Richard Quigley MP: speeches

Speeches

• 14 Sept 2026 · Water Sector: Public Ownership · Hansard source

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  May I say what a phenomenal pleasure it is to serve under your chairship, Mrs Barker? You are a wonder. As the MP for half of England’s best island, I feel uniquely placed to speak about the state of our water sector. Quite frankly, I think my constituents would never forgive me if I did not use this opportunity to highlight just how unacceptable the situation has become. Since the 2024 election, there have been 14,902 hours’ worth of sewage in my constituency alone. Across the island, that figure rises to 26,682 hours. It is little wonder that islanders feel utterly frustrated, deeply let down and increasingly sceptical about the idea that the system is supposedly delivering for them or that private companies can be genuinely trusted to act in their best interests. On the island, we are immensely proud of our 57 miles of UNESCO biosphere-recognised coastline. It is part of what makes the Isle of Wight so special, but it is also why so many islanders find themselves utterly dumbfounded. The Prime Minister received a lot of flak last week for his comments about the damaging impact of the privatisation of the 1980s. The Benches opposite—not the Labour and Liberal Democrat Members sitting there now; I mean the Opposition—mocked those remarks, but not even they could argue that the state of our water industry represents a ringing endorsement of Margaret Thatcher’s privatisation project. Private equity has become so effective at fearmongering that Governments of all colours are reluctant to challenge the status quo. We hear figures, from companies that see our basic utilities as huge pound signs, that suggest that public ownership would cost £100 billion and would put workers or pension funds at risk, yet evidence from the People’s Commission suggests that public ownership could deliver a much fairer and more sustainable system than the one we have today. That is why we need to stop placing private equity on a pedestal. Water is not a luxury. It is an essential public service. My preference will always be public control, especially when private companies have blown their chance, measured on performance, investment and public trust, and have resorted to fear stories about the alternatives. Our promise of hope in every heart and growth in every postcode will not feel real or achievable if people cannot do something as basic as trusting the water that comes out of their tap, or safely swimming in the seas that surround them.

• 10 Sept 2026 · Social Housing Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the Tory idea of capping the local housing allowance would mean that families who cannot afford to stay in their area will have to move out of the area, tear their children out of school and turn their lives upside down?

• 10 Sept 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  May I say how happy I am to welcome my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to her place? I know she will continue to be a fantastic champion for the Isle of Wight. Per capita—not the pension people but per head of population—the island tops the league for tech and advanced manufacturing, but despite our brilliant pedigree, under the previous Government, we were continually overlooked for funding and investment. Will my right hon. Friend assure me that she will use her office to secure sustained growth in our postcodes, so that the island can finally receive the recognition, investment and job opportunities that its contribution to our economy deserves?

• 7 Sept 2026 · Dover and Portsmouth: Protests · Hansard source

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  I am sure that the Prime Minister will be glad to hear that the good weather is now attributable to a Labour Government. I pay tribute to the brave men and women of the RNLI who put themselves out to sea to save lives without fear or favour. The Isle of Wight salutes them all, unlike the masked bullies in Portsmouth. Lots of misinformation has happened over this weekend regarding the Isle of Wight. As we do not have the infrastructure, and cross-Solent transport is an issue for us, can the Minister confirm that there are no plans for an asylum centre on the Isle of Wight?

• 14 Jul 2026 · Coastal Communities: Isolation and Hidden Deprivation · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered isolation and hidden deprivation in coastal communities. What a stupendous pleasure it is to serve under your incredible chairship, Mr Vickers. With so much discussion in recent weeks about the north-south divide, I thought that this debate would be the perfect opportunity to bring colleagues from coastal communities together in a time-honoured parliamentary tradition of comparing notes on who has been most overlooked for funding. While that is a joke, it makes a serious point: communities like mine often feel isolated, not just from funding and opportunity, but from the national conversation. In recent years, the challenges facing the Isle of Wight have rarely made headlines or shaped the political agenda. That does not make them any less real or important to those of us who live there. What is great about securing this debate is that we can highlight in glorious technicolour the deprivation faced by coastal communities, and how that is simply not seen as urgent, visible or politically fashionable to champion by those meant to represent us. I am therefore pleased to have secured the debate and am encouraged to see so many colleagues from coastal communities across the length and breadth of the country coming together to champion the British coast. One of the biggest challenges I have faced since being elected in 2024 has been convincing policymakers that the Isle of Wight deserves not simply Government attention, but the same level of support and intervention as that of other communities facing similar levels of deprivation, poor education outcomes and lower life expectancy. Often, the island’s challenges are treated as serious enough to be acknowledged, but not urgent enough for Government intervention. I believe, however, that deprivation and isolation in places such as the Isle of Wight have reached a point where we can no longer pretend that the challenges are a hidden or unknown phenomenon. The evidence has been there for years and the experiences of local people speak for themselves. As a 2024 report from the London School of Economics argued, many of the persistent challenges facing seaside communities are driven by, in part, “a striking degree of complacency and indifference.” As Professor Chris Whitty said in his 2021 report into the health of coastal areas, even after adjusting for age and deprivation, “there remains a ‘coastal excess’ of disease”, otherwise referred to as the coastal effect. Without falling into the trap of reeling off statistics for the sake of it, I want to highlight a few examples that show exactly why the issue demands greater attention, in particular on the Isle of Wight. It is isolated by the Solent and we are the only English constituencies with only one method of transport on and off, which is privately operated. With 85% of the island classified as rural, delivering services becomes that much more difficult. We have the second highest level of educational deprivation in the south of England, a population whose average age is 11 years higher than the national average, and child poverty rates that continue to sit about 4% above the national average. Taken together, those figures demonstrate a community with clear and pressing needs, but one whose deprivation is too often obscured by neighbouring affluence, leaving it overlooked by the very funding formulas designed to help those who need them the most. I know that it has become something of a running joke that, along with my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight East (Joe Robertson), I mention ferry travel in almost every speech or intervention I make, but I ask colleagues to imagine what it would be like regularly to pay between £200 and as much as £500 to get to the next county—so to travel from Derby to Nottingham or Southampton to Portsmouth, they would need to find that sort of money. For the island, that is not a hypothetical question; it is a reality. During the Isle of Wight festival a few weeks ago, the cost of a return car ferry rose to over £500, due to dynamic pricing. For most people, a journey with a maximum distance of 12 miles would be a routine trip. For islanders, it can mean a bill larger than many people’s weekly pay packet, simply to reach the mainland and to access the services that many others take for granted. When we consider that islanders earn, on average, £5,000 a year less than their mainland counterparts, yet still rely on the same highly expensive ferries to access specialist hospital appointments, visit family and friends, pursue educational opportunities or simply enjoy the freedom to travel, the scale of our isolation becomes much clearer.

• 14 Jul 2026 · Coastal Communities: Isolation and Hidden Deprivation · Hansard source

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  I agree entirely that we are almost reliant on community groups in coastal and island communities. There is a danger that such provision no longer exists when funding dries up. We have no dedicated stroke nurse or cancer nurse. Thankfully, after asking, our integrated care board has agreed to fund an epilepsy nurse for the first time; the issue is now attracting someone to do the job. Despite small positive developments, I continue to hear numerous accounts from residents who have chosen not to pursue treatment at all, or have delayed doing so simply because they cannot face the cost, time and stress of repeatedly making the journey. As I draw to the end of my speech, that is the key point that I want to leave Members with. The costs faced by islanders and by many people living in isolated coastal communities go far beyond the inconvenience of waiting for a ferry or a lifeline transport link. Too often when we talk about isolation we focus on geography, but the real cost of isolation and deprivation is a human one. It is the opportunity not taken, the treatment not received, the family not visited, and the support that arrives too late or not at all. Until we recognise that, our funding, policymaking and public services for communities like the Isle of Wight’s will continue to face barriers that many others never have to think about.

• 14 Jul 2026 · Coastal Communities: Isolation and Hidden Deprivation · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for her response, and echo the points made by colleagues from across the House. I sincerely thank Members for attending and contributing to the debate. I also want to mention my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth West (Jessica Toale), who could not make it today but shares the concerns raised. Too often, decisions that appear cost-effective on a spreadsheet can have profound consequences in the real world. A saving identified in a Excel workbook may, in practice, mean an older person on the Isle of Wight being sent to a mainland care home, a student reaching 18 without ever experiencing life beyond their area, or a local authority struggling to meet rising demand with an overstretched adult social care budget. The human cost is always felt by those who can least afford it, and the financial cost is ultimately felt by us all. True fiscal responsibility is not just about balancing the books for the next quarter; it is about making the investments today that reduce costs tomorrow. In coastal communities like ours, that means tackling isolation and hidden deprivation, rather than simply managing their consequences year on year. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered isolation and hidden deprivation in coastal communities.

• 14 Jul 2026 · Coastal Communities: Isolation and Hidden Deprivation · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member, my neighbour, is correct. He will not be surprised to know that I have already raised the issue at least once, if not several times, with the potential incoming Prime Minister. It is not just islanders’ wallets that are impacted, but our council budgets, public services and ultimately the sustainability of the island. Earlier this year, the fair funding review left the Isle of Wight council facing a £13 million a year funding shortfall, despite the additional costs and challenges I have already described. If that does not demonstrate that current funding formulas are failing places like ours, I do not know what does. There is nothing fair about a funding review that overlooks the additional costs of island life and then expects local services to deliver the same or more with significantly less. The truth is that being an island or a coastal area comes with unavoidable costs. Even when positive changes are made nationally, they often take longer to reach us, if they reach us at all. Research undertaken by the University of Portsmouth has identified an island factor: the unavoidable additional costs associated with delivering services on the Isle of Wight. The study found that our island status creates extra costs through self-sufficiency, dislocation and what it termed the “island premium”, estimating an added cost of £380 per resident every year, but costing the Isle of Wight council at least £23 million a year extra just to stand still when compared with a similar-sized authority on the mainland. That is coupled with our deprivation, which is often hidden in plain sight. Unlike in some parts of the country where deprivation is concentrated in large urban areas, our challenges are widely dispersed across the island. Areas that experience significant levels of child poverty, poorer health outcomes and educational disadvantage sit directly alongside communities that are comparatively affluent and rank far more favourably in the Government’s indices of deprivation. That phenomenon has been described by academics as “nested deprivation”, where pockets of deep need exist in areas that appear on average to be doing relatively well. The consequence is that deprivation can be masked by neighbouring prosperity. That helps to explain but not justify how the Isle of Wight’s two constituencies can rank among the most deprived and left behind in the country on some measures, yet still miss out on funding opportunities such as Pride in Place. In other words, our deprivation is not hidden because it does not exist; it is hidden because it sits behind postcard views, nostalgia and pockets of affluence, fuelled by second-home ownership that can distort the reality. Such deprivation makes the challenges already facing the country much harder to deal with on the island. Delivering special educational needs and disabilities provision on the island or in a coastal area brings additional challenges, from recruiting and retaining specialist staff to ensuring that there are enough specialist places available. Unlike many mainland communities, families do not have the same range of nearby alternatives when local provision is stretched, and accessing support off the island can mean significant additional cost and disruption. With an ageing and often isolated population, the healthcare inequalities highlighted by Professor Chris Whitty in his 2021 report on coastal communities ring particularly true on the Isle of Wight, where we continue to see higher than average rates of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and dementia, all while patients must travel across the Solent to access specialist treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy.