Terry Jermy MP: speeches 2026

Speeches

• 3 Mar 2026 · Small Charity Sector · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Roger. I thank the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) for securing this debate. During my life, I have been involved with a number of different charities across my constituency, either in an employed capacity or voluntarily. That has included the Keystone Development Trust, the Benjamin Foundation, the Charles Burrell Centre and the G.W. Staniforth Charity. It is through that involvement that I have come to appreciate how small charities are so often crucial to local communities. They provide essential services and respond quickly to new risks or increases in demand. Sometimes they are formed out of personal tragedy, as was the case with the Benjamin Foundation set up by Richard and Vanessa Draper to remember their son Benjamin, who tragically passed away. The services that small charities provide are crucial. It is important that organisations are supported by the Government. That support could materialise in many ways, but I want to highlight one in particular: access to cash and banking. Many groups and charities tell me that they increasingly struggle to process funds that they receive in cash. Although many things can be purchased digitally, if you are anything like me, Sir Roger, the odds are that you still buy raffle and tombola tickets with cash. The lack of availability of banks, particularly in rural areas such as mine, is now a real barrier to fundraising for smaller charities. The added costs of processing cash and the associated risks of staff and volunteers handling cash are important to consider. I ask the Government to give some thought to what can be done to assist local charities with this practical challenge. I want to take a moment to thank the dozens and dozens of small local charities across my constituency and the volunteers that sustain them, including two groups that I have been able to meet with recently, the Downham Art Circle and Swaffham environment group. In the interests of time, I shall finish there.

• 12 Feb 2026 · UK-EU Agritrade: SPS Agreement · Hansard source

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  I very much welcome the report. In particular, I support the recommendation on an exemption from dynamic alignment for precision breeding. In my part of the country, we are proud to host the Norwich Research Park, the Quadram Institute and the John Innes Centre, which are at the forefront of scientific innovation. They are not only a British success story, but important for local jobs and the local economy. Does the Chair of the Select Committee believe that the Government recognise the value of precision breeding as a scientific advancement?

• 12 Feb 2026 · Rural Transport Connections · Hansard source

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  Norfolk county council received one of the largest shares of money for bus services in the country, and I am very pleased that we have been able to open new rural bus routes in my constituency, but we still do not have a proper link with train services. What more can the Government do to get buses and trains working together, so that we have a truly integrated transport system?

• 12 Feb 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I am increasingly concerned about the quality of social care provision in Norfolk. We have had three care homes by three different providers in the last month alone all rated as inadequate by the Care Quality Commission. Having read the inspection reports, I know that they contain some harrowing details. Can we have a debate in Government time on the quality of social care provision?

• 11 Feb 2026 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

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  I was first elected back in 2008, when I stood in a by-election for my local town council. I was 22. It was by chance, really, that the opportunity came up to put myself forward to stand to represent my local community. As it happened, I beat the headteacher of the local high school in that by-election. Up until recently, it was my favourite election win. I went on to stand for the district council a few years later, and a few years after that, I stood for Norfolk county council. I ended up spending more than 12 years in all three tiers of local government in Norfolk, and what I found was a world of local government officers and local councillors working incredibly hard to serve their local communities and trying to save money and almost work the impossible by constantly striving for efficiencies by doing whatever they possibly could. Good councils and good councillors are a real force for good. They can achieve so many wonderful things, but they are overshadowed in many ways by national Government. I want to put on the record my thanks to local government. We saw this during covid, because it was local government, particularly, that really rose to that challenge to serve. I was elected, as I say, in 2008, and for the vast majority of my time as a local councillor, we saw cut after cut after cut. Every single February budget-setting council meeting was a constant battle to try to save money. Both councils—Breckland district council and Norfolk county council—were Conservative-led under a Conservative Government, and we were cutting services constantly. We ended up with massively weakened resilience, and the services that bound our communities together were eroded. These were not just numbers on a balance sheet. In Norfolk, it meant we were closing children’s centres, removing support for disabled people, closing the youth service in Norfolk entirely, and selling off assets. It was just this constant battle. I understand the predicament the Government are in and have a significant amount of sympathy because it will take years to undo those constant cuts and the eroding of that resilience; it will not be easy to turn that around. I want to make three points to the Minister. The first is about rural services. I am proud to represent South West Norfolk, a very rural constituency. I cover half of two districts: Breckland, and King’s Lynn and West Norfolk. They are very rural councils, and it is expensive to provide services to a rural community. I am pleased that social care in particular is being acknowledged as expensive. Social care is particularly expensive across the whole county of Norfolk, but other district council services in rural areas are expensive too, specifically planning. We are a Government that want growth. We want growth all across the country, including in rural areas. We massively need to support planning services in rural areas to achieve growth potential and not have lingering planning applications sat waiting on determination. It is difficult to recruit planning officers for rural district councils, and that is a barrier to growth in rural areas. The other area is housing. I have been constantly shocked and concerned about the state of housing in my constituency. There are huge issues with rural housing, such as damp, mould and draughts—all sorts of challenges that we are dealing with in my office. Housing challenges in rural areas are expensive, and we as a council often have to transport people from one end of the county to the other or out of the county because there is a lack of suitable temporary and emergency accommodation. The second point I want to make is around hidden deprivation. The council ward I represented was, despite being in a rural area, within the top 10% most deprived in the country. We had very low wages, poor health and low skills and educational attainment. I am concerned that intense deprivation in rural areas is masked by more affluent surroundings in so many Government metrics. I hope the Government come up with a system that properly accounts for and recognises intense deprivation in rural areas and does not just look at the overall council boundary. The last point I want to make, which was touched on by the hon. Member for North West Norfolk (James Wild), is about internal drainage boards. I appreciate that it is slightly niche because this is relevant only in a certain number of constituencies in the country—certainly in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. These critical pieces of infrastructure remove water from significant amounts of land, both residential and agricultural. If we did not have IDBs, so much of our land, particularly agricultural land, would just not be usable, and it would weaken this country’s food security. I have dozens of IDBs in South West Norfolk, and I have spent a lot of time visiting them. They do incredible work, but the finances of councils that have internal drainage boards in their areas are experiencing great impacts. In King’s Lynn and West Norfolk borough council, for every pound of council tax paid, 43p goes on IDB levies. In the 2025-26 financial year, the council is spending £3.7 million just on levies. Many councils obviously do not have that expense—they are unique pressures for those areas—but the costs of IDBs have gone up a lot because the electricity cost of manning the pumps is also going up. My constituency has the largest pumping station in Europe at Wiggenhall St Germans, and there is a network across the area. That give me the opportunity to mention a pumping station in Welney that I visited a couple of weeks ago, where I met Ken Goodyer, Patrick Clabon and Carl Nunn. My real concern about IDBs is that the infrastructure is 50 or 60 years old, costs a fortune to maintain, and will fail at some point. We need to invest in IDB capital and revenue costs. I urge the Government to continue support for councils affected by IDBs, because it is crucial infrastructure.

• 11 Feb 2026 · Police Grant Report · Hansard source

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  Does my county colleague agree that there are particular challenges in Norfolk? Under the previous Conservative police and crime commissioner, not only were all 150 of our police and community support officers made redundant, but many police stations lost their public access, and accessibility and visible policing have been eroded as a result.

• 10 Feb 2026 · Local Power Plan · Hansard source

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  It is quite clear that communities that host energy projects should in some way benefit from them. I welcome that principle being incorporated into this plan. I particularly welcome the Government’s support for rooftop solar for Swaffham community hospital in South West Norfolk, not just from an environmental point of view, but as a way of reducing the energy cost of public services; that saving can be reinvested in the frontline. Will my right hon. Friend commit to tracking the financial benefit of these proposals, so that we know the true benefit for communities up and down the country?

• 5 Feb 2026 · NHS Dentists · Hansard source

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  Is the hon. Member aware that the east of England is the only region of the UK that has no dental school, which severely impacts the availability of dentists? Will he join me in pressing the Government and the Minister to do all they can to expedite a proposal by the University of East Anglia to open a new dental school in the east of England to help address that recruitment and supply issue?

• 5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the Minister on this excellent piece of work. It is crucial to my residents in west Norfolk, where we have statistically the worst hospital in the country at the Queen Elizabeth in King’s Lynn—not in a big city, but in a rural part of west Norfolk. I ask the Minister to reassure my residents that unlike what happened under the previous Government, who created a postcode lottery in which many more rural communities missed out, this will be a truly national cancer plan that covers all parts of our great country.

• 5 Feb 2026 · Farming Sector Productivity · Hansard source

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  Precision breeding is critical to improving productivity. That is why I was so pleased to see so many Norfolk-based research projects, including the fantastic John Innes Centre, receive funding from DEFRA’s farming innovation programme. It is crucial that we protect these advancements, so can the Minister outline what assurances the Department has sought on precision breeding during the SPS negotiations?

• 5 Feb 2026 · Road Safety · Hansard source

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  Prior to my role as a Member of Parliament, I was pleased to serve as a Norfolk county councillor for 12 years. In Norfolk, each time somebody is killed or seriously injured within a council division, the relevant councillor is informed. Clearly, nobody ever wanted to receive such an email, but all too often a message would arrive in my inbox. I recall vividly the email that informed me of the tragic death of 15-year-old Salvador Modke, on London Road in Thetford. Salvador stepped out on to a crossing, just a short distance from his home, on a Saturday afternoon. He was hit by a car and tragically killed. The coroner’s report detailed evidence that had been received during the inquest, highlighting that the crossing contained minimal facilities for pedestrians and no signs on the approach to alert drivers. I pay tribute to Salvador’s family and friends who lobbied for safety improvements in the area following his death. I am pleased that Norfolk county council will be using money provided by the Government to undertake a full assessment of safety measures. I will do whatever I can to ensure that money is found to enact whatever recommendations are made. As a member of the county council’s transport committee, I would routinely review performance indicators that tracked the number of people killed or seriously injured on the county’s roads. It was always a statistic of great concern, with a significantly high number of incidents. Sadly, the most recent Department for Transport data released in November indicates that road casualties have risen more in my county of Norfolk than anywhere else in the country, with the number of people killed or seriously injured rising from 470 in 2023 to 555 in 2024. It is worth noting that across the country, 10 times as many people die on rural roads as on motorways. The view of road safety charity Brake is that rural roads are the most dangerous roads for all users. Many do not have cycles lane, pavements or bridleways. Many rural roads are narrow, with blind bends and limited safe places to pass. There is often much that obstructs the driver’s view and, all too often, there are animal collisions, particularly with deer. Deer are a constant risk around Thetford forest, in my constituency, which is the UK’s largest man-made forest. Worryingly, in a Brake and Direct Line survey, 68% of drivers said that they felt it was acceptable to drive above the speed limit on a rural road, and nearly half of drivers said that they had driven faster than the speed limit on a single-carriageway rural road in the past year. Drivers are openly admitting to speeding on the most dangerous roads. I welcome the Government’s road safety strategy, and I ask that serious thought be given to the specific circumstances and opportunities to improve safety on our rural roads.

• 14 Jan 2026 · Horse and Rider Road Safety · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Dowd. I want to share with hon. Members and the Minister the case of Susi Rogers-Hartley from Wiggenhall St Mary in my South West Norfolk constituency. Susi is an accomplished lady: she is a horse rider, military veteran and GB Paralympic athlete. She was the first horse rider to represent Great Britain at show jumping at the Paralympics. For Susi, horse riding gives her quality time out of her wheelchair and a sense of freedom that is difficult to replicate. In 2021, Susi was hit by a car. The driver tried to pass her on a single-track road, and got so close that Susi’s leg was trapped between the driver’s car and her horse. The driver picked up speed and the horse bolted. Susi fell on to the vehicle and was subsequently dragged for 20 metres along the road, suffering a head injury and a cracked elbow. On another occasion, on Magdalen High Road in my constituency, a driver hit Susi and her horse from behind. Her horse, whom she loved very much, had to be put down because of the injuries it sustained. In Susi’s words, the driver “got an awareness course. I got a dead horse and thousands in vets bills”. Horse riders tell me there is often little to no enforcement in accidents involving horse riders. Growing up in my constituency, I remember routinely seeing people out and about riding a horse, but as cars have got bigger and faster and as people have become less respectful of our country roads, other users have been pushed out, whether they are walkers, cyclists or horse riders. In addition to safety concerns, the years of austerity and the cuts to local council budgets have seen many bridleways fall into a state of disrepair, meaning there are fewer opportunities for horse riding as many bridleways are simply inaccessible. I ask the Minister to ringfence support for horse rider safety campaigns, such as the Pass Wide and Slow campaign. I also ask what more can be done to ensure that local councils properly maintain bridleways, which are crucial for horse riding in rural areas.

• 7 Jan 2026 · Rural Communities · Hansard source

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  Does my hon. Friend agree that in places like Suffolk, and next door in Norfolk, hundreds and hundreds of good, well-paying green jobs are tied up in the renewable energy sector, and that the rhetoric from the Opposition, particularly the Conservatives and Reform, puts those vital jobs in our constituencies at risk?

• 7 Jan 2026 · Rural Communities · Hansard source

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  I may be biased, but I believe Norfolk is a beautiful place to grow up and grow old in. It is the place where I was born and raised, and it is where I call home. Like so many rural communities, it is a place that values co-operation, community and compassion, but for so many years those values were tested. We saw Conservative cuts to the very services that bind our communities together, without thought for the long-term implications. In Norfolk, cuts were driven by the Conservative Government and enacted by the Conservative county council—cuts to our children’s services and our youth outdoor education facilities being just a few examples of that insidious decline. One of the industries that underpins so many of our rural communities is, of course, farming. In a debate about rural communities, we must recognise that farming is in crisis; the Conservatives may be keen to suggest that this is something new, but the reality is that the decline started many years ago and got worse on their watch. It is of particular concern to me that fewer farms will mean bigger farms, and the further industrialisation of farming would trigger the next wave of rural decline. The farm is so integral to rural life, with farmers so often at the core of it. Who serves on the parish councils and the internal drainage boards? Who helps to sponsor the football club or the cricket club? Who gets the cars out of the ditches or the snow off the lanes, as we have seen just this week? It is hard to quantify that value—it cannot be recorded on a balance sheet—but I see it and feel it, as do many other hon. Members. Farmers in my constituency remember all too well the failures of the past Tory Government and the lack of progress over so many years. Today, we are debating rural issues. If we read the text of the motion, we see that it contains not a single mention of our NHS. It contains nothing about public services such as adult social care, or about dentistry. [ Interruption. ] Do rural people not get ill? Do they not grow old?

• 7 Jan 2026 · Rural Communities · Hansard source

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  I completely agree with my hon. Friend. That is telling—no wonder the Tories do not want to speak about their record on public services and the NHS. I can point them to the first league table for hospitals, which was published last year. My local hospital, the Queen Elizabeth in King’s Lynn, was at the very bottom as the worst hospital in the country. It is not in some large city, but in rural Norfolk. The hospital served constituents who until recently were represented by a Conservative Prime Minister, albeit fleetingly, and they were badly let down. It also served people represented by a Conservative Health Secretary. The Conservatives allowed our hospital, like our health services more generally, to wither and decline. Norfolk’s other hospitals were not far behind. The East of England ambulance trust, which covers the rural counties of the eastern region, was the worst ambulance trust in the country, and the mental health trust was not far behind. Rural communities remember all too well the decline they experienced under 14 years of Conservative Governments. Like the rest of the country, they voted for change last year at the general election in 2024, with my seat—a rural seat—recording the greatest swing from Conservative to Labour at a general election ever. It was a complete repudiation of the Conservatives’ performance in rural areas. There are huge growth opportunities in rural areas, and people are yearning for change. I urge the Government to tap into these opportunities and to allow our progressive Labour values to transform our green and pleasant lands.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Rural Crime · Hansard source

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  18. What recent steps her Department has taken to help tackle rural crime.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Rural Crime · Hansard source

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  Waste crime—an increasing concern in rural areas—often has links to serious and organised crime. Just last week, the Eastern Daily Press revealed that although there were nearly 1,300 reports of waste crime in Norfolk in a five-year period, just two people have been convicted for such offences in that time. In one case in my South West Norfolk constituency, 250 bales of DIY waste were dumped on a farm, with an estimated removal cost of £250,000. Will the Minister tell the House what more the Department can do to tackle waste crime in rural areas?

• 5 Jan 2026 · Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief · Hansard source

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  This is very welcome news, and many farmers in my constituency will be delighted. May I acknowledge the Minister’s engagement on this subject and the many conversations he has had with myself and other Labour party representatives from rural communities? I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk Coastal (Jenny Riddell-Carpenter) for her role as the chair of the Labour Rural Research Group and her advocacy for hundreds of farmers across the country. It is fair to say that the changes to APR are part of a long list of concerns for farmers in this country—concerns that were increased over 14 years of Conservative Government, when we saw a huge decline in farming. May I invite the Minister to join me in a new year’s resolution to work with Treasury colleagues to do more and to do all that we can possibly do to support farming in this country?