Daniel Zeichner
MP for Cambridge · Labour · United Kingdom
“I recall, as a shadow Minister, visiting a major institution in the country and sending the management into panic when I asked them where the bus stop was to get back to the station.”
“My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the location of bus stops. I am so frustrated when I have taken the train to Cambridge, arrive at the station, see the bus, but have to walk 200 yards around the platform, come out of the station and walk 200 yards back to the bus stop, to find the bus has gone.”
“Devolution and local government reorganisation are different things. To be honest, they should probably be considered separately, but they have become so interlinked and intertwined in this debate that it is impossible to do so. If we are to have a stronger devolution settlement, it is right to spend more time getting it right.”
“I commend the Secretary of State and his team for their determination and resolve in the transfer to renewables. In the extraordinary and unprecedented weather that we are having at the moment I can assure the House that some shade would be really welcome in parts of the east of England.”
“I commend all the hard work that has gone into both the road map and the profitability review by the civil servants, the ministerial team and so many people across the sector, including Baroness Batters.”
“On that point about speculative building, I appreciate that the hon. Gentleman is probably not a fan of big, bold projects of this kind, but does he agree that there is a very good example just down the road in Cambridge?”
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“It is a pleasure, as ever, to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Davies. Also as ever, I am grateful to the Minister for her introduction. When we have two sets of acronyms that are both EPR—environmental permitting regulations and extended producer responsibility—there is always a danger of getting slightly confused, so I am grateful for her introduction. I first pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham West and Royton (Jim McMahon), who stood down yesterday as shadow Secretary of State, and welcome the new shadow Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon North (Steve Reed). I know that the Minister and other Government Members will join me in sending good wishes to both of them. I also bring to the Committee the apologies of my hon.”
“On the costs, will the Minister clarify something? Many of these organisations seem to think that there will be a significant extra cost. Does she think they are wrong?”
“I think the Minister knows that the waiting times are too long for all applicants, but may I draw his attention to an event in Cambridge that I hosted earlier this year with the local jobcentre where we highlighted job opportunities for the neurodivergent community? Will he tell us what impact these long waits have on people who are neurodivergent?”
“I also agree with the proposal that there should be greater consistency across industries about who is entitled to a deduction and about the quantity of that deduction. However, I call for transparency in the costs of levy collection being covered when a negotiation is being conducted. In conclusion, we welcome the substance of the changes proposed for the AHDB, but with caveats and words of caution, particularly regarding the unintended consequences that I have outlined. I know that the chair and the executive team have been making concerted efforts to improve levy payer engagement and enhance the service that they provide. I sincerely hope that the changes we have discussed today will bolster the ability of the AHDB to help its industry to navigate some extremely difficult challenges, as its role is more important than ever.”
“I also think that it makes more sense and would be much more efficient for the AHDB to seek approval for the appropriate authority to amend levy rates only when it proposes to change those rates, rather than maintaining the current state of affairs whereby the board has to seek approval for the rates on an annual basis, regardless of whether they are changed. Any change in the levy rate, particularly an increase, must be very carefully thought through and clearly justified to all stakeholders and the accountable body. With regard to levy deductions, I agree that the levy collection provisions need to be modernised to reflect automated systems and consolidation in the supply chain.”
“It and other research institutes are conducting groundbreaking research on a range of crucial issues that impact the horticultural sector, but I remain to be fully convinced that we will be able to replace the lost research capacity quite as easily as some have implied. Can the Minister provide more reassurance on that point? In passing, perhaps he could remind us why the horticultural strategy has been dropped. I have no objections to granting the AHDB powers to set a zero-rated levy, which it is currently unable to do. That seems to us to be a useful lever to help sectors that face severe challenges and are in emergencies, as long as the decision-making process is transparent, fair and consistent, and the financial assistance is relatively short-term.”
“Would the Minister tell us what action his Government are planning to take to deal with the broader challenges that farmers are facing, which have put so much pressure on some of them that they have felt the need to leave? I also have concerns about the gap in horticultural research that may result from the withdrawal of the levy from the sector. I recall that in our debate on last year’s draft order, the Minister’s colleague, the hon. Member for Taunton Deane (Rebecca Pow), alluded to alternative centres for research in this area, including the outstanding UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, which I visited recently.”
“Moreover, as I understand it, the AHDB believes that the “No” vote from the horticulture and potato sectors resulted, in part, from severe financial pressures caused by supply chain pressure and low profit margins. I am concerned that, because we still see many of the sectors struggling with the various crises affecting the industry as a whole, too many producers have been left in a difficult position. For them, opting out of the levy was one of the very last resorts as they sought to keep their businesses afloat. While that may be a good option for individual businesses in the short term, in the longer term, it could cause problems to the wider industry.”
“Clearly, that was a decision for those levy payers, but I was struck, on a recent visit to a major potato grower, on being told that data formerly available through the AHDB was no longer available, and they considered that to be a loss. However, I also worry that there is a danger that this new arrangement could unfairly disadvantage smaller producers. The removal of the pooling effect of the levy, and the ability to buy services directly from the board, could mean that larger producers will continue to benefit from the work of the AHDB without sharing those benefits with smaller producers who will be less able to afford direct services. Perhaps the Minister could tell us what assessment his Department has made of the impact on smaller producers. If a disparity is found, what steps will be taken to address it?”
“That work must not be allowed to have a detrimental impact on time availability or investment in the core sectors, and I would be grateful if the Minister could give his view on how that could be guaranteed. Indeed, it is important that the AHDB is not distracted from core business. Several representatives of the levy-paying sectors have said that they would like the AHDB to be able to devote more time to activities such as export promotion. Several have also emphasised the need for the AHDB to be as agile as possible in today’s fast-paced environment so that it can turn its attention swiftly to matters that need immediate attention. It is helpful that producers in the potato and horticultural sectors can continue to access the AHDB’s services by purchasing them on an ad hoc basis now that they have voted to opt out of the levy payment.”
“On the whole, I agree with the proposed changes, but I want to raise some questions and flag some concerns. We should use this opportunity to ensure that the AHDB maximises its potential to champion and support British agriculture and horticulture. While we do not object to the expansion of AHDB work to non-levy-paying sectors, it would be sensible to create some governing principles and safeguards to ensure that the core sectors are not adversely affected in any way. Externally funded projects should be transparent and value-led in the interests of the agricultural industry, and any commercial work should be undertaken for a fee and not cross-subsidised, directly or indirectly, by the levy.”
“Therefore, pooling financial resources from farm businesses large and small to invest in improving the sector for everyone is important. In fact, I would argue that the AHDB is more significant than ever, given the range of challenges facing the food sector. I pay tribute to Nicholas Saphir, Tim Rycroft and their colleagues as they try to align the organisation more closely with the concerns of those who pay for it, which is not always easy. I understand that Tim Rycroft is stepping down at the end of the year; I am sure that we would all thank him for the significant contribution to the evolution of the AHDB and wish him well for the future. I am also grateful to a range of organisations for their help in preparing for this instrument, including the NFU, the National Pig Association and the National Sheep Association.”
“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Robert. I can confirm that we will not oppose this measure. I thank the Minister for his introduction, because we share the view that the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board plays an important role in British agriculture, but we think it is right that any changes are given close consideration. As we have heard, working across a host of agricultural sectors, the AHDB undertakes important research, development and farm-level knowledge transfer, along with working to improve supply chain transparency and stimulating demand to help develop export markets. While some of the larger agricultural organisations have the resources and capacity to engage in those activities themselves, the vast majority of farms do not.”
“The Secretary of State has confirmed that the Office for Students already had the powers to enforce on student outcome provisions, so this announcement is just narrow politicking. Hidden in the UCAS figures last week was the fact that home student applications are falling in this country. Can the Secretary of State confirm that this Government’s policy is now one of narrowing participation?”
“Last week, past failures caught up with the DEFRA ministerial team. First, the Climate Change Committee castigated them for lack of progress on agriculture and land use, and then the report they had commissioned from John Shropshire and his team detailed the crop losses and lost productivity and production caused by their failure to address labour supply issues. This week, could the Minister tell the House if he knows whether the UK is more or less food-secure than this time last year, and will he explain how he has reached that conclusion?”
“The family of my constituent who fled Sudan have been stuck in Egypt for more than two months awaiting a spousal visa. Four of the group of five have UK passports. Can the Minister tell us how long he would expect people to be waiting in this kind of situation when they have suffered such distress and anxiety?”
“T4. The issues of high energy prices and swimming pools were raised earlier. I am advised by operators in Cambridge that they face really hard decisions soon. The Minister said that he would make an announcement shortly, but businesses have to plan. How many of them does he think are at risk if he does not make that announcement soon?”
“However, the reason for my unswerving support for the project is that I believe that the environmental and economic benefits will be significant. Environmentally, we know that we have to move people off roads. It may be that the world is changing, but I think—and the evidence is rising on this—that people will want to get back to face-to-face contact.”
“It was absolutely the wrong thing to do when we were trying to encourage a modal shift, and I am glad that it was finally abandoned. I might be testing the Minister slightly, but can he tell us how much was spent on that abortive project, how many civil servants are still working on the arc project—including beyond the Department for Transport, in other Departments—and how long that project team has been going? I seem to have been aware of it for a number of years, and we really need to see some output from all that work. That brings me to my main point. As I have said, I understand the concerns about the route. First, I am glad that the southern route has been settled on near Cambridge, because overall that seems to be the most sensible.”
“I was absolutely flabbergasted to get the reply that they were planning to consult on exactly that issue, which seems to be rather the wrong way around. Back in 2017, at another one of those conferences, I challenged the then chair of the East West Rail Company over electrification, and he publicly promised that not a litre of diesel would be bought. As we have heard, that issue remains unresolved—although given that we are still quite a long way off seeing any trains, I suppose that pledge has been honoured so far. At that time, the Government were planning to build not only a new rail line but, as we also heard, a major new road. Considerable time and effort were spent on that. I must say that I always opposed the road on the same line that has been mentioned: it is a 19th-century solution to a 21st-century problem.”
“I remember that, at one Budget, the then Chancellor invited Members to show up at a surgery-style session with the Minister in one of those gloomy ministerial offices down the corridor. The then Minister, who shall remain nameless, looked absolutely astonished that anyone had actually shown up. We then had a rather civilised conversation—I think that is when the business tsar came and went—and I put to him the questions that I have been putting for a number of years: what is this line for, and will it be electrified? Predictably, answer came there none. I put exactly the same question—what is the line for?—to one of the senior civil servants who had been working on the project at one of the many annual conferences about the arc.”
“It has been a long-running goal of rail enthusiasts to restore the lost line between Cambridge and Oxford, which has been made harder by the loss of some of the old Varsity line route. I remember conversations some 20 years ago at least, when some foresighted people were talking about it, and over time the issue came to be picked up by local authorities, which could see the broader benefits. By the time I came into this place in 2015, that campaign was picking up pace. In the subsequent eight years, I can barely recall all the conferences, party groups, business tsars and leaders who have come and gone, some of whom were never appointed in the first place —“announcements and then steps back”, as it has been described. I fear that is all part of the rather hopeless way we go about building infrastructure in this country.”
“I have been involved in discussions and debates about it for many years, and frankly I want to move beyond the debates and get the railway done. I pay tribute to the many people who have campaigned tirelessly on these issues, including those noble councillors who set it all in motion many years ago and the East West Main Line Partnership. I am grateful for the work of the National Infrastructure Commission, which the hon. Gentleman mentioned, and the all-party group for the east of England, which I co-chair with the hon. Member for Waveney (Peter Aldous). I wish to make three main points relating to the history and the purpose of the project, and the economic and environmental value of getting it delivered.”
“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Mark, and I congratulate the hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire (Richard Fuller) on securing the debate. We have had many animated discussions about this subject in the past, and it will probably not surprise him to know that I take a slightly different view, but I commend him for the powerful way in which he has represented his constituents. I suspect others will do the same, because infrastructure projects of this type always cause problems for local constituents, and I have every sympathy with them. This debate about East West Rail, the Cambridge to Milton Keynes to Oxford link or the arc—call it what you will—has been going on for a long, long time.”
“I am glad that the wobbling seems to have settled, that we have a Minister who is firm in his intentions, and that the current version of this Government seem to understand the significance of the project. I end where I began: there will always be arguments over routes and local impact, but I urge people to step back, look at the bigger picture and get this electrified railway in place.”
“I believe that East West Rail can help to unlock the physical constraints that are currently a real challenge, and help us to get the people we need to remain in our world leadership position. There is strong support for the line from the local authorities and the business community; indeed, I was struck by a recent briefing from the business-led organisation Cambridge Ahead, because this was one of its top priorities. I know that when Government support seemed to be wobbling a while ago—I think we heard a characterisation of that earlier—the University of Cambridge was among the organisations that were particularly concerned about the prospect of the line not going ahead.”
“I accept that there will always be debates about the economic theories of how development works and what the drivers are, but I am pretty convinced that this must be the way forward, and not just along the arc. As others, including Eastern Powerhouse, have outlined, it potentially unlocks further opportunities to the east as well. I will conclude by making some points about the economic significance of and for Cambridge. The region already adds more than £110 billion to the UK economy every year, and the Cambridge sub-region is a major contributor to the Treasury. Frankly, reinvesting some of that to improve the local quality of life is hardly a unreasonable demand. Cambridge and Oxford are world leaders in venture capital investment, with hugely important research and development sites.”
“I accept the point that house prices do not necessarily always conform to the economic models that some people would like to propose, but we need housing that is available via quick, reliable and environmentally sustainable transport links. Those points have long been made by the leaders of Cambridge City Council, Lewis Herbert and Anna Smith. In addition, the project would begin to open up prospects for more jobs in high-quality, environmentally sustainable communities along the arc. That is an important point. If we are building these new communities, it must not be about just a developer’s charter; they have to be the kind of communities that will attract the people who will be part of our future—a success in both Cambridge and Oxford.”
“I fully accept that this is partly about the future success of Cambridge, because we are struggling hugely to find housing for the people we need to maintain Cambridge’s position driving the UK economy. It is not an unimportant point, although I accept that the location of that housing will not always necessarily appeal to everyone. Cambridge housing is hugely expensive; we all know the figures. Development pressures on my city are intense, and we have an acute shortage of people. Ironically, those are not necessarily the world-leading people but all the people we need to run the basic services. Even the best scientists in the world require their lunches, and offices that are cleaned and maintained, and we are struggling to find those people for lower-paid jobs. We therefore need affordable housing.”
“I served on the Transport Committee with the Minister for a number of years, and I appreciate that these issues are not straightforward or simple, but the hon. Lady is absolutely right. In the end, electrification is obviously the way we should be going. Let us also look at the time savings for people. In the early-morning rush, it can take almost an hour to get the nine miles from Cambourne into the centre of Cambridge by car. By rail, that would be reduced to 15 minutes. Bedford to Cambridge by car is 75 minutes—as I discovered to my cost a few weeks ago—and 90 by bus; but, I am told, it takes 35 minutes by train. That is transformational.”
“T6. Principals of sixth-form colleges across the country, such as Yolanda Botham at the excellent Long Road College in Cambridge, are warning that the Government’s continuing plans to scrap many of the BTEC qualifications risk real harm to their students. Will the Government listen to those people and to the Sixth Form Colleges Association and protect student choice?”
“It is hugely frustrating that we still do not have an integrated system. Does the Secretary of State agree with me and others about the importance of projects such as the Ely area capacity improvement? When are we going to get some progress on such projects?”
“Food inflation is running at almost 2%, lower-standard imported eggs are on supermarket shelves because our producers are being undercut, and today record immigration numbers are announced, but the wrong people—we do not have the people to produce food in our fields. What are the Minister and the Secretary of State, who are responsible for our food system, doing about all that? Are they just innocent bystanders?”
“Is the Minister taking forward the recommendation that the Law Commission investigate this complicated area? There are many detailed questions that should and will be asked—more than can be accommodated today—but let me conclude on a positive note by welcoming the involvement of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in developing a code of practice. This is a complicated and important area, and it is vital to everyone’s interests that collaborative ways forward are established.”
“I also wonder whether anything in his statement this morning will remedy the increasingly common situation where tenanted land is lost as landlords seek to put land into woodland or other uses, thus reducing the scope for food production. We welcome the establishment of the farm tenancy forum, but will the Minister clarify what its role will be? The danger is it will just be a rolled-over version of the long-running tenancy reform industry group. What will its task be? Who will serve on it? What will its terms of reference be? We welcome further consideration of a tenant farming commissioner, but does the Minister not understand that the problems facing tenants are real and present now? What further information does he expect from yet another consultation? Is that in fact just an attempt to long-grass this recommendation?”
“Will the Minister tell us what has happened so far, as we approach the halfway point in the agricultural transition? In general, does the Minister agree that we need a structural change to move to long-term agreements? That was one of the key conclusions from the Rock review. I heard nothing in his statement to that effect, even though this was a fundamental point. The review found that the constant renegotiation of tenancies is problematic in itself. As Baroness Rock told the Oxford farming conference—the Minister and I were both there: “Too often we found an overly short term, commercial and acerbic approach to the management of tenanted estates.” I wonder whether the Minister agrees with that comment.”
“I am told that 70% of tenants routinely do not get consent from their landlords, and I wonder what his estimate is. The danger is that, for all the fine words, too many tenants will still not be able to access environmental land management schemes. I welcome the comments from the Minister and in the Rock review about the potential benefits for new entrants. We are, of course, still waiting for more details on the new entrants scheme—interestingly, the Government produced the exit scheme a while ago. Will the Minister tell us where he has got to on the new entrants scheme? The Minister may recall that, during the passage of the Agriculture Act 2020, a previous Secretary of State assured us that moving away from basic payments under the common agricultural policy would see rents fall.”
“Will he therefore tell us why he has not accepted the proposals from the Rock review to make it easier for tenants to enter the tier 2 and tier 3 versions, since that is where the majority of these schemes, such as those for countryside stewardship and landscape recovery, are likely to lie? That really matters. With so much now being pushed out through the countryside stewardship scheme—a debate for another day, perhaps—it could be a problem. The Minister may be able in passing to update us on the current uptake of the SFI, which I fear—I suspect he shares this view—is still disappointingly low. What assessment has he made of the number of tenants who are likely to enrol, particularly in the countryside stewardship scheme and in landscape recovery level 2?”
“There is a problem—long acknowledged—that farm business tenancies now average just 3.2 years. Although constant renewals and negotiations might be good for land agents, that is too short-term, and it is often too difficult for tenants to get involved in the schemes the Government are bringing forward. Although we welcome the fact that entry to the sustainable farming incentive has been made possible through three-year agreements, I note that the Minister said in his statement that we must “remove any remaining barriers to accessing our farming schemes.” Of course, those schemes are much more than just the SFI.”
“I thank the Minister for advance sight of his statement. I also thank Baroness Rock and all those involved in the tenancy working group, because theirs is an excellent report. The Government have clearly spent a long time—eight months—considering it. Although we are pleased to see the response at last, we are slightly disappointed that it takes a rather piecemeal approach. Perhaps the Minister could start by telling us how many of the 74 recommendations the Government have chosen to adopt. This is a complex subject, and we probably need more time to debate it properly. However, let me start by restating why it matters: with half of England’s farmland tenanted, we are not going to achieve the transition to a more sustainable form of food production and restore nature without getting this right.”
“In a few months’ time, there will be extra checks on food coming into the UK from Europe. That will require extra cold store capacity; it is being built, but the Cold Chain Federation tells me that there is a three-year to four-year wait for connection to the grid. What are the Government going to do to make sure those facilities are up and running in time?”
“The UK life sciences sector excelled during the covid crisis, and we applauded it for that, but since then the picture has been less rosy. The number of clinical trials being undertaken has fallen back badly, and we have fallen down the international league table. The Government are aware of this; they have appointed Lord O’Shaughnessy to conduct a review, and his findings are expected soon. Will the Leader of the House ensure that a statement is made at that time, so that there can be a proper interrogation about his conclusions?”
“The right hon. Gentleman is making an important and useful speech. Does he agree that the VAT trap has sometimes been used as a way to lure institutions out of the maintained sector and into academisation and that that is another lever that the Government have used the VAT system to create? That has affected institutions such as Hills Road Sixth Form College, Long Road Sixth Form College and Cambridge Regional College.”
“Last week, energy companies announced record profits—some £60 million a day from North sea oil and gas. Today, the Daily Mirror reports that last month 2 million people were unable to pay a bill, so why on earth do the Government not close those huge, huge holes in the levy on North sea oil and gas profits, and get that money to the people who need it?”
“Failure to deal with these problems is bad for my constituents, bad for the UK economy and bad for patients. The Government need to get out of denial mode and address the problem urgently.”
“It is no good claiming that there are new regulatory opportunities post Brexit if regulators are then starved of the resources to make those opportunities real. We should recognise that the decline in clinical trials is not just an unfortunate by-product of an NHS in crisis; it is a real problem in itself, and it needs to be addressed. The distance between how the discount levy is spent and those who make prescribing decisions just does not work. It does not incentivise behaviour, so it does not affect uptake, as the hon. Member for Newton Abbot said. Currently, there is no link between resources returned to Government and the wider life sciences vision. Addressing those points would make a difference, and I genuinely look forward to hearing the Minister’s response. None of this is easy—it is complicated—but it is really important.”
“It is not just the newer patented drugs that are under threat, but generics and biosimilars too. An unintended consequence of the success of the VPAS scheme is the risk of reducing the availability of biosimilars and generics, as companies prioritise stock to higher-margin markets. A good price but no supply is not the outcome anyone is looking for. What is to be done? I urge the Government not to dig in their heels and to at least have a sensible dialogue. I echo many of the points made by the hon. Member for Newton Abbot. Let the Government admit that there are problems: yes, our unified NHS is a remarkable resource for research, but the fragmented and complicated decision-making processes undermine that potential. It is a well-known problem.”
“The bitter truth is that, despite the Government rightly identifying the life sciences sector as key for our future prosperity, the UK’s share of global R&D spend has decreased from 4.9% to 3.9% since 2012, and clinical trial numbers have fallen 41% since 2017. That has been a consistent message from industry over the last two years, and it has been raised consistently with Ministers. Shockingly, the UK now has the highest rate of decline in new drug launches compared with Spain, Italy, Germany and France. If the UK ceases to be a first-launch market, patients will not have access to the latest drugs or clinical trials, we will lose the ability to compare future treatments against modern care standards and we will lose vital workforce skills that, once they are gone, will be difficult to replace.”
“Put crudely, suppliers do not have to supply here if they are not getting the right deal. As some see it, NHS England secures extra value by imposing commercial deals that take the prices of medicines below what NICE would consider cost-effective, even based on affordability thresholds that have not changed since they were introduced when NICE was established back in 1999. The risk is that the unintended consequence of the good deal that Governments have got drives industry away from the UK at a time when we need the life sciences sector to invest more. This is not only about VPAS; there are other factors too.”
“Frankly, in a complex world where medicines pricing is far from transparent and huge sums are now needed to develop new medicines, that is much easier said than done, not least because, as our knowledge and computational power and our understanding of genetics increase, making much more possible—particularly in terms of personalised treatments—the challenge of costs will only grow. It is absolutely essential that any Government strike the right balance between securing taxpayer value and investing appropriately in our domestic life sciences industry. At the moment, many in the industry fear that this Government are cutting off their nose to spite their face. Yes, a hard bargain has been driven by the NHS—good—but there is a danger that it comes back to bite, especially at a time when we face shortages of supply.”