Ben Goldsborough MP: speeches

Speeches

• 30 Jun 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T8. Some 3,537 of my constituents in South Norfolk are veterans. Being a veteran in a rural community is very different from being one in an urban community. What action are the Government taking to ensure that my veterans have the support they need?

• 5 Jun 2025 · Bank Closures and Banking Hubs · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Blyth and Ashington (Ian Lavery) on securing the debate. South Norfolk is no stranger to the creeping erosion of our local banking infrastructure. In January this year, Lloyds bank announced that it will close its branch in Wymondham, which is the last high street bank in the town. That leaves only a single branch of the Nationwide building society to serve a growing population of over 17,000. The day after the closure was announced, on 30 January, I secured an emergency meeting with Lloyds bank and made it clear that, without alternative provision, the closure would have serious consequences, especially for small businesses, and the data bears this out. Lloyds bank’s own data shows that Wymondham cashpoint use increased by 17% between 2019 and 2024. That is not a service in decline, but a service in demand. It is absolutely clear that a new banking hub must be up and running before the bank branch closes next March. I am pleased to report that this has now been arranged and that the site is currently being finalised. I will continue to do everything within my power to ensure that Wymondham is not left behind. However, this issue is not limited to my largest town in South Norfolk. Loddon lost its Barclays bank in 2017, Long Stratton lost its Barclays bank in 2015, and if we are not careful, the story will be repeated across every rural constituency in the country. For rural communities such as mine, access to cash is not a matter of convenience; it is essential. Many of our villages still experience patchy mobile signal and poor internet connectivity, and when card machines go down or wi-fi drops out, it is cash that keeps the local economy going. We must remember that rural Norfolk has one of the oldest populations in the country. Many residents prefer, or simply need, to manage their money in person. For them, travelling 20 or 30 miles to the nearest bank in Norwich is not going to work. That is why we need to be far more imaginative about how we can ensure that people have access to cash. One idea is to reimagine how we use our post offices and pubs. We all know that pubs are the hubs of our communities in village life, but too many are struggling to stay open. Letting them provide additional services, such as access to cash and postal services, would be a way to keep those hubs of rural village life going. Community banking should not be something that we fight tooth and nail to preserve; it should be the backbone of a fair and functioning economy. Our rural towns and villages should not be told that their need is out of date or out of scope. I will keep fighting for that in Wymondham, Loddon, Long Stratton and all the villages of South Norfolk, and I know that many of my hon. Friends will be doing the same for their rural communities.

• 3 Jun 2025 · Prisons: Rehabilitation · Hansard source

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  Prison has two purposes: rehabilitation and punishment. We need offenders to pay back to the communities and individuals they have harmed. I welcome my hon. Friend’s actions to punish offenders in the community. Can I give him a list of all the potholes that need filling in Norfolk?

• 29 Apr 2025 · Allotments in Wymondham · Hansard source

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  I rise to present a petition concerning the future of allotments in Wymondham, signed by 391 residents of South Norfolk. These signatures reflect the strength of feeling in the town about the importance of these much-loved growing spaces. The decision by Anglian Water to end the lease of this land risks tearing up decades of community gardening, friendship and pride. It is clear from the response of local people that this is not just about soil and sheds—it is about the social fabric of Wymondham. It is vital that this issue is brought before the House, so that those in positions of power understand what this land means to those who tend it. The petition states: The petition of residents of the constituency of South Norfolk, Declares that the allotmenteers of Wymondham are saddened by the ending of the lease of the land by Anglian Water to Wymondham Town Council, which will result in the loss of allotment plots. The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to encourage Anglian Water to uphold its corporate responsibilities to local people and areas, including the allotmenteers of Wymondham. And the petitioners remain, etc. [P003057]

• 24 Apr 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Fantastic local businesses, such as SugarBeat on the A140 in south Norfolk, are being hammered by drawn-out roadworks that have been signed off by Norfolk county council and carried out by EDF, with little care for the financial damage caused. Can we have a debate in Government time on holding utility companies to account when roadworks run riot?

• 22 Apr 2025 · Residential Estate Management Companies · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stuart. I thank the hon. Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) for securing this important debate. This issue comes up time and again in my postbag, particularly from residents in Wymondham town in South Norfolk. My constituents have raised three clear and pressing concerns, which I hope the Minister will be able to address in his closing remarks. First, there is a glaring lack of accountability and transparency when it comes to estate management companies. Residents are often left with no clear route to challenge fees or demand better services. At a time when every penny counts, we cannot allow these companies to make up charges on a whim and profiteer at the expense of hard-working families. Secondly, there is no effective legislation compelling developers to hand over services and responsibilities in a timely and orderly fashion, resulting in confusion, inconsistency, and, in many cases, residents caught in limbo. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, residents on these estates are paying twice: once through council tax, and again through ever-increasing estate management fees. In return, they often receive a poorer level of service than their neighbours who do not live on managed estates. I recently sat down with Kevin, a constituent who lives on a Persimmon estate in Wymondham. Like many others, Kevin’s experience has been frustrating and, frankly, unacceptable. Some services on his estate have been adopted; others have not. The local highways remain unadopted, and the water and sewage infrastructure is still being managed by a private management company, because Anglian Water has not yet adopted it. Kevin and his neighbours are left paying for a system that does not work properly, and they are rightly asking: why? I want to put Kevin’s question directly to the Minister: why can developers not be made responsible for the upkeep of estates until full adoption by the relevant authorities is complete? This is not just a question of regulation but a matter of fairness. If we believe in levelling up and supporting our families in every part of the country, we must act to ensure that residents are treated with respect, and to give them the services they pay for. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response.

• 1 Apr 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source

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  The juridification of law should worry us all, and we should make sure that primacy remains with this House; the Lord Chancellor has taken an important step towards that today. What is worrying is that for 14 years, no action was taken by the Conservative party. Does my right hon. Friend believe that that was because of incompetence or just a lack of understanding of what it meant for the country?

• 3 Dec 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  It is vital that we give value for taxpayers’ money, yet Conservative-run Norfolk county council’s doomed Norwich western link road is costing taxpayers £27,000 per day—that is nearly £50 million so far for not an inch of tarmac. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Norfolk Tories give us Liz Truss not just in Whitehall, but in county hall?

• 28 Nov 2024 · Listed Building Status: Community Groups · Hansard source

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  In Long Stratton, there is a beloved former local authority building called South Norfolk House. It has won numerous awards for its innovative architecture and its ahead-of-its-time design focus on energy efficiency, but it has been refused listed status. This could be a fantastic community asset for the town; it could be an arts hub. Will the Minister meet me to discuss its future?

• 28 Nov 2024 · Listed Building Status: Community Groups · Hansard source

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  10. What steps her Department is taking to help support community groups to secure listed status for buildings.

• 24 Oct 2024 · Special Educational Needs and Disabilities · Hansard source

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  SEND provision in Conservative-run Norfolk has collapsed after years of adversarial mismanagement by the county council. I welcome the steps that my hon. Friend has taken so far. Will she commit to recognising the value of co-production to ensure that SEND family voices are valued and money is spent wisely?

• 15 Oct 2024 · Renewable Energy Projects: Community Benefits · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I have quite a bit of energy infrastructure going on in my constituency, be it the proposed Norwich to Tilbury line, the East Pye solar farm that has just been announced or the Ørsted battery energy storage site to the north of my constituency. To say that this debate is not hypothetical for my residents—it is very much a reality—would be underselling the matter. We have talked about community benefit and community wealth-building, but that is not something my constituents are happy to hear. They want to hear the word “compensation”. They do not want to hear the word “hosting”, because, at the end of the day, a pylon is not being hosted; it is being placed in their back garden. It is important to remember in this debate that we live in a wasteland of regulatory framework for compensation. Individual businesses that take on such projects to grow their own enterprises—don’t get me wrong; they are private enterprises and there to make a profit—must work within a regulatory framework to make sure they are held to account and made to pay for the local people who have to face those developments in their area. We have seen locally that the National Grid, for example, provides its own funding and grant-based system, but funding is not granted to individuals; it is only general. It takes into account such things as social, economic and environmental benefit, but those are judged by the National Grid’s own criteria. That is not something for which the National Grid is held to account, and it does not ensure that local people have a say over what is coming back to them. The situation becomes even direr when we talk about solar farms. The industry body is responsible for setting out guidance on what should happen to all member bodies within it. Again, that creates an issue where those residents in areas considering having infrastructure in their back garden do not feel heard. They do not feel that they are being listened to in terms of what they want and where they need it. We want to drive towards net zero and we need to drive forward with the industrial upgrade to our national grid, but we end up in a situation where we are throwing the baby out with the bathwater, putting people off our future development towards being a green superpower for the rest of the world to follow.