Topical Questions

Question

Today I am hosting pupils from Colchester academy in Greenstead in my constituency. They and their families want a clean River Colne. Will the Secretary of State set out what the Government are doing to hold Anglian Water to account, and whether she is seeing an improvement in its performance?

Question

I welcome the right hon. Lady and the Minister with responsibility for farming to their new roles. We Conservative Members genuinely wish them well in this food and farming emergency. The seriousness of that emergency was made clear to me last night by the agricultural chaplain of Suffolk. He told me about the devastating impact that he sees the family farm tax having: the father of two small children who took his life because of fears about the tax, the 92-year-old grandmother who has told her family calmly that she will not be here in April because she wants to beat the tax deadline, and the teenager who walked in to find his father’s body. The chaplain said to me, “This tax will live with that poor boy for the rest of his life.” All that has happened since the Secretary of State took office, and it is happening across the country. Why does she support this tax?

Question

I am not making political points; I am telling the right hon. Lady the reality of her policy. Farmers will have heard no answer, no reason and no understanding. It is shameful. With 13 days to go until the Budget, let me point out that there are enormous economic costs, too. Millions of advisers, businesses and constituents, the 10 largest supermarket chains, multiple food manufacturers, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and the Welsh Affairs Committee think that this is a bad tax, badly done. The Conservatives will axe this tax. Given that the Secretary of State has admitted this week that Ministers in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have “made mistakes” this year, will she finally admit that the family farm and family business taxes are some of those mistakes?

Question

Much of Erewash is on a floodplain, so the Flood Re scheme is an enormous help to my constituents, particularly those who were catastrophically affected by Storm Babet in 2023. However, local businesses have told me that there is no similar scheme to support their properties. What steps is the Minister taking to support businesses that are struggling after severe flooding episodes?

Question

I, too, welcome the Secretary of State, and the Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member for Wallasey (Dame Angela Eagle), to their roles. I look forward to working with them both.<br/><br/>Research from the University of Cumbria shows that, by this time next year, the average hill farmer will earn barely half the national minimum wage, yet the Government’s family farm tax means an annual tax bill of £20,000 a year for the typical hill farm. Those farmers will have to stop farming and sell up. To whom? To wealthy landowners and big city corporations. Is this policy not deeply socially unjust, robbing from the poor and giving to the rich, while betraying the people who care for our landscape and provide food for us?

Question

T5. Crawley has the worst air quality in Sussex, yet under the previous Government, a new incinerator on the town’s border was approved; the town will be directly in its plume. In the context of incinerators, will the Minister set out how we can enhance air quality, and will the Government consider a moratorium on the building of new incinerators, given the oversupply in incinerator capacity?