Stuart Anderson

Church buildings are community assets as well as places of worship and almost 80% of churches are involved in 35,000 social action projects annually.

Church Halls are able to apply for support from our Net Zero Carbon programme’s Quick Wins Fund (currently £2.4 million total),which can help church halls become more sustainable and energy efficient.

Through the Archbishops’ Council, the Church Commissioners funded the Buildings for Mission project, which has so far provided £6.2 million to all 41 dioceses across England for grants for repairs to churches. A further £3.2 million has funded over 30 Church Buildings Support Officers to help parishes most in need in rural and urban areas to keep their church buildings in good repair and extend their use by the wider community.

St Michael and All Angels in Lydbury North, which is within the South Shropshire constituency, has received Buildings for Mission funding for urgent roof repairs and heritage at risk. St John the Evangelist in Newcastle on Clun has also received funding for urgent ceiling plastering work restoration, supported by the Buildings Support Officer in the Diocese of Hereford.

The Commission fully supports UK Parliament Week, the largest single public engagement campaign delivered by the UK Parliament.

This year, UK Parliament Week (18–24 November) will reach over two million people, who will take part in over 15,500 activities being organised by schools, youth organisations and community groups all over the UK, in British Overseas Territories, Crown Dependencies, and many countries around the world. Every parliamentary constituency will host some form of UK Parliament Week activity.

UK Parliament Week activities are registered by the public via the UK Parliament Week website. Activities can take many forms. They have previously ranged from themed assemblies and meeting Members of Parliament to artistic and creative activities with a Parliament or democracy theme. All those who register activities are sent either a printed or digital resource to help participants learn about Parliament. The resources include board games and quizzes aimed at school-aged learners.

The Commission invites all Members to participate in UK Parliament Week by encouraging constituents to sign up for events and activities that will help them learn more about the role of Members, the work that Members carry out both at Westminster and in their constituencies, and the importance of parliamentary democracy.

UK Parliament Week is delivered by the Participation team, Parliament’s bicameral public engagement specialists.

This Government is committed to working with the police and other partners to address the blight of rural crime – broadly classified as any crime and anti-social behaviour occurring in rural areas. We are introducing tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, stronger neighbourhood policing, and robust laws to prevent farm theft and fly-tippers.

We are recruiting 13,000 more neighbourhood police and police community support officers across England and Wales.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council Wildlife and Rural Crime Strategy 2022-2025 provides a framework through which policing, and its partners, can work together to tackle the most prevalent threats and emerging issues which predominantly affect rural communities.

Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutors work closely with local police officers to tackle farm equipment theft, fly-tipping and other rural crime, and officers from the National Wildlife Crime Unit to tackle wildlife offences.

The CPS provides specialist training to ensure that its prosecutors have the expert knowledge needed to prosecute rural crime.

Each CPS Area also has a crown prosecutor dedicated to act as a Wildlife, Rural and Heritage Crime Coordinator to ensure the specialist knowledge needed to prosecute such offending is readily available.

The Parliamentary Capability Team within the Cabinet Office designs and delivers training for civil servants on all aspects of parliamentary procedure. Parliament Week is an important part of the training calendar every year. This year a programme of events will take place each day designed to improve the awareness and understanding of Parliament across the Civil Service. This will include discussions with the right honourable Leaders of both houses, officials and members. These events are advertised across all departments and open to all to attend.

Ministers and officials meet with Ofcom regularly to discuss a range of issues in relation to its role as the regulatory authority for the postal sector, including the overall provision of the universal service obligation.

It is for Ofcom, as the independent regulator, to monitor and enforce Royal Mail’s delivery of the universal service obligation.

To help ensure that there are affordable post office services in rural areas, the government provides an annual £50m network subsidy to support the delivery of both a minimum number of branches and strong geographical spread of branches in line with published access criteria.

Craven Arms lies within Shropshire County Council area which has been allocated a total of £10.8m of core UK Shared Prosperity Funding, as well as a total allocation of £2.6m in Rural Prosperity Funding. Under the UKSPF delegated delivery model, Shropshire Council can choose to invest in supporting economic growth within specific towns like Craven Arms.

In addition, the Council has received Department of Business & Trade funding of £1.2m since FY21/22 for the Shropshire Growth Hub. Growth Hubs provide local business support and advice, to help drive regional economic growth. Growth Hub support is available across England and businesses of all sizes and sectors can contact their local Growth Hubs, including in rural areas.

The Government recognises the role community groups play in our efforts to tackle climate change. Great British Energy’s Local Power Plan will support Local and Combined Authorities and Community Energy Groups to roll out small and medium‑scale renewable energy projects, to develop up to 8GW of cleaner power by 2030.

The Government also supports the community energy sector through the £10 million Community Energy Fund, which enables communities across England to access grant funding to develop local renewable energy projects for investment.

The Government continues to improve the energy efficiency of hospitals, schools and other public buildings primarily though the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, which provides public sector organisations a funding stream to help them install low carbon heating and efficiency measures.

The current application round for funding is open for applications until 25 November 2024. In addition over £80m has been made available through the Low Carbon Skills Fund for owners of public sector buildings to develop their decarbonisation plans.

According to the independent website ThinkBroadband.com, 99% of premises in the South Shropshire constituency have access to superfast broadband speeds (>=30 Mbps) and 48% can access a gigabit-capable (>1000 Mbps) connection.

Remaining premises that are not expected to receive a gigabit-capable connection through suppliers’ commercial rollout are being considered for support through Project Gigabit. This includes approximately 3,400 premises in the constituency that are currently in scope of Project Gigabit contracts across Shropshire.

Overall, 36 Project Gigabit contracts, with a total value of over £1.9 billion, have been signed to date, to bring gigabit-capable broadband to over 1 million rural and hard-to-reach homes and businesses.

Through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), we fund and support interdisciplinary research linking agriculture, nutrition and health to food security, environmental sustainability, and biodiversity.

In 2023-24, BBSRC funded around £140 million on research to improve crop and livestock health and enhance food safety and nutrition, whilst reducing food loss and waste. BBSRC’s wider investments to increase agricultural productivity include the Roslin Institute’s research programmes which have contributed to an estimated ~£18.9bn GVA in 2019-20 through global productivity improvements in agriculture and aquaculture.

The Government is committed to improving access to sport and physical activity for everybody. This is central to achieving the aims set out in the manifesto around the health and opportunity missions. Everyone, no matter who they are or where they are in the country, should have access to the best possible facilities and opportunities to get active.

The Government has committed to continued funding for grassroots facilities. £123 million will be invested UK-wide via the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme throughout 2024/25, working with our delivery partner the Football Foundation. Grassroots sport is also funded through the Government’s Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, who invest over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding each year.

Any decision as to the future of the Fund is a matter for the current Spending Review process.

The National Careers Service in England provides free, up to date, impartial information advice and guidance on careers, skills and the labour market, helping customers make informed choices about their career options, whatever their age, ethnic group and background.

The service is delivered via three channels. These are face to face, telephone and webchat. It is delivered by local, community-based contractors in nine geographic areas, drawing on localised labour market information to provide guidance, helping those who face barriers, including those within rural communities.

The National Careers Service website gives customers 24/7 access to information and advice. Careers advisers are co-located in the majority of Jobcentre Plus offices, providing specialist careers guidance.

The service operates in other settings including community centres, training providers, libraries. A recent initiative in the South West used a specially equipped bus to take careers advice directly to local communities. In some rural settings, where travel can be an issue, telephone appointments are arranged. Virtual jobs fairs and online webinars are offered for customers who may find it difficult to access face to face workshops.

Looking ahead, alongside the Department for Work and Pensions we are working in England to bring together Jobcentre Plus with the National Careers Service to create a greater awareness and focus on skills and careers, as well as join-up between employability and careers provision, enabling everyone to access and progress in good, meaningful work.

The new service will be a one-stop shop for anyone, including those in rural areas, who wants to look for work, wants help to increase their earnings, or who wants help to change their career or re-train. Employment and careers support will be available to all, not just those on benefits, who want support to find or progress in work.

The department will ensure the service is responsive to local employers, inclusive for all users, and works in partnership with other local services. We will set out more details about this and other labour market reforms through our forthcoming White Paper to Get Britain Working.

In October, the department expanded eligibility for retention incentives to include early career further education (FE) teachers in key science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and technical subjects. FE teachers can currently apply for the payment between 14 October 2024 and 31 March 2025 on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/targeted-retention-incentive-payments-for-fe-teachers.

The targeted retention incentive, aimed at boosting the recruitment and retention of teachers, gives eligible teachers in disadvantaged schools and all colleges up to £6,000 after tax. This has doubled the previous retention payments paid to school teachers and is now available to eligible teachers at all FE colleges, for the first time.

High quality, affordable early education and childcare is essential to ensuring that all our children get the best start in life.

The department recognises that there are differences in the availability of childcare depending on where you live.

The latest data from the Office for National Statistics and Ofsted shows variations in the level of access to childcare places across the country, with the most deprived local authorities and rural areas the most likely to be areas that have faced low childcare accessibility over time. The data is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-access-to-childcare-in-england/commentary-changes-in-access-to-childcare-in-england.

The government has committed to working with the sector to embed early years within the wider education system, and to find new ways to shift the early education system to better support parents in poorer and rural areas. This starts with the plan to utilise unused space in primary schools to create much needed places in 3,000 nurseries, working in partnership with all parts of the sector and local authorities.

Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the 'Early education and childcare' statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing

Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department discusses what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract. We have recently launched a termly local authority readiness self assessment tool, which is intended to enable local authorities to gauge their progress as we move towards rollout. This will enable the department to work with local authorities to address issues as they emerge.

Further education (FE) plays a critical role in delivering the government’s missions and ensuring that everyone has access to the opportunities they need, breaking down the barriers to their success and boosting economic growth.

FE funding, including the adequacy of resources across the country including South Shropshire and other rural areas, will be considered as part of the Spending Review.

The future of the holiday activities and food programme beyond 31 March 2025 is subject to the next government Spending Review taking place this autumn and the department will communicate the outcome of that process in due course.

Enforcement authorities have been able to issue penalty notices for a range of animal health and welfare offences since 1 January 2024. At the end of each financial year, enforcement authorities are required to submit an annual report to Defra on how many penalty notices they have issued. The first annual report from enforcement authorities on penalty notices issued is to be submitted to Defra by June 2025.

Defra is funding training to enforcement authorities such as local authorities and the police to support the effective implementation of penalty notices within their enforcement regime and their effective use as an enforcement tool.

The first annual report from enforcement authorities on penalty notices issued is to be submitted to Defra by June 2025 and a consolidated report will subsequently be published.

Forestry England remains committed to ensuring the public has the opportunity to comment on its future plans, such as in cases of new woodland creation.

Forestry England will continue to make sure that its consultation process supports its duty to balance and maximise the multiple benefits offered by forestry as a land use.

The Government will publish a Land Use Framework for England in due course in the form of a Green Paper, accompanied by a public consultation.

The Government will deliver a resilient and healthy food system, with a new deal that ensures fairness in the supply chain across all sectors. Farmers should always receive a fair price for their products and the Government is committed to tackling contractual unfairness wherever it exists.

Defra will continue the work closely with stakeholders from all farming sectors on the best way to achieve this.