Stuart Anderson

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.

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.

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

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.

The national funding formula (NFF) accounts for the challenges faced by small schools in rural areas through the lump sum and sparsity factors. The lump sum provides a fixed amount of £134,000 that is unrelated to pupil numbers, and so is particularly beneficial to small rural schools. The department is also providing £98 million in total through the sparsity factor in 2024/25 to support small and remote schools, which typically benefits rural schools. In 2024/25, 75 schools in Shropshire local authority area attract sparsity funding in the NFF, including 40 in the South Shropshire constituency.

In July 2024, the department also announced almost £1.1 billion through the Core Schools Budget Grant to support schools with their overall costs. All schools, including rural schools, will receive funding through this grant in 2024/25.

Delivering the government’s agenda to break down the barriers to opportunity relies on a highly skilled workforce in schools. There are now 468,693 full-time equivalent teachers in state-funded schools in England, but the department needs to do more to recruit additional teachers, especially in shortage subjects in secondary schools.

The department knows that high quality teaching is the factor that makes the biggest difference to a child’s education, which is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers. The department has taken the first steps towards this mission by restarting and expanding the teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’. The Secretary of State for Education and her ministerial team are dedicated to working alongside education partners and have already begun restoring the relationship with the sector. The Secretary of State has already addressed over 14,000 people from the workforce in the first of many regular engagements and has committed to working alongside them to re-establish teaching as an attractive and expert profession.

The number of teachers in South Shropshire has remained stable, with 526 teachers in the 2023/24 academic year. The department is doing more to attract teachers in this area. Financial incentives are one of the most effective ways to increase teacher supply. The minimum starting salary for teachers in South Shropshire increased to £30,000 from the start of the 2023/24 academic year. Mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers, who chose to work in disadvantaged schools, receive retention payments worth up to £3,000 after tax. As the department works towards its ambition of recruiting 6,500 more teachers, it will do more to ensure teachers are attracted to the areas with the highest levels of need.

Alongside recruiting more teachers, the government is also committed to tackling retention challenges, making work pay, and supporting teachers to stay in the profession and thrive. We will be making further announcements on these issues in due course.

The department has published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing and to support schools to introduce flexible working practices. The department's 'Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff service', which was developed alongside school leaders, includes a workload reduction toolkit to support schools to identify opportunities to cut excessive workload. The Education Staff Wellbeing Charter also sets out commitments from the government, Ofsted, schools and colleges to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff.

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.

We will deliver a resilient and healthy food system, with a new deal for farmers that works for farmers, food security and nature.

The only way to do this effectively is to listen to farmers and others with a stake in our food system, countryside and nature. Defra are doing this and assessing data and information about what’s working and what isn’t before setting out detailed plans. The Department will confirm plans for further optimisation and rollout of farming grants and schemes shortly.

The previous Government made a number of funding commitments in the Network North Command Paper and these will be examined closely by this Government in the coming months.

This Government takes the condition of local roads very seriously and is committed to maintaining and renewing our road network as a priority, on which Ministers will say more in future.

The previous Government made a number of funding commitments in the Network North Command Paper, and these will be examined closely by this Government in the coming months.

Palliative care services are included in the list of services that integrated care boards (ICBs), including those in Shropshire and the wider West Midlands, must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.

Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people, and their loved ones, at the end of life.

Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. The amount of funding charitable hospices receive varies by ICB area, and will, in part, be dependent on the breadth and range of palliative and end of life care provision within their ICB footprint.

The Government is going to shift the focus of healthcare out of the hospital and into the community, and we recognise that it is vital to include palliative and end of life care, including hospices, in this shift.

We will continue to proactively engage with our stakeholders, including the voluntary sector and independent hospices, on an ongoing basis, in order to understand the issues they face.

We are committed to delivering the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Transformation Programme as part of the wider National Health Service upgrades programme.

This is backed by £312 million of capital investment and will improve services and patient flow across Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in Shrewsbury and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.

The National Police Air Service (NPAS) provides borderless, round-the-clock, crewed police air support across England and Wales.

The Home Office supports NPAS through the provision of an annual capital grant. For the Financial Year 2024/25, this grant is £11.46m. The NPAS revenue budget is funded through contributions from police forces. For Financial Year 2024/25 this budget is £49.6m.

Funding for future financial years will be agreed as part of the ongoing Spending Review.

The Government recognises the importance of tackling rural crime. We are committed to safeguarding rural communities, with tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing, and stronger laws to prevent farm theft and fly-tippers.

We are also committed to implementing the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023, which aims to prevent the theft and re-sale of high-value equipment, particularly for use in rural settings.

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.

The Home Office funded the establishment of the National Rural Crime Unit. The unit takes the lead on improving co-ordination and partnership working between police forces and rural communities. This provides police forces with specialist operational support in their responses to rural crime, such as the theft of farming or construction machinery, livestock theft, fly tipping, fuel theft and equine crime. The unit also helps in sharing best practice and encouraging regional and national approaches.

The Home Office also directly funds the National Wildlife Crime Unit to provide intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to forces and other law enforcement agencies across the UK to support them in investigating wildlife crime, which can affect rural areas.

Police officer pay is determined by the Home Secretary, following advice from the independent Police Remuneration Review Body and Senior Salaries Review Body. On 29 July, the Government announced it had accepted the Review Bodies’ recommendations to award all ranks and pay points a consolidated increase of 4.75% with effect from 1 September 2024.

To support forces with the cost of the pay award, the Home Office is providing additional funding of £175m in 2024/25. Funding for 2025/26 will be announced in the next Spending Review.

The Government recognises the importance of tackling rural crime. We are committed to safeguarding rural communities, with tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing, and stronger laws to prevent farm theft and fly-tippers.

We are also committed to implementing the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023, which aims to prevent the theft and re-sale of high-value equipment, particularly for use in an agricultural setting.

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.

The National Rural Crime Unit, which the Home Office funded the establishment of, takes the lead on improving co-ordination and partnership working, which provides police forces with specialist operational support in their responses to rural crime, such as the theft of farming or construction machinery, livestock theft, fly tipping, fuel theft and equine crime, as well as through sharing best practice and encouraging regional and national approaches.

The Home Office also directly funds the National Wildlife Crime Unit to provide intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to forces and other law enforcement agencies across the UK to support them in investigating wildlife crime, which can affect rural areas.

The Government is committed to intervening early to stop young people being drawn into crime with an ambition to half knife crime in a decade, accompanied by a new, increased focus on crime prevention.

Fundamental to this will be the delivery of our Youth Futures programme, which will include the rollout of youth hubs across England and Wales. We want to work with the police, partners and local communities to design and deliver these hubs. That will include decisions on the exact location of hubs to ensure they are in the local areas that will benefit most.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for South Suffolk on 22 July to Question 117.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for South Suffolk on 22 July to Question 117.

The reviewers will report regularly on progress to the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for Defence and will make their final report to the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Defence Secretary - with recommendations - in the first half of 2025.

I refer the hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN 1157 on 30 July 2024.

This Government is fully committed to rejuvenating our high streets and supporting the businesses and communities that make our town centres successful.

Through the English Devolution Bill we will introduce a strong new ‘right to buy’ for valued community assets which will help this Government safeguard our high streets. This measure will empower local communities to reclaim and revitalise empty shops, pubs, and community spaces, helping to revamp our high streets and eliminate the blight of vacant premises.

Ludlow and Bridgnorth have access to a portion of Shropshire Council's Core UKSPF allocation totalling £10,845,217 and, under the UKSPF delegated delivery model, may choose to invest in rejuvenating high streets through a number of interventions under the ‘communities and place' investment priority. As such, £95,000 of this funding has been allocated to support a community facility to support local artisan makers and producers on Bridgnorth high street which had previously stood empty.