Steff Aquarone MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 23 Oct 2024 · Holiday and Second Homes Regulation: Cornwall and Isles of Scilly · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. To build on the point made by the hon. Member for Truro and Falmouth (Jayne Kirkham), does he agree that we need local councils in Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and elsewhere to be given greater powers to ensure that second home owners pay properly towards mitigating the overall impact of those homes on local communities? This is not about banded council tax or business rates; it is about the wider implications, for which we need to perhaps consider changes.

• 22 Oct 2024 · Pub and Hospitality Sector · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. He is making some important points about the employment generated by the sector. Does he agree that in areas such as North Norfolk, with a huge hospitality industry, greater training opportunities are vital to allow people to have full and flourishing careers in the hospitality sector? Are the Government supportive of extending that franchise?

• 16 Oct 2024 · Access to Primary Healthcare · Hansard source

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  Countless times on the doorstep during the general election campaign I discussed primary care with people in North Norfolk, and the damning legacy of the last Conservative Government means that almost everyone in my area has their own story. Stories of people who are waiting four weeks to see their GP about anything non-urgent; of people whose oral health has declined so much that they are no longer able to smile; of people who are worried for the supplies of vital medicines. The primary care crisis is acutely felt in North Norfolk, and I am glad that it is the Liberal Democrats who will be pushing this Government to bring forward solutions. Residents in Blakeney are set to lose their rural branch surgery at the start of next month despite overwhelming efforts to save it. Many people who live in Blakeney rely on that surgery and have based their independent living plans around it. Surgeries are key community assets and people will genuinely suffer if they are lost. It is why I have been proud to support our call for a small surgeries fund, to give financial stability to surgeries like that in Blakeney. I hope that today the Minister can tell us whether the Government would support that. The dentistry crisis is another of the biggest issues for North Norfolk. The hon. Member for Norwich North (Alice Macdonald) reminded us that the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care had described Norfolk as the Sahara of dental deserts. I have been pleased with the progress we are making, working with the integrated care board in the months since my election, safeguarding services in Holt and Wells, and pushing forward the case for a new dentistry school at the University of East Anglia. I have enjoyed working with my colleague the hon. Member for Norwich North on that. This issue matters to people like my constituent Alan. He receives no state support despite his wife being unable to work, and when they needed urgent dental treatment he was forced to dip into his small savings. It cannot be right that when someone pays in to the system all his life, it simply is not there when he needs it. These problems are deeper-rooted. Mental health services do not have the networks to really reach people in rural areas. Our small surgeries are vital because of our lack of public transport infrastructure, our GPs struggle to find new partners because of ballooning property prices, and our pharmacies and hospitals cannot attract the specialists they need because there is not the housing. The solutions to these problems in primary care require an holistic approach, so I hope that the Government are taking steps to stop these problems being siloed. All Liberal Democrat MPs are champions for our left-behind local health services. I urge the House to support the motion and show that we mean business about bringing our primary care services, like those in North Norfolk, back from the brink.

• 15 Oct 2024 · House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill · Hansard source

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  Hello! It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Mid and South Pembrokeshire (Henry Tufnell), and I extend my warmest regards to all the Members making their maiden speeches today. First, I would like to acknowledge my predecessor, Duncan Baker. He was an attentive and hard-working Member, and I wish him well in his future pursuits in industry. Before him, Norman Lamb served in this House for 19 years and left an extraordinary legacy in the realm of mental health, a cause that he continues to be a dedicated advocate for. It was in no small part Norman’s commitment to speaking the truth to power and giving a voice to the voiceless that made him such a hero to the people of North Norfolk, and which attracted me to politics fully seven years ago, when I was first elected as a county councillor—and I draw Members’ attention to the Register of Members’ Financial Interests in connection with my continued role there. I am immensely grateful for the trust that residents across North Norfolk have shown in me: trust to represent them here, but also trust to play a part in the deep transformation we need in our politics if we are going to make positive change for society. This is an extraordinary place, but I cannot do what I have promised to do for my constituents—we cannot really do what we have been elected to do—without giving it the shake-up that is long overdue. When people in the beautiful constituency of North Norfolk cannot live well, in good accommodation, with access to transport and employment and healthcare as part of a vibrant society, it is all of us who are failing them. I am thinking of the former resident I met on the train just last week who said to me, “I just want to come home, but there aren’t the jobs and there isn’t the transport.” I am also thinking about Kit, who made me my wonderful Liberal Democrat tie, and about the need to protect the precious Norfolk broads that she lives near; about Lisa in North Walsham, who is living in constant anguish because of the supply risks to her life-dependent medication; and about Don, a 99-year-old in Sheringham who is pinning his hope on a new kind of politics for the sake of his grandchildren. The Bill introduces much-needed reform of the House of Lords, which we Liberal Democrats of course support, but we know that it does not go far enough. We must establish a fully elected upper House—elected using a fairer voting system—as soon as possible. The House of Lords is only one part of our broken system, which needs to see urgent, radical reform. The structure and organisation of government itself must evolve to be fit for the modern age, and that transformation must extend beyond government to the wider public services and administrative systems that serve our citizens. Continuing with the current siloed structures of government is to ignore the technological advances of the past 50 years and fail to embrace the logarithmic advances in the future we are already living in. This evolution is about bringing policy and service delivery closer to the everyday lives and needs of people at every stage of their journey through life. The current structures are having a very real impact in rural areas like mine, where our public services are in dangerous decline. Benjamin Court, a re-ablement centre in Cromer, has fallen into the gap between two silos—social care, managed by the local authority, and health services, overseen by the NHS—leading to its closure. That is not to mention the desperate need for a properly networked rural public transport service, which is key to enabling access to everything from employment to healthcare, but it is out of those departments’ scope and is instead left languishing at the bottom of the pile of priorities by a near-bankrupt county council. These problems make the lives of my constituents harder every day. We cannot go on like this. But there is a solution: we can bring the design and delivery of services closer to the needs of citizens and there are plenty of precedents to go on here. In the industrial revolution, Thomas Edison made a profound contribution to rewiring the way that industry was organised. Prior to electricity generation, which he helped to develop, there tended to be only one motor in a factory. Industry had to be organised around a single source of power, usually a steam engine, with every machine that needed power connecting directly to the central drive shaft in the ceiling above. Components could be made, yes, but they then had to be transported elsewhere and assembled, usually by hand. Energy was the central organising principle of industry, but electricity made it possible to pipe power to anywhere on the factory floor. It meant that machines could be placed wherever they were needed, becoming more precise, efficient and specialised, and it led to mass manufacturing, with the product as the central organising principle of industry. Over the past few years, we have gone through another revolution that is potentially even bigger—the communications revolution. It is powered not by the invention of electricity, but by data. Since the advent of the consumer web in the 1990s, people have come to expect a higher degree of personalisation in their interactions with organisations and services. Data gathered from a wide range of sources—not just digital—is driving innovation and enabling more tailored, proactive experiences for users. This ability to be more pre-emptive and personalised does not even need people to be digitally enabled. Data has enabled the rewiring of industry, not around the production line or the product, but around the citizen, or user experience. That has caused profound change in the overall architecture of many modern organisations, but it has had limited impact on the way that Government and the state are structured. There are great innovations taking place to try to integrate services and make them more patient or user centred, but without fundamental change in the underlying structures of power and public services, their effects will be limited. From tackling climate change and preventing sewage spilling into the sea, to helping people get work and get about—let alone get a dentist appointment—so much of the change this country badly needs is not limited to one pillar of the state, but cross-cuts different Departments. Perhaps it is time to move away from the traditional silos of Secretaries of State for Education, for Health, and for Transport, and instead adopt a more citizen-focused model. Imagine Secretaries of State for the citizen experience, for wellbeing and prosperity, for children or for data and privacy. If people in North Norfolk are to get the changes they deserve to our rural health and social care provision, to access and prosper in the jobs of the future and to trust politicians as the custodians of our natural environment, we need to be prepared to rewire the structures of politics and public service delivery around the needs of the people they—and all of us in this House —serve.

• 9 Oct 2024 · Film Industry · Hansard source

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  As a very former independent producer who once cast a Culture Secretary in a film, I can say that confirmation of the tax relief is welcome. Closer to home, North Norfolk has a blossoming film industry. I am sure the right hon. Lady will be aware of the film “Alpha Papa”, where Alan Partridge met his fate on Cromer pier. However, lack of rural transport makes it hard for young creatives to live and work in my constituency. Can she tell me what discussions she has had with her colleagues at the Department for Transport about ensuring that jobs in this exciting industry are accessible for all?

• 10 Sept 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T6. The latest figures show that the court backlog sits at nearly 68,000. Every one of those cases means yet another individual victim or family waiting for justice. Despite that, the Government plan to cap the number of sitting days in our courts at a lower number than last year, losing 2,000 sitting days, which has drawn criticism from many, including the Bar Council. Could the Secretary of State tell me why those waiting for justice, including many in North Norfolk, are being forced to wait even longer?

• 10 Sept 2024 · Social Security · Hansard source

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  On the disproportionate effects on certain groups, I am sure my hon. Friend is aware that North Norfolk is home to 28,000 pensioners and has the title of being the oldest constituency in the country. Many of them already face higher energy costs due to the huge number of North Norfolk homes that are off the gas grid. Does she agree that these cuts will have a disproportionate impact on older rural constituencies such as North Norfolk, and that the Government must go back to the drawing board with these misguided proposals?

• 2 Sept 2024 · New Build Homes: Construction Standards · Hansard source

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  People in North Norfolk desperately want new homes for local people to be built. They know those homes need to be good-quality and support active lifestyles, but currently local councils lack the tougher powers they need to make those demands. Will the Minister tell me what she plans to do to give planners, such as those at North Norfolk district council, greater powers to demand more from developers?

• 23 Jul 2024 · Access to NHS Dentists · Hansard source

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  As the Minister has alluded to, we in North Norfolk have suffered in particular from unallocated units of dental treatment being moved to other parts of the country. The integrated care board has been told that it will have to return this year’s unused money to the Treasury. Will the Minister commit to protecting unallocated dental funds in my constituency?

• 23 Jul 2024 · Access to NHS Dentists · Hansard source

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  2. What steps his Department plans to take to improve access to NHS dentists.