Tim Farron
MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale · Liberal Democrat · United Kingdom
“The Government aim to reclaim 30% of our land and seas for nature. I welcome that, and much of the action plan, but 70% of England’s landmass is agricultural land. Does the Minister agree that we must start by ensuring that all farmers have access to environmental schemes—not just those who apply for them the quickest?”
“I thank the Minister for early sight of the statement. On my way into Kendal this morning, before I came down to Parliament, I observed the jarring reality of fields yellowing in the dry heat and the River Kent so low that I could see the bedrock.”
“They are often under coercion, and may not realise that they are victims of modern slavery until much later, so giving people only a handful of days to declare themselves victims is cruel and, again, performative. There is nothing in this Bill to undo or relax the moratorium on family reunion, which is a safe route.”
“It turned out, though, that every single person in that young mothers group had been a victim of sexual violence between the ages of 14 and 20. There are reasons why women do not end up on these boats, and do not take those risky journeys.”
“I certainly think that people who are seeking asylum in this country should be given the right to work. First, it will help them to integrate, if their asylum claim is successful; secondly, it will enable them to cover the cost of their accommodation and many other things while they are here.”
“This Bill is riddled with bogus context and false premises, as are most debates on this issue. It is worth bearing in mind that the majority of European Union countries take more asylum seekers per head than the United Kingdom.”
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“Let us not fall for witless, unpatriotic guff about Britain being in terminal decline. We are a wonderful people with a history strong and rich and resources second to none. We are not broken, but we must be better. A wise Government would acknowledge our challenges, strengthen our alliances with NATO and the Commonwealth, and reconnect with Europe, not least on energy security. John Maynard Keynes famously said, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” Members do not need to love everything about the European Union to know that our security and sovereignty now obviously depend on deepening and widening our alliances. We need to see Europe as the third bloc alongside the US and China; if we are detached from it, we are not safe. Our security also involves looking internally on energy and food security.”
“It is an honour to follow the hon. Member for Manchester Withington (Jeff Smith). Something I find less pleasurable—indeed, I detest it—is the use of the phrase in our discourse that “Britain is broken”. I hate that phrase because it is not true. I wonder if we could reflect on how damaging and intoxicating the opium of nostalgia is. It is not like a wistful nostalgia, harmless and benign, used by commentators and politicians; it is an angry, aggressive and malign form of nostalgia. The reality—let’s open up and be honest about this—is that there was never a golden age, and the idea that somehow everything in the past is better and today it is all rotten and broken is utterly poisoning our democracy and discourse. The only things that were better about the past are that the music was better and we were younger.”
“The technological and geopolitical shifts that we are living through include the threat to the very future of NATO, as well as Russian and Chinese aggression. Our energy, food and military resilience matters more now than it ever has before. We are fools if we do not respond. We are not a broken country. We are a brilliant country. But we are a vulnerable country. We should not be energy insecure or food insecure, should not have the smallest Army we have had in 200 years, and should not be decoupled from our allies in Europe, but the good news is that we can fix all those things if we have the will. That will mean uncomfortable choices and changed stances for many, but the facts have changed, so we need to change our minds.”
“The problem is that England is now the only country in the United Kingdom and the only country in Europe that does not provide support for farmers to produce food. Perhaps we can agree that back in 2020, when the previous Government was drawing up the environmental land management scheme, which this Government adopted, that that was how things felt at the time. But the facts have changed. It is time to change our mind, and back our farmers to produce the food that we need. Food prices are projected to be 50% higher in November this year than they were in 2021. Agricultural inflation is double regular inflation, and is therefore feeding through to food inflation, which will harm our communities. We live against the backdrop of uncertainty.”
“Members of all the science that points to the need to tackle the catastrophic blight of human-made climate change, surely I can convince them that our energy security rests on domestically produced renewable energy: Putin cannot turn off the sun, the wind or our waves. Surely we should therefore rejoin the European international energy market and invest massively in the national grid. It is vital that we recognise, as my hon. Friend the Member for Glastonbury and Somerton (Sarah Dyke) wisely said, the importance of food security in all this. The United Kingdom is only 55% food secure. The outsourcing of our agriculture has become a national security liability. We need more short, diversified food chains, with more incentives to primary producers to grow food domestically.”
“I strongly support my hon. Friend’s food security Bill, and I will come to that in a moment. The loss of Gulf crude oil output since Donald Trump’s war began has been partly offset by draining stockpiles and other temporary reliefs. In the developed world, prices have risen and crippled many communities that I represent in Westmorland, as well communities across the whole country. So far, we have yet to run out, but the International Energy Agency warned just last week that oil inventories are being depleted at a record pace. Governments, companies and consumers therefore need to be ready. Are we? I do not think so. Energy security is now utterly urgent. If I cannot convince hon.”
“Does my hon. Friend share my concern that the 4,000 farmers in England who farm on common land, mostly in the uplands, are not able to get any funding at all because the Rural Payments Agency software prevents applications? Does he agree that the Government should change their approach so that farmers in the uplands on common land can make those claims?”
“I want to press the Minister on the common land issue. She will be aware that the transition has made it very difficult. There are parcels of land in the uplands and the common land that are thousands of hectares, so I understand the problem. Has the Minister thought of having an offline system to allow commoners to bid for funds, so that they can maintain the beauty of our uplands and produce food?”
“It was a great joy to spend time last month in Kendal for the Disability Confident employer scheme. It is gaining more and more members in our community and is helping people with disabilities into work. Around 20% of working-age people live with a disability; many work, and many more wish to. What is the Minister doing to support Disability Confident employers, to make it easier for them to employ people with disabilities and to support those with disabilities into the workforce?”
“They would have to withdraw from those events entirely, and the events would have to take on professional and much more expensive cover by people who would not be able to get up the fell anyway. As has been mentioned by others, mountain rescue would still be called out if someone ended up involved in an accident halfway up or at the top. All we ask of the Minister—I have also written to the Minister for Health Innovation and Safety on this point—is for the Government to introduce a proportionate, risk-based exemption for volunteer mountain rescue teams, so that vital community services are protected without disproportionate regulatory burdens.”
“Because of my knee injury, I had to miss last year’s Grasmere fell race, and I was missed—I got a text from one of the other participants, who was very sad that I was not taking part, because that meant this year his chances of coming last had become a little greater. I utterly value the intervention and support of the mountain rescue teams in keeping us safe. We reckon, however, that CQC registration could cost an estimated £10,000 to £20,000 in total, admin charges included, for each of those mountain rescue teams. That is five in my patch, 12 across Cumbria and, I think, 47 across the whole country. That would mean that those volunteer-led teams simply could not sustain their level of operation.”
“It has been referred to already, but I want to add my words. A proposed amendment to the Health and Social Care Act 2008 that stems, understandably, from the Manchester Arena bombing inquiry, would require any organisation providing first aid with a medical professional to register with the CQC. Mountain rescue teams not only respond to emergency call-outs, but provide valuable support to fell races, mountain bike races, country shows and so on. I know that myself—I am a regular participant in fell races and I must have done the Grasmere fell race 20 times now, as well as the Ambleside and Coniston races.”
“Often they are younger people, sometimes not adequately prepared or without the right kit, and sometimes just not realising that the weather on the flat in Glenridding might not be the same as the weather on the top of Helvellyn. The consequences can be utterly fatal. Those are the challenges that our wonderful mountain rescue teams have to deal with, on top of the fact—this is a subject for another Westminster Hall debate perhaps—that excessive second home ownership in the Lake district means that the resident population is not as big as it used to be, and the reservoir of people who could volunteer to be in mountain rescue is smaller than it once was. Those teams have more to do and a harder job to find and recruit the people to do it. Mountain rescue teams, however, now face a new challenge.”
“I am proud to be an officer of the all-party group for volunteer rescue services and I am chair of the all-party group on outdoor learning, of which the hon. Member for Bolton West is an important and valued member, and vice-chair. I very much value working with him and others in that capacity. I cannot overstate the value of being in the outdoors for people’s physical and mental resilience throughout life. We ought to be really pleased about that uptick in people, particularly younger people, wanting to take exercise and explore the fells, and yet a “but” is attached to that: mountain rescue teams report a significant increase in the number of call-outs over the past five years by people who are not familiar with the fells.”
“He had sustained serious injuries 18 months earlier when he was called out, as part of a team, to an incident on Red Screes near the Kirkstone pass. That is a reminder that those people who freely give up their time risk their lives for us on a regular basis. I pay tribute to Chris and everybody else who puts themselves out there to keep us safe. I observe that since covid—other hon. Members have mentioned this—we have seen a change in the relationship between the people of our country and the lakes in particular, as well as the dales and other places. In many ways, that is very positive—people have chosen the outdoors and got a taste for the countryside, often without a lifetime of background in how to operate in a safe and sensible way.”
“By our reckoning, that makes us the second most visited destination in the country after London. The lakes is a world heritage site. We have dozens and dozens of beautiful mountains and valleys—places that are utterly spectacular yet often dangerous. Volunteers working on call for mountain rescue teams put themselves at risk daily, and they balance the service they provide with their other lives, often in full-time occupations. I almost hesitate to highlight, because it is such a grim and recent memory, that people who volunteer for mountain rescue teams not only often deal with the most tragic of circumstances but can sometimes fall victim to them. Our friend Chris Lewis, of the Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team, died in 2023.”
“It provides a wonderful service, and does so with the support of volunteers. Mountain rescue teams have provided roughly 80 years of service to our country. Much has changed in that time, not least that, back in the 1940s, to raise the alarm that something had happened, one member of the team who had somehow found out that something was wrong on the fell would literally run around the town or village knocking on doors to get members of the team out to respond. Today, highly trained specialists have technical communication facilities available to them. Nevertheless, they still have in common—with each other, and with back then—the fact that they are volunteers who are dedicated and who are of their communities. They save lives and serve us admirably, and we are incredibly grateful to them. In Cumbria, we have 20 million visitors a year.”
“Member for Whitehaven and Workington (Josh MacAlister), who is a member of the Patterdale team. As a Minister, he is unable to participate in this debate. I also pay tribute to those working as part of the Keswick Mountain Rescue Team. Keswick is not in my patch, but it certainly serves a good chunk of it and we are very grateful. I will also mention the Bay Search and Rescue team, who look after the lowlands—as my hon. Friend the Member for Henley and Thame (Freddie van Mierlo), who is no longer in his place, referred to earlier—of the very dangerous and treacherous Morecambe bay sands. On top of that, we are served admirably by the North West air ambulance service and the Great North air ambulance service, which I was delighted to run my first London marathon for five years ago.”
“That is demonstrated in a very pictorial way, really, in the centre of Kendal: just north of the town centre, Busher Walk is a small street where the police station, ambulance station, fire station and Kendal mountain rescue headquarters all sit within a few yards of each other. They work very closely together, and the mountain rescue team are deeply valued, respected and seen as a partner by the other three emergency services. Of course, the difference is that the mountain rescue team are entirely made up of volunteers. Across the county of Cumbria, we have 12 mountain rescue teams. Five of those are directly in my constituency: Coniston, Ambleside and Langdale, Kendal, Kirkby Stephen and Patterdale. An honourable mention goes to my constituency neighbour, the Under-Secretary of State for Education, the hon.”
“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Lewell; I am sure you will give us guidance if and when the Divisions come again, but it is a pleasure either way. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Hazel Grove (Lisa Smart) for leading this debate so eloquently and bringing this important issue to the attention of everybody in the Chamber. It is an honour to follow the excellent speeches given by the hon. Members for Bolton West (Phil Brickell), for Stirling and Strathallan (Chris Kane) and for Strangford (Jim Shannon), and to precede the excellent speeches I am sure we will hear in the moments ahead. For those of us in the Lake district, the mountain rescue service is undoubtedly the fourth emergency service.”
“I simply say to the Minister: “Let’s not needlessly place a burden on our outstanding search and rescue teams.” Our mountain rescue volunteers put themselves at risk to keep us safe. They deserve our gratitude and practical support. Let us help them, not hinder them.”
“I very much agree with my hon. Friend, who makes excellent points on behalf of his own communities in Cornwall. I will finish by saying that we have written to the Minister for Health Innovation and Safety, because the issue is to do with the Health and Social Care Act. We are pleased to see this Minister in her place—she does a great job—but it gives a bit of a picture of one of the problems that we face on this issue: mountain rescue does not really have a home, and it needs one. We need a Minister who is specifically responsible for mountain rescue and indeed for other search and rescue provision. I urge, via the Minister present, that to happen. Many of the things we have all asked today have been about sending messages to the Minister, or through the Minister to the Health Department, and we hope that they will be heard.”
“A huge proportion of the global fertiliser market works its way through the strait, which is obviously going to impact on food security and food prices in this country, but it could also cause devastating famines in many countries in Africa and Asia. Research from the University of Minnesota shows that 762,000 people have died as a direct result of US aid cuts since January last year, and some will undoubtedly have died because of our decision to cut our aid budget too. Is this the moment to do the right thing by increasing our spending on international aid and protecting people from the calamity of famine?”
“As a result of this war, agricultural inflation is running at 7.6%—more than twice general inflation levels. Red diesel has doubled in price and fertiliser supply is under serious threat. Predictably, food prices are likely to rise, causing hardship for millions of people, partly because of Britain’s lack of food security. Is it not time for the Government to U-turn on the Conservative policy that they inherited, which means that England is now the only country in Europe that does not use its farm payments to actively support its farmers to produce food?”
“I welcome the decision to have a Best Start family hub in Kendal West in my constituency, which is a very deprived part of our community. Kendal is the biggest town in our community, but it is only one of 95 parishes in my vast constituency, and many people who live in often quite poor neighbourhoods, from Appleby and Brough to Flookburgh and Grange and all places in between, are nowhere near that centre. Will the Minister think carefully about how to support communities in rural and dispersed areas such as mine so that they have family hubs close to where they live?”
“In 1945, 300 Jewish children who had survived the Nazi death camps arrived in Windermere, where they received a welcome beyond their wildest dreams. In the years that followed, they fell in love with this country and contributed hugely, and they leave a legacy that we are deeply proud of. Yet today, many British Jews are fearful and that welcome feels like a distant memory to many of them—it is very remote. The story of the welcome of the Windermere children is the story of the real Britain; that is the story of what we are really like when people come here seeking refuge, accepting communities of all kinds. Will the Minister meet me and the families of the Windermere children so we can talk about how their legacy can be used today as a positive message, as we once again go toe to toe with the evil that is antisemitism?”
“Does the Minister agree that there has been a complete disconnect, given that the local government settlement leaves Westmorland and Furness council with a 31% cut, massively hampering the ability of Barrow, Kendal and Penrith to do the things that it needs to do to attract the people to keep our country safe? Will he have a word with the Chancellor and put that right?”
“Nothing is more important to our national security than our nuclear deterrent, and we in Westmorland and Furness are not only massively proud to provide the home for the Trident submarine programme; we also recognise it is a grave responsibility, just as it is in the constituency of my neighbour the hon. Member for Barrow and Furness (Michelle Scrogham), where it is built. Our ability to build those submarines and defend our country depends on us being able to recruit and retain brilliant staff from around the country and beyond, and the role of the local authority in providing housing and services is crucial.”
“Will the Minister look at closing the loophole that allows second-home owners—people who are well-off enough to afford more than one home—to dodge paying any council tax whatsoever by letting their property as a short-term let for up to 72 days per year? Not only do they pay no council tax, but because they are a small business, they pay no business rates either. Thousands of my constituents are working their socks off to pay the council tax to subsidise people like that. That is wrong, isn’t it? Will he also bring in a separate category of planning use to make short-term lets easier to control?”
“The Prime Minister rightly referred in his statement to defence security and energy security, but he made no reference to food security. That feels like a glaring omission, given the impact of the doubling of the price of red diesel for the farmers who produce our food. I wonder if he is even aware that, outrageously, England is now the only country in the UK and in the whole of Europe that does not use its farm payment scheme to actively support its farmers to produce food. In these troubled times, does he agree that that is a glaring omission, and will he turn around and change that?”
“Police efficiency is the argument being used to propose the merger of Lancashire and Cumbria police forces, something which I strongly oppose. Lancashire is a wonderful county, but it is a county that has many urban centres with larger populations. Does the Home Secretary agree that there is a real risk that the people of Cumbria will see our police officers being drawn down to those larger, more populous places in Lancashire and that it would be wise to call off the merger?”
“Against the backdrop of this illegal, counterproductive and reckless war, next month, Palestinians in the west bank and in parts of Gaza will take part in municipal elections, which include candidates who are committed to peaceful dialogue with Israel and who reject Iranian-backed terrorism. Does the Secretary of State acknowledge the significance of those elections for building peace in the middle east, and will he and the Government do everything in their power to ensure the deployment of independent observers so that the elections are fair and safe?”
“Only 55% of Britain’s food is produced in Britain, so food security should be a much bigger priority for this Government. Donald Trump’s war in the middle east, Putin’s war on Ukraine and all the other global shocks have not woken up the Government to this, yet England is now the only country in the UK, and the only country in Europe, that does not financially support farmers in producing food. Is that not recklessly foolish, and will the Minister not amend the farm payment scheme to change that?”
“I am very supportive of a cap on bus fares—I wish we still had a £2 cap, but the £3 cap is still a lot better than what we had in the past—but they are a fat lot of good if there is no bus to get on at all. In rural communities like mine, people on the most modest of incomes have to own a car in order to access our economy or any kind of life at all. Somone living in Kendal might work in Grange-over-Sands, or vice versa; someone living in Ambleside might work in Barrow, or vice versa; someone living in Kirkby Stephen might have to travel 60 miles every day to go and work in the hospitality and tourism industry in Windermere or Bowness. The impact of the fuel price rises over the past three weeks is utterly devastating for these people. Diesel in Cumbria is 160p a litre—up to 170p in some cases—and petrol is near to 140p a litre.”
“I thank the right hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Holden) for bringing forward this debate. It is a really important one because the impact of fuel costs—both for motorists and for those having to heat their homes—is devastating. Over the past three weeks, people’s entire ability to budget to be able to afford to live, to buy food and to pay the rent or the mortgage has changed. It has been turned on its head. In every city, town and village in our country, everybody is affected one way or another. I do not mean to diminish the impact of fuel price increases in our cities, which has been huge; nevertheless, for people living in a city, the chances are that they work in the same city, and the chances are also that they can, if need be, leave their car at home, if they have one, and take advantage of public transport.”
“Many properties are solid wall properties, which are very difficult or expensive to insulate—a problem that this and previous Governments have failed to deal with adequately. People are therefore spending a fortune heating their difficult-to-insulate homes, and are now in a situation where they are having to spend up to three times more just to keep their homes vaguely warm.”
“About 35% of the homes in my constituency are off-grid, with people relying on heating oil; in Kirkby Stephen, Tebay and Brough, 74% of properties are off-grid, while in Hawksford, it is almost 80%. I asked my constituents—many of them did not need asking, I have to say—to give me their impressions and experiences of the past few weeks. It is clear that heating oil has literally doubled in price overnight, although I have heard reports of it trebling, too. Many of my constituents cannot afford to get any more heating oil until or unless the prices drop. It is important to remember that in a community like mine, 25% of our housing stock was built before the turn of the 20th century. This is true of many colleagues’ constituencies as well.”
“The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point. That will be the case across my communities, too; many people will drive to Penrith, Oxenholme, Grange-over-Sands or Windermere to park and then catch the train to their place of work or study. These are significant costs. Of course, it is worth bearing in mind that these fuel costs will also have a significant impact on public transport providers down the line, and will make it hard for them to continue their current services. The hon. Gentleman’s point was well made and well delivered. We are talking about motor fuel costs rising, but there is also the impact, as has been mentioned already by hon. Members, on heating oil. The costs for people heating and running their homes have been immense and are causing real hardship already. In Cumbria, 46,000 homes are off-grid.”
“My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. That is a reminder that people’s experiences of increased prices are myriad in type. What those people have in common is a shared and sudden hardship that forces them to make incredibly difficult decisions—or, indeed, choices if they have choices to make.”
“Her home is cold, because she cannot buy any more heating oil, as it has gone up threefold in the past three weeks. She travels to Windermere to earn the minimum wage, and at the end of the day it is barely worth the bother. Do not tell her that politics does not change things; it really does. Our amendment aims to change things for her for the better.”
“He wants us to fall in line meekly, but we must not do so. Donald Trump still cannot articulate his endgame or what victory would look like. He went to war thinking that the Iranian regime would fall quickly—of course, it has not—and that Tehran would not attack the Gulf states or close the strait of Hormuz, which of course was always likely. Why would we align not just with such a moral outrage, but with such epic stupidity? Although I am grateful to the Conservatives for submitting a timely and important motion, we must remember that they are part of the reason that we are in this mess. [Interruption.] I will wrap up, Madam Deputy Speaker. Meanwhile, against the backdrop of that international situation of extreme danger, my constituent in Kirkby Stephen fills up with diesel that costs 25% more than it did three weeks ago.”
“The Government’s fuel duty rise exacerbates a problem, which has, as I have said, been created in the White House. The United States needs to fix the problem that it created. It cannot be up to others to save it from its failures to think things through. Colin Powell, a person who is perhaps wiser—I think that is fair to say—than the current occupant of the White House, once said to George W Bush that, “if you break it, you own it”. That was said of the war in Iraq. Surely the same can be said now to the President of the United States. I gently point out that it applies also to those in the Conservative and Reform Front-Bench teams who egged the President on in the first place. NATO allies should not be joining Donald Trump in a war that he started without ever consulting his allies or explaining his war aims.”
“I mentioned the rural fuel subsidy earlier, which came about as a consequence of the Liberal Democrats’ time in government, when we were in coalition with our Conservative colleagues. Outrageously, though, it applies to only 21 places in the UK, not one of them in Wales and only one of them in Cumbria—a lovely place called Grizebeck. That means that the Government have a mechanism by which they could help rural communities, and we ask them, at the very least, to double the access and scope of the rural fuel duty subsidy right across the country—including, first and foremost, I am bound to say, in the lakes and dales of Cumbria. Everyone will be hurt by the impact on inflation—reduced demand, inequality and unfairness for those earning the least will potentially be huge.”
“Smaller businesses, which are much less likely to be able to withstand these shocks, are the backbone of our economy. I have talked about food prices, and I am bound to mention the impact on our farmers. Let us not forget that by December this year direct payments will be over. So many people in my area, particularly those farming in the uplands of Cumbria, are on incomes that are less than the minimum wage. They seek to look after our environment, our landscape, the backdrop to our tourism economy, and, even more importantly, to feed us. The cost of their production will rise as a consequence of all these events and there will potentially be an impact on our food prices.”
“As others have mentioned, this is about not just oil, but gas, fertilisers and petrochemicals—crucial inputs, Higher prices and increased scarcity will have a massive impact on our economy more broadly, and on the cost and availability of food production, with the result that, sadly, we can look forward to increased food prices in coming months. My community is the most visited place—outside London—in the United Kingdom. We are home to a huge tourism economy. Some 60,000 people in Cumbria earn their living in hospitality and tourism, which is already struggling because of the Government’s national insurance rise more than a year ago. We are an economy that very much relies on small businesses. One in four people in the workforce in my constituency works for themself.”
“The war has entered the lives of people in Iran, and the lives of innocent people across the middle east and a range of different countries. It has also had a massive impact on the global economy. As has been said, it all comes down to who controls the strait of Hormuz, which Iran effectively does at the moment. As long as that is true, whatever the President of the United States says, Iran is effectively winning. In the meantime, fuel prices are rocketing. Quite simply, as the International Energy Agency has noted: “The war in the Middle East is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.” That is quite something. It does not make me an enormous expert in international affairs to conclude that this was all utterly and totally predictable when Donald Trump began this war.”
“What we need is an energy price cap for people who live in rural communities, otherwise they will continue to believe that this Government, and perhaps others before them, do not really care very much about them. They will focus on the energy bills of other people, but not on those of people in rural communities. Therefore, this announcement does not go remotely far enough, although we are happy that the Government have at least begun to talk about the matter. The impact of the massive price rises in energy costs—motor fuel, car fuel, heating oil and other forms of fuel—is absolutely local. It is house by house, family by family, community by community, business by business. It is bound to be observed that this has been triggered by the actions of one D. Trump in the White House.”
“It specifically calls on the Government to cancel the fuel duty rise, immediately to zero-rate VAT on heating oil, to develop a price cap mechanism for heating oil and other uses of energy, to expand rural fuel duty beyond the relatively small number of places in which it currently operates, and to invest in an emergency upgrade programme, so that we are not so exposed to these things in the future. I recognise—and welcome to a degree—the Government’s announcement this week on some support for homes and businesses that are reliant on heating oil. I have done my sums and it works out at £35 per household. That is an inadequate sticking plaster. It will not have much of an impact on household finances.”
“Any effort that the Government make in supporting people and businesses through this process will have a medium to long-term positive impact on the Treasury: if we can keep businesses in business, making a profit and keeping people in work, those companies and employees will be paying tax and refunding much of that investment—so investment it truly is. Our amendment sets out some practical alternatives. It acknowledges the devastating impact of the Government’s decision to increase fuel duty from September, and it calls for that to be cancelled. It focuses also on the experiences of rural and other off-grid communities that have been left exposed by years of under-investment.”
“We are proud to be the custodians of England’s Lake District national park, and we are appalled that our visitors, and more importantly our residents, are being thrown to the wolves by a Government who have decided to defund rural England.”