David Chadwick MP: speeches

Speeches

• 6 Nov 2024 · Support for the Steel Industry · Hansard source

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  The closure of the last blast furnace at Port Talbot has resulted in the loss of several thousand highly skilled jobs across south Wales, prompting another economic contraction across our region. The global centre for rail excellence at Onllwyn is one project that could reverse the trend of deindustrialisation and bring back good, well-paid jobs to south Wales. Will the Secretary of State confirm that the UK Government intend to make further investments in that project, and give an update on what conversations she has had to ensure that the project gets going?

• 6 Nov 2024 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  It was a pleasure and a privilege to listen to some excellent maiden speeches. As a Welsh Liberal Democrat, I am pleased to play my part in constructive opposition. I want to see things get done for Wales, and there are certainly parts of this Budget that we welcome—for example, the increase in the carer’s allowance that my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey) and the Liberal Democrats have campaigned so hard for. Around 10% of the Welsh population are estimated to be unpaid carers, and many of them will see a real difference thanks to this initiative. We also thank the Government for listening to our calls for extra funding for the NHS and social care. It is now over to the Welsh Government to ensure that all consequential money is spent on health and social care, which has not always happened in the past. With 800,000 people stuck on waiting lists in Wales, which is nearly a third of the population, this could not be more urgent. We want to see further action on social care. Some 50% of beds in Powys are currently blocked, and the patients are unable to be discharged to go back to their homes and families. That is something that must end. Fixing our health services is key, and it is for this reason that we have called for the national insurance hike to be removed for care providers and GPs. I am proud to have mining heritage in my family, and I welcome the boost to former miners’ pensions, but confusion remains over the future of the British Coal staff superannuation scheme, which has over 41,000 members, many of them across south Wales. Further clarification has not been provided so far for those former miners. Time is running out for many of them, and we urgently call on the Government to provide some reassurance to them. We have less favourable views on other elements of the Budget, including the changes to agricultural property relief, which are causing a great deal of genuine anxiety across my constituency and Wales as a whole. If the Labour Government do not change course, they will be throwing family farms to the wolves in the same way that other industries have been let down in the past. The impact will be felt not just by young farmers unable to take on a viable farm business, but in wider consequences. The entire rural economy is dependent on farming incomes, so the changes will threaten jobs across Wales. We do not understand why the Government are not raising the revenue from other sources. Why should Welsh farmers bear the brunt of repairing the economic damage caused by the Conservatives?

• 4 Nov 2024 · Newport Chartist Commemorations: Strengthening Democracy · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for bringing forward tonight’s debate so that we can pay a special tribute to the role that Wales has played in forming our democracy over the years, but is she not concerned that the proposed new system for elections in Wales, whereby one vote will return six Senedd Members, threatens to undermine the spirit of democracy as the Chartists understood it?

• 4 Nov 2024 · Newport Chartist Commemorations: Strengthening Democracy · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 4 Nov 2024 · Budget: Implications for Farming Communities · Hansard source

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  Can the Minister confirm how many farms in Wales will be impacted by the changes to APR in the Budget?

• 29 Oct 2024 · Great British Energy Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for that contribution. De-industrialisation has been happening for a very long time across the United Kingdom, and we are yet to see a real industrial strategy that would restore the wealth, prosperity and jobs that used to exist across our industrial areas in the entire United Kingdom. Wales stands ready to play its part in powering the United Kingdom once again, but this time Wales would like to experience the tangible benefits from these projects. In my constituency, Llangattock Green Valleys has the ambition to develop plans for a large, community-owned renewable energy scheme to supply premises in the Crickhowell region. The scheme will have a mix of technologies, such as solar, hydro, wind and storage, to give a year-round supply of energy. It will be developed from the start in consultation with the community. It will be managed by the community and the profits will benefit the community itself. We Liberal Democrats are firm believers that this is exactly the model of community ownership that will provide communities with security and prosperity well into the future. It is for this reason that I urge all Members to support amendment 5 and ensure that the Bill puts the principle of community ownership at the very front and centre of what the Government are trying to achieve.

• 29 Oct 2024 · Great British Energy Bill · Hansard source

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  I pay tribute to the two excellent maiden speeches that we have heard so far in this debate, from the hon. Members for Erewash (Adam Thompson) and for Bolsover (Natalie Fleet). I hope that people from former mining communities are listening to this debate, because I am sure they will have some choice words to say about a Conservative talking about de-industrialisation. In Wales, we will never forget what the Conservatives did to our industries, and the jobs and futures they took away from people.

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

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  I thank my hon. Friend for securing this terribly important debate on the fact that rural communities are not being paid sufficiently to host the infrastructure that we need to get to net zero. Earlier this month I visited Awel Aman Tawe, a community energy charity based in my constituency that uses the revenue that it gets from a turbine that it erected itself to pay for regeneration in that deprived area of Wales. Does he think that is a preferable or more desirable outcome in comparison with other projects, such as Bute Energy’s project in Powys, where the developer is hiding the community energy funds behind layers of bureaucracy that might make them inaccessible to local residents?

• 8 Oct 2024 · Farming and Food Security · Hansard source

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  I stand here as the first ever MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe. It is the largest constituency in England and Wales, and I therefore have a foot in two worlds—one in rural mid-Wales and the other in the Swansea valley. I wish to pay tribute to my predecessors, Fay Jones and Christina Rees, for their commitment to Welsh politics and their service to these communities. The north of the constituency starts in the uplands of Radnorshire, a historical county featuring the market towns of Knighton, Rhayader—the outdoors capital of Wales—and Presteigne. Our constituency has three spa towns: Llandrindod Wells, Builth Wells and Llanwrtyd Wells. Builth Wells, of course, is where the Royal Welsh show, Europe’s largest agricultural gathering, takes place each summer. At the centre of the constituency is my handsome, historical hometown of Brecon, which is home to the Army in Wales and a thriving Nepalese community. The world book town of Hay-on-Wye shows that a small rural town can be a world leader, as does Britain’s best high street in Crickhowell, not forgetting the horticultural talents on display in Talgarth. At the head of the Swansea valley is Ystradgynlais, the birthplace of the British iron industry, and Pontardawe, where the roof of the White House was made. This enormous constituency was not created by popular demand but was welded together following the previous Government’s decision to cut the number of Welsh constituencies by a fifth. Wales responded by cutting the number of Welsh Conservative MPs to zero. Welsh farmers will not forget the trade deals that the previous Government signed with New Zealand and Australia. Wales wants a fairer deal from this Parliament. Yesterday, we debated the challenges facing the NHS in England. Many of my constituents travel to England for NHS treatment, and I have tried healthcare systems across the world. I was run over by a car in the Netherlands and was paralysed by Guillain-Barré syndrome in Argentina—it was a tough couple of years—so I have seen how high-quality healthcare changes lives and saves lives. I am sorry to say that the Welsh NHS is in dire straits. Its outcomes are worse than those in England, yet no equivalent review is taking place in Wales. Instead, the Welsh Government are forcing health boards to make heavy budget cuts. They are proposing to cut the opening hours of minor injuries units at hospitals in Brecon, Llandrindod Wells and Ystradgynlais, forcing local residents to travel long distances, relying on roads that are often closed or bus journeys that can take a whole day. People living in rural areas should not have to pay a rural penalty to access healthcare. Indeed, rural areas can help to tackle the healthcare crisis we face. Let us take obesity, for example. We can lighten the load on our NHS by bettering the nation’s diet. If we recognised the true value of good food and local produce, we would appreciate the public health and environmental benefits from money spent on the agriculture budget. The Government must be aware of the agriculture budget’s massive multiplier effect for the rural economy, and they should give farmers the stability and funding they need. Food security is a major concern. Some 61% of farmers are considering giving up, and the farming workforce is dwindling. Our farmers and growers produce world-class produce, battling harsh weather and constantly changing market conditions. These market conditions are often set by the retail giants, and I know that my predecessor, Roger Williams, fought to level the relationship between retailers and farmers by strengthening the Groceries Code Adjudicator. It is a shame that the Conservatives did not do more to strengthen that code during their time in office. I will carry on that fight. During the past week, we have seen an important campaign by Riverford, holding supermarkets to account for misleading shoppers with fake farm brands and driving Britain’s family farms to the brink. That is just one example of the challenges that farmers face. We need to champion local food systems, not imports. Let us support the movement towards rebuilding local supply chains, driven by a new generation of rural entrepreneurs, who are opening restaurants, building brands, bringing back jobs and remaking our high streets. That spirit of innovation still flourishes in Wales. We once had the lead in industrial sciences. We were the world’s first industrial nation, but now Wales is £10,000 a head poorer than England, and still shedding jobs. For both of my grandfathers, the steel industry was the first rung on the career ladder. One of them climbed the ladders at Port Talbot, but now those ladders have been taken away. Those jobs must be replaced for the families in my constituency who are now facing unemployment before Christmas. If this Government want to back Welsh industry and Welsh jobs, they can show it by backing the global centre for rail excellence in Onllwyn. Great Britain has no all-purpose testing centre for railway vehicles and infrastructure, but a former mine has been repurposed to be that facility. Give us the tools and we will get on with it, for we still know how to dig ourselves out of a hole in Wales. We are a creative people. We love music, words and singing. We love reading about other people, which is why my constituency sustains three local newspapers— The Brecon and Radnor Express , The County Times and The Mid Wales Journal —as well as the Ponty Mag , The Beacon and the Rhosgoch Gossip . Finally, I thank my partner, Gemma, whose bravery and resourcefulness continue to inspire me; my son, William; and our next soon-to-be-born child, who does not have a name yet. I am opting for Enzo, so I would love the House’s support for that. I dedicate my work here to fighting for the future they deserve.

• 11 Sept 2024 · Rural Digital Infrastructure · Hansard source

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  Many of my constituents living in areas such as Llanwrthwl and Llanafan Fawr have been missed out by previous roll-out schemes. Are the Government committed to ensuring that funding is available to ensure that people living in so-called hard-to-reach areas can be connected?

• 11 Sept 2024 · Rural Digital Infrastructure · Hansard source

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  11. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to improve digital infrastructure in rural Wales.

• 30 Jul 2024 · Food Security · Hansard source

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  rose —

• 30 Jul 2024 · Food Security · Hansard source

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  Last week I was privileged to attend the Royal Welsh show in my constituency of Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe, one of the biggest constituencies in England and Wales. I spoke to many farmers, and top of their list of concerns was the power imbalance between producers and retailers. Will the right hon. Gentleman agree with the Lib Dem manifesto, which called for a strengthening of the Groceries Code Adjudicator to ensure fairness in the supply chain, thereby protecting producers and guaranteeing food security?