Easter Week with Parliament in Recess – a wonderful chance to have a full week in my Mid Norfolk constituency:

· Out and about on the High Streets and in the local community

· Making visits with local Breckland and South Norfolk councillors

· Working with my team in the constituency office in Wymondham

As I have pledged on each of the four election nights on which I’ve been honoured to be elected, I will always do my best to represent EVERYONE in Mid Norfolk – not just the people who voted for me.

I take that pledge incredibly seriously, and that’s why I was delighted to resume my regular schedule of constituency school visits again this past Friday – this time visiting Scarning Primary School.

It was a pleasure to speak to the pupils about the role of an MP and the story of how I became one. It was great to learn more about many of their own career aspirations too – also taking the opportunity to tell them about some of the incredible jobs and skills courses already here in our area.

I also appreciated the chance to sit down with Headteacher Nick King to find out more about how the school has been getting on since my last visit back in October 2019 (see more here) – as well as the challenges being faced in terms of SEND support in our local schools.

SEND support for our schools (both mainstream and specialist) continues to be a key campaign of mine and I have therefore committed to working with Nick and the school’s leadership team to help raise awareness of the challenges being faced – both locally and with ministers and officials in Westminster. (See more about my ongoing campaign work here)

I have also committed to convening a virtual call with all of Mid Norfolk’s school headteachers much like the one I now have quarterly with senior practice staff at our local GP surgeries (see more here).

Rest assured, I will continue to do all I can to support our local schools in the months ahead.

For decades now, our planning system hasn’t been delivering the housing we need, in the places we need it, for the people who need it. For too long, the system appears to have been driven by the national volume house builders who too often make their money from land banking and high density commuter housing estates on the edge of existing developments – rather than through a proper planning system run to deliver for the people who need planning to work for them, instead of being done TO them.

I’ve long been concerned by the amount of development coming to areas like our own in rural Mid Norfolk – which is often inappropriate, “industrial” in scale and unsustainable. While most of our villages can take and are indeed up for (when properly asked) taking some additional new housing (without which our communities will gradually fade away), I fundamentally believe that more needs to be done to give local communities a greater say in how they develop in the years to come (with greater protections), which is why I have been so vocal in my opposition to the way so many large national developers abuse and take advantage of the planning system to dump such inappropriate and unsustainable developments on our towns and villages.
 
That’s why, through The Norfolk Way project I set up before I became an MP, I have been so vocal in advocating for a better model of growth and development that places greater emphasis on delivering small pockets of housing of the type and aesthetic desired by local communities, and in the places they earmark. I truly believe the spirit of Localism enshrined in the 2011 Localism Act should be enhanced, with the Act itself strengthened to remove some of the loopholes we’ve seen exploited. (To read more about my views in full, please visit my ‘Planning and Protecting Our Rural Heritage and Landscape’ campaign page here) I was delighted to see the NPPF reformed in the autumn by Michael Gove to give more power to local planners.

I continue to make the case I have long made that the right way to plan housing is to give local councils, democratically accountable to the local residents they serve, the freedoms and incentives to plan properly for the right sort of housing and growth where it is needed ie:

• around hotspots of economic growth
• on brownfield sites in areas needing regeneration
• around growth towns with the infrastructure and services available to sustain further growth
• in villages with a Neighbourhood Plan setting out the amount of housing they are happy/able to take and which ensures affordable & appropriate local housing for local workers and residents

That’s what the Breckland and South Norfolk Council Local Plans rightly aim to do. What we don’t need in rural Norfolk is massive commuter estate “New Towns” dumped in the middle of rural mud Norfolk without proper infrastructure, facilities, sustainable transport links or fit with the existing pattern of development.

The North Elmham New Town

The North Elmham New Town would also represent massive development of the precious River Wensum chalk stream habitats (not to mention a Site of Specific Scientific Interest).

That’s why I was delighted to chair a meeting on Friday in North Elmham with local parish councils and local councillors Bill Borrett and Cllr Gordon Bambridge to make clear that the idea of a new town in the area will NOT be supported by ourselves as elected local  representatives.

Bill and Gordon confirmed that Breckland Council are NOT zoning this area for major housebuilding, and will oppose a re-application of the New Town as we did successfully last time it was proposed.

New Towns and Garden Villages

Whilst there are places in the UK where there may be a strong case for a new generation of garden towns and villages, with all of the necessary infrastructure and transport links (either to drive regeneration as in parts of the post-industrial North, or to alleviate the pressure around major growth hits spots like Cambridge), North Elmham is not a sustainable location.

I can think of several possible sites in East Anglia that could perhaps take such a garden town or village: specifically the dilapidated station sites on the Cambridge-Ely-Brandon-Thetford-Attleborough-Wymondham-Norwich railway line – as part of the Oxford-Cambridge East-West Railway Development Company I have championed over the years, and especially during my time as Minister for the Future of Transport at the DfT.
 
However, I’ve also been very clear that, for any such development, we need to be sure that:

1. Any such developments must avoid the loss of ancient woodland and high quality farmland
2. We see a serious commitment to Net Zero and building into the plans a higher quality, cleaner, greener standard of life – not continuing to same old, lazy model of house dumping that sees thousands of additional vehicles tearing through old country lanes and causing more congestion and rat-running
3. There is serious investment into public and private infrastructure – with proper road, rail, cycle and walking routes
4. Any such development is planned appropriately and sustainably, and that it makes sense in the wider community context.

 
I have not seen any evidence to suggest that a garden town or village would be appropriate in this part of Mid Norfolk, and given the rural and inaccessible nature of North Elmham and the surrounding villages, the already serious congestion on the nearby road network and the nationally significant environmental and habitat importance of the Wensum Valley, I cannot envisage any circumstances in which this idea could be taken seriously.

To my mind, it would make far more sense for such a significant level of growth to be focussed down closer to the A11 Corridor – which Breckland Council themselves have, rightly, recognised is the key growth artery in our region and have tried to focus the bulk of the district’s future growth. I know the Leader of Breckland Council, Cllr Sam Chapman-Allen, and both Cllr Bill Borrett and Cllr Gordon Bambridge strongly support this.

That’s why I was delighted to join the c12 local parish councils representing the areas that would be affected by this idea to make clear my opposition.

Next Steps

At the meeting we agreed some important Next Steps:

• To reconvene a meeting of ALL the parish councils in the affected area after the forthcoming local elections on May 4th to make sure all write to Breckland Council formally to express their concerns.
• Bill and Gordon and I will liaise to ensure all the local residents who object have their objections properly acknowledged by BDC.
• I will invite my neighbouring MP, Jerome Mayhew, to join that follow-up meeting given a number of his Broadland communities are in close proximity to the site around North Elmham and would also be affected.
• I will write to Michael Gove (Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) and the Minister for Housing to make clear why any New Towns and Garden Villages should only be  delivered in the right locations with the associated connectivity, infrastructure and services required) and not in inappropriate locations with the obvious environmental, sustainability and transport issues this scale of development would inevitably threaten.

 Please be assured that I will keep on this in the weeks and months ahead.

Having spent fifteen years helping small businesses get off the ground before coming to Parliament, and having previously served as a Business Minister on three separate occasions, I am a passionate supporter of Small Business. It is the true engine of our local, and national, economy.

That’s why I relished the chance to walk Watton High Street again with local councillors Claire Bowes and Tina Kiddell this past Friday. As ever, it was great to visit local shops such as Adcocks, Draper and Humphries Antiques and Edwards Newsagents to speak to business owners and staff.

The past few years have been particularly tough for so many of our local small businesses and so it was a valuable opportunity to speak directly with those on our high streets about the challenges and opportunities they currently face. Breckland Council, with their Future Breckland Plan initiative, are doing important work to support our market town high streets (see more here) and, from my regular conversations with ministers and officials, I am reassured that Government takes seriously the concerns of our high street retailers, as well as our SMEs more broadly.

Rest assured, I will continue to do all I can to support our local business community.

To find out more about my historic and ongoing work ‘Backing Local Business’, please visit my campaign page here.  

Decarbonising buildings, especially our homes, is a vitally important part of the UK’s journey towards Net Zero emissions. However, how that decarbonisation is delivered is equally important.

That’s why I have been taking such a keen interest in a case brought to my attention by a group of local Flagship Housing residents in Weasenham concerning the difficulties they had experienced as a result of the installation of ground source heat pumps in their homes.

Having convened and chaired a meeting with residents and Flagship in February (see more here), I welcomed the chance to meet with everyone again this past Friday for an update on the works Flagship are carrying out to try and rectify the problems encountered.

Joined again by Cllr Robert Hambidge (who has been following the case closely and providing support himself), we were able to identify what progress had been made and which outstanding matters still need to be rectified before Flasghip’s own deadline of the end of May. I am pleased that Flagship are taking the situation seriously – with Managing Director Adrian Barber himself attending, alongside key members of his team.

Rest assured, I will continue to work with Robert and local residents to help ensure these new heating systems are up and running properly as soon as possible – and that all of their concerns are resolved.

Medical research charities from Cancer Research UK to specialist charities like Cure Leukaemia, the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and the MND Association are jewels in the crown of UK Life Science and Accelerated Acccess.

That’s why I was proud to announce £50m HMG funding for 90 medical research charities yesterday – to fund revolutionary new medical research into diseases such as cancer, dementia and motor neurone disease.

Over 1,200 early career researchers are set to benefit from the funding, sustaining the future of the medical research industry here in the UK.

To find out more, please click here.

Brain cancer is a cruel, indiscriminate disease that takes people from us with too little chance of a proper diagnosis, treatment or cure.

Every year, 16,000 people are diagnosed with a brain tumour – with only 20% of those diagnosed surviving beyond five years compared with an average of 50% across all other cancers. The disease also kills more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer.

That’s why finding a cure has long been a cause which I have supported – even more so since the passing of my childhood friend, Charlie, a few years ago. He was aged just 50 and in the prime of his life.

In Charlie’s memory, and in that of distinguished former member of the House Baroness Tessa Jowell, and so many others, I continue to actively campaign to help raise awareness and support the ongoing research efforts aimed at finally ridding our world of this terrible illness.

Today is 'Wear A Hat Day' 2023

Every year, I support the ‘Wear A Hat Day’ event, led by Brain Tumour Research UK, to raise awareness and help fundraise for the vital research required to help us better understand, diagnose and treat this awful disease.

I am proud to be doing so again in 2023.

You can show your support too by taking a picture of yourself wearing a hat and raising awareness by sharing it on social media with the hashtag #WearAHatDay

To learn more about Brain Tumour Research UK’s vitally important work, please visit their website here Donations can be made via their website by following the link here

To learn more about my historic work (as both a local MP and Minister) to support Brain Tumour Research UK and the battle against this disease, please visit my campaign page here

I truly believe that WE can ALL make a difference – and I remain firmly committed to working with Brain Tumour Research UK and partners to continue the fight on behalf of Charlie, Baroness Tessa Jowell and the thousands of others affected across the country, including many here in Mid Norfolk.

The Mid Norfolk Railway holds special importance to so many from our part of Norfolk, and beyond. It brings so much joy to so many, and we’re lucky to have such a wonderful, local tourist asset right here in our part of Norfolk.

That’s why I have always been a strong advocate of the MNR, visiting regularly over the years and doing my upmost to offer support, and why I am now taking the opportunity to highlight the ‘Back on Track’ Emergency Appeal being held as a result of track deterioration at the Crownthorpe bridge.

Having initially planned to reopen for 2023 on March 4th, a recent inspection revealed that the Crownthorpe bridge section of the railway line had deteriorated so much that is unusable. Despite the tireless work of MNR supporters and volunteers to provide significant investment in and improvement to the railway’s infrastructure, the reality is that, when the MNR began in the 1990s, it inherited a railway line that had not been maintained since the 1960s. As a result, even now, constant work is needed to keep the MNR ‘on track’.

The ’Back On Track’ Emergency Appeal aims to raise £95,000 that, when combined with the funds already raised by the MNR, will hopefully allow the railway to reopen on a staged basis from the summer.

Full details can be found on the MNR’s website here, including how donations can be made.

If YOU value this fantastic local asset, please do take the time to find out more about the campaign, as well as how you may be able to offer support – even if you cannot make a donation.

I am committed to offering what support I can to the MNR through this difficult period and very much hope to be able to see it fully reopened again as soon as possible – able to provide joy, education and entertainment for many generations to come.

To find out more about my historic work supporting the MNR, please do scroll through my past webstories on my ‘Upgrading the Norwich-Cambridge Railway Line’ campaign page here.