It is a delight to be with you on your debut chairing of a Westminster Hall debate, Ms Ghani. I join others in congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for North Cornwall (Scott Mann) on securing this important debate. As the Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden, a beautiful rural constituency in north Essex, I share many of the concerns raised today. In fact, if I was not a Treasury Minister, I would no doubt be here talking about the same things. I thank hon. Members for their many insightful and constructive contributions. As recently as last week, the Prime Minister expressed his view that the only way to ensure true resilience and long-term prosperity is to raise the overall productivity of the country. In saying that, he was not talking only about our cities, as the hon. Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) referenced. When this Government talk about boosting productivity, levelling up and building back better, we are talking about the entire country—north and south, east and west, urban and rural. Rural areas do not just make up most of this country by land area. They are integral to the commerce and culture of every nation and region of the UK. In England alone, more than 9 million people live in rural towns, villages and hamlets, each a unique settlement with its own distinctive history and identity. These communities produce much of the food we eat and preserve the green spaces that we love to visit and that our wildlife relies on. The Government are proud of the contribution that rural businesses make to our national economy, and we are determined to help rural areas harness their full economic potential. Rural areas typically have higher rates of employment and lower rates of unemployment and economic inactivity. We are committed to protecting farm budgets for the duration of this Parliament and will transition away from area-based direct payments towards a new system based on giving public money for public goods, which will help our farmers become more productive, efficient and environmentally sustainable. The Government have also committed to maintaining funding for fisheries across the UK nations throughout this Parliament. We are spending over £27 billion on strategic and local roads through the road investment strategy 2 from 2020 to 2025—the largest ever investment in England's strategic roads. This includes £2 billion for building the A303 tunnel and confirmed development funding for the A39 Camelford bypass as part of the major roads programme. The Government have announced a £5 billion investment to transform bus and cycle links in every region of England, supported by an ambitious cycling and walking plan published in July and a national bus strategy that will be delivered in the coming months. In the Budget, the Chancellor also announced a £2.5 billion potholes fund over this Parliament to address local road maintenance backlog. We have introduced new payments to employers for hiring apprentices under 25 (£2,000) and those aged 25 or above (£1,500). The Government recognise that rural communities need affordable housing; nearly 165,000 affordable homes have been provided in rural local authorities since 2010. At least 10% of the new affordable homes programme will be delivered in rural locations and those homes will be exempt from the new right to shared ownership. The national planning policy framework allows entry-level exception sites in rural areas for affordable housing where sites would not normally be used for housing. Local planning authorities are encouraged to support opportunities to bring forward such sites, but we recognise that this delivery mechanism is underused and intent to update the planning guidance in due course.