Terry Jermy MP: speeches

Speeches

• 3 Sept 2026 · Bluetongue Virus in Livestock · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the Minister for his response and his engagement with the farming community over the summer, which I know has been appreciated. Bluetongue is currently a huge concern for farmers in Norfolk, and resilience is so low that any one issue risks being the straw that breaks the camel’s back. We now have the farming profitability review and the farming road map, but will the Minister talk more about work that the Government are doing to improve resilience in the farming community?

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rural Upper-tier Local Authorities · Hansard source

  More

  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Barker. I thank the hon. Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) for securing this important debate. Like her, I am passionate about local government. I find myself in Cornwall corner here today, but I am proud to be a Member from Norfolk. I stood for Norfolk county council way back in 2009 and lost in a bad year for my party. I stood again in 2013 and lost by a single vote, though I was delighted to be elected in a by-election six weeks later. I served on the county council for 13 years and only resigned when I was elected as an MP. It gave me a real understanding of the complexity and difficulty involved in delivering services across a wide geographical area such as Norfolk. The London borough of Islington is the smallest upper-tier authority in the country, with statistics not dissimilar to other urban upper-tier councils. It has a population of about 223,000 people, covers less than 6 square miles and has a population density of 15,000 people per square kilometre. By contrast, Norfolk, where my constituency is located, is home to 940,000 people—nearly four times as many—but covers more than 2,000 square miles and has a population density of 175 people per square kilometre. On top of that, the median age in Islington is 33, while in Norfolk it is 10 years higher. That is because—I am slightly in danger here—Norfolk is of course the most beautiful county in the country and many people rightly choose to retire there. However, that puts an additional strain on public services, and it means that the proportion of the population who are of working age and contributing tax is lower. When that is combined with years of underfunding by the previous Conservative Government, as the hon. Member for North Shropshire mentioned, rural residents inevitably pay more for services out of lower than average wages. As is the case for several rural upper-tier authorities, Norfolk faces higher costs to provide services across its dispersed population. This disparity causes many challenges and weakens our potential for economic growth, and that is the key point I want to get across to the Minister. Rural upper-tier authorities often do not have the funds available to invest in the services that would drive economic growth. There is limited investment available, for example, for rural infrastructure, transport, housing, skills and broadband. If the Government want to see rural communities contribute more to national economic growth in every postcode, as I believe they do, they need to recognise that funding local councils would be a good place to start. I therefore ask the Minister to consider three particular measures. First, future local government settlements need to include much stronger and more transparent rural sparsity components, taking account of not just population but road mileage, travel times, population age and the number of communities a council has to serve.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Rural Upper-tier Local Authorities · Hansard source

  More

  I understand the Devon road network, which is similar to Norfolk’s—Norfolk and Devon’s councils were paired—and there are obvious challenges with it. I am sure the Minister heard the hon. Gentleman’s point about local government reorganisation, but I will not comment on it. I can barely understand Norfolk’s proposals, let alone Devon’s. As I was saying, road mileage, travel times, population age and the number of communities that a council serves are all crucial. There are 72 villages and three market towns in my constituency; they are all different, with unique challenges but also unique opportunities. Secondly, the Government need to do more around the special educational needs and disabilities crisis. I appreciate that SEND is somewhat outside the Minister’s brief, but it is a crucial issue for councils like Norfolk’s that are trying to meet the growing cost of SEND while delivering other services. Thirdly—this is more Norfolk-specific—there needs to be sufficient funding for the reorganisation of Norfolk’s local government structures. The objective should be to ensure that the money spent on creating new authorities does not come at the expense of the services that existing authorities currently provide. I am a huge supporter of devolution and local government reorganisation in Norfolk, but it is expensive and time-consuming and, frankly, councils already have enough to worry about at the moment.