Does the hon. Member want to give us a single example of a regulation this Government have introduced on dairy farmers?

[Sarah Dyke]

I will not at this stage—I will carry on with what I am saying—but of course lots of funding has been cut.

In 2021, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution’s big farming survey found that over a third of respondents displayed symptoms classifying them as having poor mental health as a flagging concern, while 47% displayed anxiety and 21% showed signs of depression. The farmers at the highest risk of poor mental health were those working with pigs, grazing livestock and dairy, the sectors primarily affected by this legislation. The Liberal Democrats were the first to assert that mental health is equal to physical health. I am very grateful to the Farm Safety Foundation for its work, and I hope Members will join me in supporting its Mind Your Head campaign in February. I urge any farmers listening today to use its fantastic “Little Book” to get information and help.

However, we need the Government to step up and stop expecting charities to fill their wellies. I urge Ministers to listen to our farmers, reflect on Government messaging, and devise a properly considered, fully financed, long-term plan for food and farming resilience in this country. I call on the Government to listen to our farmers and to the Liberals Democrats, and to plan for the long haul and value the welfare of our hard-working farmers as much as the welfare of our livestock.

Public Sector Food Procurement

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Tuesday 12th December 2023 Westminster Hall

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

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Christopher. I thank the hon. Member for Totnes (Anthony Mangnall) for securing this important debate.

Food must form an important part of any credible long-term health proposal, as well as any long-term environmental and geopolitical planning. The hon. Member for Totnes has already mentioned the role the south-west played during the local food hub trials, but many of my constituents feel led up the garden path by this Government’s food and farming strategy.

Somerset had 8,500 people working on farms or in food production in 2021—the highest of any county in the UK. It brought in around £500 million to Somerset’s rural economy. The farms of the south-west are some of the smallest in the UK, and we must recognise that nuance when talking about food supply. Indeed, I live in the Blackmore vale, where my family farm is. It is known as “the vale of the little dairies”, made famous by Thomas Hardy, as some hon. Members may know. We have so many different types of farms, and a supply strategy that may work for a large arable farm is not necessarily applicable to small dairy farms, like the one that I grew up on. I am in Westminster to ensure that farmers’ voices are heard loud and clear—something farmers have recently had to look to a motoring journalist for.

A recent 2022 report from the Food for Life project, which is run by the Soil Association along with other partners, showed that although regional supply companies win about 78% of public food contracts, the food itself is often not local. One in three organisations surveyed did not even know where the food it supplied came from. If the public sector is set up to favour local food and understand the nuances and complications of the industry, our population will be not only food secure, but job secure and health secure. Food for Life and its partners are calling for reforms to the way that food producers and public sector procurers link up. We should make use of ugly fruit and vegetables, and encourage and fund rural hubs like Frome Community Fridge, which gathers and distributes food that would otherwise go to waste. We need to educate public food procurers and consumers on seasonality, and promote fruit and vegetables that grow better here than highly popular but non-native recipe mainstays. We need seasonally produced nutritious food in our public sector institutions. By cutting out food miles, the impact on the environment is lessened, and we all need food in our public sector to be affordable.

The recent programme for international student assessment report reveals that 11% of pupils in the UK miss out on a meal at least once a week; that is above the OECD average. As we have heard today, hungry pupils are less likely to learn. I frequently receive emails from teachers and parents calling for free school meals to be extended. The appetite is clearly there and I hope the Minister will listen. The Liberal Democrats will provide free school meals for every primary school child and every secondary school child living in a universal credit household. Children who eat well learn well, and children who learn how to eat well will eat well for life. We want children growing into educated and informed consumers who champion seasonality, safeguard our precious environment, eat locally and, above all, eat healthily.

Water Companies: Executive Bonuses

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Tuesday 5th December 2023 Commons Chamber

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

Yesterday in Somerset, 67 millimetres of rain fell in 24 hours and 10 flood warnings have been issued at the time of speaking. This is not a one-off event. Flash floods in May flooded nearly 100 homes in my constituency alone. Yesterday I had a call from a constituent in her 80s with significant mobility issues. The entire ground floor of her home was flooded and she was struggling to leave safely. The water is not clean. The flash floods included raw human waste from an outdated local sewage system that failed to cope after decades of neglect. In 2021, all of Somerset’s five rivers were rated poor by the Environment Agency. It has been left to volunteers, such as the Friends of the River Frome, to take action. Half of Somerset’s bathing sites are rated poor and plenty of areas across the country, such as Farleigh Hungerford in my constituency, urgently need Government investment and attention to help clean up that pollution.

The Liberal Democrat amendment to the Environment Bill, now the Environment Act 2021, called for a sewage tax on pre-tax profits of water companies to fund cleaning our rivers. Statistics from the Environment Agency show that 0% of rivers in England are classed as good. An ambassador to the Rivers Trust, Imogen Grant—an Olympic rower as well as a qualified medic—told me that she has rowed past used nappies, used tampons and even a fridge on the River Thames. The board of Thames Water, which is causing most of that pollution, should resign today.

The risks to human life are bad enough and my constituents have their MP to speak loudly for them. My hon. Friend the Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron) rightly spoke up in this place last night for victims of sewage pollution. My colleagues and I are extremely disappointed that the Government voted not to provide compensation. We hope they will listen to our campaign for a new blue flag standard for rivers in England and Wales. Imagine how constituents in Westmorland and Lonsdale feel today after that treachery from the Government, and after the BBC’s “Panorama” investigation showed the duplicity of the water companies. The Government have led our constituents up the creek, taken away the paddle, and then sold the boat to water company bosses.

I am sure the Chamber is aware of the “Panorama” report yesterday, which alleged that United Utilities misreported sewage pollution events and downgraded incidents to the lowest level so that they were not counted as pollution incidents. The BBC alleges that United Utilities, by doing that, was awarded the right to raise £5.1 million by increasing bills for their 7 million customers next year. The Liberal Democrats are calling for a criminal investigation to be opened immediately. The Government must support us.

I am concerned about the impact that this scandal will have on my constituents’ finances. It is simply not fair that we should pay higher bills because water firms continue to pump out raw sewage. Water firm executives paid themselves £30.6 million in bonuses in 2020-21, and even the Environment Agency has described their behaviour as criminal. The Government should listen to Liberal Democrat policies and replace the friendly goldfish Ofwat—a harmless decoration with a poor memory—with a fierce and determined new regulator, a tiger shark.

It is shocking that water firms are not only polluting our waterways but using dodgy sewage monitors, the number of which actually increased this year. I was shocked to hear reports that in areas such as Eastbourne in Sussex, there are concerns that Southern Water’s monitoring service, Beachbuoy, is not updating until days after sewage discharges on to a beach. Swimmers are taking their last moonlight swim before the great white attacks—but the great white is a patch of human waste with Weil’s disease and dysentery dripping from its teeth.

Our waterways can recover, but they need action now, before it is too late. We need a tax on sewage water companies, not huge holiday bonuses. We need a tough, toothed tiger shark of a regulator. We need our environment to have long-term protection from a serious and committed Government. Liberal Democrats support a public benefit company model for water companies so that particular economic and environmental policy objectives must be considered explicitly in the running of the companies. This Government need to listen to the people speaking up for our silent water. The clock is ticking.

Rural Communities: Government Support

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Tuesday 28th November 2023 Westminster Hall

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

I beg to move,

That this House has considered Government support for rural communities.

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Charles. This is the first debate that I have held. I feel it is important to highlight the challenges facing many of our rural communities. The Government must recognise the financial support needed, especially for local authorities to deliver essential frontline services.

To begin, I will explain the challenges that affect rural communities, and how their rurality provides specific complications that are often missed or ignored by central Government. People who live in rural areas face added living costs known as the rural premium. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that they typically need to spend around 10% to 20% more on everyday essentials than their urban counterparts. The rural economy is 19% less productive per worker than the national average, which is reported to cost the UK economy £43 billion per year. Employers face difficulties recruiting staff as rural areas generally have poorer public transport connections, resulting in employees relying on private vehicles and facing higher fuel expenditure.

The Government recognised the need to assist rural areas with the cost of travel and introduced the rural fuel duty relief in 2001, and it was extended again in 2015. However, it extends only to the most remote parts of the UK. I urge the Government to listen to Liberal Democrat calls for the scheme to be extended to cover most rural areas in the UK, including Somerset.

Fifty-three thousand people live within 10 km of Langport and Somerton, yet they are without access to a train station. Travellers have to drive 24 km to Taunton or 25km to Castle Cary. For those without access to private transport, the travel time by bus between Langport and Taunton is 51 minutes, and for Somerton it is 62 minutes. There is no direct connection to the rail by bus between Langport and Somerton and Castle Cary, with public transport requiring an interchange. The shortest journey time is therefore around one hour and 17 minutes. Bus routes in my constituency are also under threat, with four routes currently without guaranteed long-term funding.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing her first Westminster Hall debate. She is making an excellent speech. Does she agree that bus services are important not only for getting people to train stations but for preventing social isolation and getting people to school and to the doctors and so on?

[Sarah Dyke]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend that rural isolation is a very important matter.

I received a phone call today from a constituent who cannot get to their medical appointments. The 58 bus service is currently under threat, and if that closes they will not be able to move around the constituency and access the vital services they need. It is clear that sparse public transport is a constant constraint to regeneration of the local economy.

[Dr Luke Evans (Bosworth) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Member on securing this debate. She is doing a wonderful job raising many of the issues that I also see in Bosworth, which is an 85% rural community. She has hit on the issue of sparsity and its impact on the delivery of services that need to be able to reach people, such as care workers. Does she agree that the Government should consider changing the local authority funding formula such that it takes sparsity into account? That would make a real difference, because it is a real problem when it comes to hidden rural poverty.

[Sarah Dyke]

I wholeheartedly agree with the hon. Gentleman. It is very important for very rural areas such as Somerset, so I thank him for that.

Moving on to broadband, poor levels of rural connectivity and broadband impact rural economies, limiting growth and inhibiting people’s lives. New research by Vodafone UK revealed the extent of the rural digital divide across the UK. Somerton and Frome is in the bottom 6% of constituencies for mobile coverage, and nearly a quarter of the constituency is in a total 5G notspot. This has a significant impact on attracting businesses to the area, with rural businesses already struggling with online sales, services and accepting credit card payments.

For these reasons, many rural businesses rely on cash, meaning that access to cash is even more important in rural areas. Three banks have closed in Somerton and Frome in the last year alone, and the sharp drop in Government services through post offices has exacerbated the problem of post offices closing. Since 2010, Government services through post offices have declined by over 75%, as provision has been withdrawn. That affects the profitability of post offices and withdraws a valuable front-facing public asset from rural communities.

While the Government may brag about bringing inflation down to 4.6%, food inflation remains very high, at around 10%. The impact of food inflation can hit rural communities harder than their urban counterparts. Research by Which? found that people who rely on small local supermarket stores will almost never be able to buy essential budget-line items. Those types of stores are more prevalent in rural communities, with access to larger supermarkets more likely to be close to the urban centres.

Data from the Association of Convenience Stores shows that rural consumer visits to local convenience stores dropped from 3.4 times a week in 2018 to 2.5 times in 2022, suggesting that people are feeling the effects of food inflation acutely, which will hurt these convenience stores. When local convenience stores fail, they leave behind an empty space, which is often unfilled, depriving the community of vital provisions and forcing people to travel further for goods. Over the last two years, food prices have risen by more than a quarter. Examples of food prices now compared with 12 months ago reveal the extent to which people are struggling. In Tesco 12 months ago, 10 large eggs were sold at £2.70; now, they cost £3.85. The cost is 42% higher in just one year.

To tackle food prices and ensure food security, the Government need to provide support to those who grow our food. We need sustainable food production here at home. The common agricultural policy reform was welcomed, but the Government have botched that, leaving many farmers on the brink. The farming budget for England has not increased in line with inflation, despite the cost of farmers’ inputs and energy costs increasing significantly. Also, the latest figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs show that the average farm in England is £5,000 down this year because of departmental underspend.

Before the autumn statement, the National Farmers Union president was clear that British farming needs more investment. That is something that I, as someone from a farming family, fully agree with. It is also something that my party fully agrees with. The Liberal Democrats want to boost the farming budget by £1 billion to provide farmers with the relief that they so desperately need, alongside giving food producers more energy support.

Our rural communities have an intrinsic relationship with farming; 91% of land in Somerton and Frome is agricultural. Farming and its supply chain are major employers throughout rural communities, but they are struggling to get the workers that they need, which points to the major workforce problems in the sector. A report last year by the Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that covid and Brexit had had a huge impact on the sector. A lack of workers severely affects the productivity of our farms, resulting in higher food prices. The Liberal Democrats want to act on that by ensuring that we provide visas for agricultural workers and allow our farms to produce the food that they so desperately want to produce.

Farms have also been heavily affected by increases in energy costs. The Government reduced energy support for farms drastically—by 85%—in replacing the energy bill relief scheme with the energy bills discount scheme, and with farms not being classified as an energy and trade-intensive industry, farmers have been denied extra support, despite the industry being highly energy intensive.

The high costs of energy have also massively impacted domestic consumers. The higher likelihood of rural communities not having a direct relationship with their energy supplier has posed different difficulties for rural consumers from those faced by their urban counterparts. A quarter of homes in Somerton and Frome are off the gas grid and rely on alternative sources of fuel. Between 2021 and 2023, heating oil prices rose by 77% and the price of liquid gas doubled. The energy price guarantee introduced by the Government to cap people’s energy costs did not cover off-grid homes. They were forced to wait for the Government’s alternative fuels payment. It was initially £100, but after extensive lobbying, including by some of my Liberal Democrat colleagues, the Government increased that to £200. However, it was not rolled out for those completely off grid until March 2023. Those who are off grid are still suffering high fuel costs, with liquified petroleum gas twice the price it was two years ago. I believe that the Government need to introduce a cap on domestic heating oil to support rural areas.

The rural premium applied in rural areas needs to be recognised by the Government, and support needs to be in place to alleviate the current high cost of living. The Liberal Democrats have a plan to help rural people. This Government have shown that they do not.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sarah Dyke]

I thank the Minister, and the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Emma Hardy); and I thank all hon. Members for their passionate and valuable contributions. I close by reiterating the need for tailored support for our rural communities. They are so often forgotten, but we need to recognise their importance to our society. We need the Government to understand the specific issues that such communities face and heed the calls from hon. Members present regarding the ways that the Government can better assist.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered Government support for rural communities.