Helen Morgan MP: speeches

Speeches

• 1 Jul 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  At the all-party parliamentary group on digital communities, which I chair, we often hear from mobile network operators that one reason they do not serve rural areas properly is that they cannot get planning permission. In Shropshire, the council has given planning permission to a passive infrastructure provider for three specific sites but it still cannot get the mobile network operators to put their equipment on their masts. What can the Secretary of State do to ensure mobile network operators give my constituents the coverage that they are paying for?

• 25 Jun 2026 · Health Bill (Seventh sitting) · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Huq. I am moving this amendment on behalf of my hon. Friend the Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran), who is the Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee. She designed the amendment to explicitly require the Secretary of State to make arrangements for the co-production of any health service commissioned by the Secretary of State. The Liberal Democrats support clause 15 more broadly, and particularly the plans to involve affected patients, carers and representatives in planning and commissioning arrangements. Carers are a priority for our party, so it is really important to us that they have a meaningful say in the design and delivery of their care. I would be grateful if the Minister could elaborate on what that might look like in practice. The amendment would tighten up the clause to make some of its provisions more explicit, so that we can be confident that anyone involved in an individual’s care has the ability to influence it in an appropriate way.

• 23 Jun 2026 · Health Bill (Fourth sitting) · Hansard source

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  Before the general election, I was the Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson, and one thing that came up regularly was how important housing is, and not just for obvious physical conditions—mouldy houses can cause breathing issues. Temporary accommodation is devastating for the long-term health outcomes of the people who are placed in it. Does the Minister agree that working with MHCLG to improve housing—particularly social housing—is critical to achieving the Government’s objective?

• 15 Jun 2026 · Leasehold Reform · Hansard source

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  A couple of weeks ago at my constituency surgery, I met my first victim of FirstPort. He and his wife live in a sheltered accommodation flat on the third floor, and the lift has been out of use for months. They are paying exorbitant management fees, and recently his wife had to negotiate three flights of stairs to get to an appointment while on bottled oxygen. This is not just a rip-off, but an accident waiting to happen. Will the Minister meet me and other concerned MPs to sort out what we can do about FirstPort?

• 18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  I agree entirely. I question the perception that people’s objection to masts is holding us back. In Shropshire, passive infrastructure masts have planning permission and are ready to go; what cannot be achieved is a mobile phone operator willing to put its equipment on those masts. We need to work with mobile network operators to get the connectivity we need. I will move on to public transport. Shropshire has lost 63% of its bus miles since 2015, compared with 19% on average across England. Places like Woore, a village of around 1,000 people in my constituency, have no bus service at all; others, like Trefonen, have one bus a day. Weston Rhyn residents do have a bus service, but at the moment it just does not turn up because of a road diversion. This is really holding people back.

• 14 Apr 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Wherever I go in North Shropshire, constituents tell me that access to a GP only gets worse when new homes are built, and they are right. Across the country, there are billions of pounds in unspent community infrastructure levies for new surgeries, and the average number of families that a GP serves has gone up by 917 since 2015. Will the Minister support Liberal Democrat calls for CIL to be used to support the early running costs of new GP practices, or to expand existing ones, as soon as people move into new housing, so that GP access really does come first when housing developments happen?

• 24 Mar 2026 · Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects: Electric Lines · Hansard source

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  Green GEN Cymru, which is a sister company of Bute Energy, is in the latter stages of a very controversial process to secure planning consent for power lines for the Vyrnwy Frankton connection. The problem is that there is no substation at Lower Frankton in North Shropshire with which to connect those lines. We expect that proposal to come through later this year, but given Bute Energy’s widely reported links to the Labour party and National Grid’s obligation to connect new infrastructure to the grid, how can the Minister reassure my constituents that the whole process is not predetermined?

• 12 Feb 2026 · Rural Mobile Connectivity · Hansard source

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  I thank all hon. and right hon. Members who have contributed to the debate. I am conscious that it is the final Thursday afternoon before a recess, so it shows just how important this matter is to our constituents that so many Members have come along and made good points. Bearing that in mind, I will be brief. I have done a lot of work on this issue over the last year because of the activities of the all-party group, and it is testament to the value of a Backbench Business debate that I have learned quite a lot this afternoon as well. I want to pick up on the point made by the hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) on deteriorating signal. In many areas, this problem is getting worse not better, and we need to focus on that. The issue is probably due to the quality and capacity of the signal, rather than the coverage. We are using coverage as a shorthand, but we need a high- quality, high-capacity signal in all those places, too. The hon. Member for Carlisle (Ms Minns) made some good points about spectrum and licensing. I fear that an opportunity has been missed given that 5G licences have already been issued without those quality parameters. The hon. Member for Caerfyrddin (Ann Davies) mentioned the importance of satellite solutions in filling in some of those gaps, which might overcome some of the planning issues, so I hope the Minister will look at that too. I thank everyone once more. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House calls on the Government and service providers to help improve mobile connectivity in rural areas.

• 12 Feb 2026 · Rural Mobile Connectivity · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Gentleman, my constituency neighbour, makes an extremely good point. The quality of the data is critical. One of the recommendations of the APPG is exactly that: to ensure that data is reliable and that Ofcom can challenge it where they know that it is inadequate. There is a huge difference in which areas are considered to be without “good” voice capability. Ofcom disputes Streetwave’s findings because of the methodology that it used, but the experience of those of us who live in rural areas suggests that it is Ofcom that is wrong. It is no good telling people that their service is good when their own phone is telling them that it not. Unless Ofcom establishes clear requirements to define the quality of service that networks must deliver, how can we ensure real regulatory accountability? Put simply, Ofcom and the Government must do more. I welcome the Government’s recognition of the need to improve coverage reporting in the statement of strategic priorities that it published yesterday, but at the moment we do not have the information that we need. I do not know about you, Madam Deputy Speaker, but I think people in rural areas are sick to death of being told to believe that they have never had it so good, discounting their own daily experience. Last year, Ofcom increased the accuracy of its mapping data by zoning in on smaller areas. However, if network operators do not have accurate data about the areas that need improvement —and we think that they do not—then investment is unlikely to be put into the areas of greatest need. The shared rural network initiative, which has delivered, I have to say, no noticeable improvement in my area, involved the then four mobile network operators spending half a billion of their money to end partial notspots, based on the Ofcom data that has now been superseded and that we all suspect is a bit on the dodgy side. EE—the same company as BT and Openreach—already had an extensive network of mobile masts, and it met its obligations in advance of the June 2024 deadline for the shared rural network, while other operators experienced delays. Some of the causes of delays are difficult to overcome. It is difficult to get planning permission for a new mast; there is a lack of planning resource in local authorities; there are logistical challenges to building masts in remote and rural areas; and there are issues over access to land. Another part of the problem was that EE did not share access to its masts, because it failed to reach agreement with the other mobile network operators. That was a commercial negotiation into which I do not have insight, but the reality is that better coverage could have been achieved simply through effective equipment sharing. My Bill, the Access to Telecommunications Networks Bill, sought to fix the problem by requiring telecommunications companies to share their equipment; penalising them if they did not; and, in areas where they did not, requiring people to be enabled to roam between networks. We are all familiar with that issue if we have travelled in Europe.

• 26 Jan 2026 · Armed Forces Bill · Hansard source

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  I know that Members across the House supported Liberal Democrat plans to introduce a decent homes standard for service family accommodation, and I am very grateful to the Government for bringing that in through recent legislation from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. However, single living accommodation is still really poor. Constituents in North Shropshire report rat infestations and being unable to sleep at night. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that single living accommodation also needs to be looked at as a priority?

• 21 Jan 2026 · Warm Homes Plan · Hansard source

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  As the Secretary of State has pointed out, in rural areas, we tend to have older housing stock and lots of people off-grid. They are very keen to see upgrades made to their home, and we welcome this announcement. In my constituency, a number of people engaged with the energy company obligation 4 scheme. Unfortunately, they have been let down badly by rogue installers, who have left their bills higher and their homes damaged, and who have taken money from the taxpayer. What is the Secretary of State doing to ensure that does not happen this time, and what remedy might be available for those who have been let down by rogue actors in ECO4?

• 7 Jan 2026 · Rural Communities · Hansard source

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  The local government finance settlement is a huge problem for rural local authorities. In Shropshire, we have had 16 years of Conservative mismanagement, we have a surging social care demand and our allocation has been cut in cash terms over the next three years. The black hole is unfillable and a section 114 notice looks very likely for us. Will the Minister speak to her colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government so that we can sort out that desperate problem for rural authorities?

• 20 Nov 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  My constituents are no strangers to flooding, whether that is from the Rivers Severn and Vyrnwy in villages such as Melverley or from surface water or inadequate infrastructure in Gobowen and Hadnall. The Environment Agency says that another 1,600 properties in my constituency will be vulnerable to surface water flooding by 2050, and the Planning and Infrastructure Bill fails to address flooding or climate change at all. Given that the Government voted down my amendments and those of my Lib Dem colleagues to the Bill, which were intended to tackle this problem, can we have a debate or a statement from the relevant Minister on how the UK will build flood resilience?

• 15 Oct 2025 · Jhoots Pharmacy · Hansard source

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  May I first thank my hon. Friend the Member for West Dorset (Edward Morello) for raising this appalling issue? Pharmacies are at the heart of our communities and are relied upon by millions. They are under increasing pressure across the country, where we are seeing irregular opening hours and unannounced closures. Families living in communities that rely on Jhoots pharmacies, such as those in the constituency of my hon. Friend and many other parts of the country, will be deeply concerned that they and their loved ones could be about to be left without medicines that they desperately need. Staff have been placed in an intolerable situation. The National Pharmacy Association’s chief executive has said, as we have heard, that Jhoots risks damaging the reputation of community pharmacies. The Government urgently need to grip this issue and ensure that patients and the staff of these pharmacies are not being let down. Will the Minister and the Secretary of State agree to meet all the Members in this place whose communities are affected by potential closures? Will he update the House at the earliest opportunity as to what steps he is taking to stabilise the crisis in community pharmacy across the country? Is he confident that integrated care boards, which are distracted by 50% cuts to their budgets and top-down reorganisation, have the capacity to deal with this urgent situation as they head into planning for the next winter crisis?

• 13 Oct 2025 · Leasehold System · Hansard source

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  As the Minister will be aware, some freeholders find themselves trapped in a leasehold-like situation: the wider estate that they live on is managed by a management company and not adopted by the local authority. They are fleeced in exactly the same way by exorbitant management charges, and there are often unadopted roads and poor sewerage. Will the Minister meet me to discuss how we can provide protections for freeholders who find themselves in that leasehold situation?