Blake Stephenson
MP for Mid Bedfordshire · Conservative · United Kingdom
“Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills also mentioned the fact that 30.7% of 16 to 17-year-olds are now unemployed and are not learning the skills we have just agreed are important for enabling young people to grow into strong, resilient adults.”
“We in this House should be creating the conditions for economic growth and allowing businesses to get on with what they do best, and then we should get out of the way. Of course, this Government are doing the absolute opposite. They are meddling, getting in the way and wrapping businesses up in red tape.”
“The regulatory burdens throughout our economy are absolutely incredible. We have failed to properly recognise that it is businesses that grow the economy, not Governments. Over the past two years, the Government have missed an opportunity.”
“My hon. Friend makes a compelling case for drilling in the North sea—a case that he made very successfully in the by-election in Aberdeen South. I congratulate him on that, and welcome him to the House of Commons.”
“The impact, unfortunately, is felt most acutely by our young constituents. In particular, as a result of the Government’s interventions over the past two years, the Saturday job is disappearing. That is absolutely tragic. Hon. and right hon. Members from across the House have spoken passionately about their first job.”
“I am pleased that my hon. Friend and I started our lives sweeping floors; that is something that we have in common. Of course, resilience is a really important skill in life and it is learned best when we are young. I remember those early days on my bike, cycling in the cold with my knuckles freezing.”
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“We had neighbours helping with buckets and pumps trying to get the water off our property. It was a fighting battle—the water reached the front door and came into the property.” Being flooded is not just an inconvenience: it is expensive, and it is heartbreaking for families to see their valuables—some of them irreplaceable—washed away. Shortly after the flooding, I took the time to visit dozens of local businesses, including Disco-licious in Gravenhurst, Maulden Garden Centre and The Dog House day care centre, which is also in Maulden. Those businesses, together with many others, have experienced severe financial losses, and in some cases have seen many years of hard work and investment washed away before their eyes.”
“We saw water rise, and beside the path at our house there was gushing water! We had to call for help. Water came in through the sides and foundations, and in the end there was nothing we could do.” Caroline from Flitwick also took the time to share her experience: “Severe flooding of my property requiring full water removal from my home and severe repairs. I am currently staying with family but having to relocate for a minimum of 6 months whilst repairs are done.” Rita from Harlington explained that “We had internal flooding start at 9.30 am with sewerage coming up from a manhole cover inside our garage. We contacted Anglian water by 10 am. We couldn’t shower or flush the toilet as it was gurgling back up! Then the rains came—the front drive was a deluge.”
“Certainly, one of the lessons that I have learned from the flooding in Mid Bedfordshire is that many statutory bodies are involved in flooding response and resilience. We need to work harder to ensure that those organisations work together. It is so important that the Government, local authorities and others learn the right lessons from those floods, and I hope that this debate can play a role in guiding that conversation. First, let me reflect on the direct impact on constituents in Mid Bedfordshire. Hundreds of residents have taken the time to describe for me the huge losses that they have suffered, and I thank them for taking the time to do so while trying to recover from flood damage. Emma from Marston Moretaine, who filled in my recent flooding survey, told me: “Our property was completely soaked front and back.”
“I thank my right hon. Friend for making that point. He has stolen my thunder, because I was going to make that exact point later in my speech, so I will skip over it when I get to that section.”
“Perhaps I will say it again. England has suffered its second worst harvest on record, with persistent wet weather, and waterlogged fields risk putting our farmers out of business over the medium to long term.”
“This simply is not good enough, and it is putting property and lives at risk. I therefore call on the Government to urgently consider introducing a new statutory duty on local authorities to clear drains and culverts regularly, backed by central funding at the Budget to ensure that councils have the resources they need. I also urge the Government—this is the point that my right hon. Friend the Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Sir John Hayes) raised—to look at the way that internal drainage boards are funded, to ensure that they have the resources they need to manage local flood risks. I ask the Minister to commit to meeting me and interested colleagues to discuss how that might be achieved.”
“Roads are not the only area where problems with ineffective infrastructure have exacerbated the impact of flooding on my residents in Mid Bedfordshire. The blocked drains reported right across Mid Beds in places like Lower Shelton, Flitwick, Cranfield, Harlington and Maulden significantly increase the likelihood of surface water flooding. Clearing the drains regularly, if not the sole solution, represents common sense to my constituents and is a quick answer to mitigate at least some of the risk. They want to see the schedule of maintenance improved materially. Leaves fall every autumn and block drains, not every three years, and utility companies dig up roads and fill drains with mud and tarmac, only to leave them to be cleared by the council in its three-yearly cycle.”
“National Highways has worked hard around the clock to reopen the road, but as we look at lessons learned, significant questions must be asked about how we got here—how a major A-road, connecting Bedford to the M1, built this century, can have been built down into the ground in a historic floodplain, which of course is prone to flooding. It was designed in such a way that it regularly floods a little, but was built with flooding mitigations insufficient to deal with the kind of flooding that could become all too common in the years ahead. As this Government look to build similar infrastructure in the years ahead, we must heed the warnings of the A421 and build in a way that is protected from not the flooding of yesterday, but the flooding of tomorrow.”
“The Minister has discretion in this area, and I was surprised to receive a response to a written question this afternoon suggesting that the flooding was not at a sufficient scale to be considered exceptional enough to release recovery funding—perhaps the Minister will address that point in her closing remarks. I am concerned that the Government fail to appreciate the significant but localised impact of this particular flooding event. My constituents want, and deserve, support. Perhaps the most high-profile victim of our recent flooding was the A421, which was closed for weeks after more than 60 million litres of water collected in a dip in the road at Marston Moretaine.”
“Our local councils—as a councillor myself, I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests—have done fantastic work to support residents. They have been forced to pick up the pieces and the bill to manage the response, and now to put things right. They have not got everything right—far from it—but they have stepped up during this emergency and provided significant resources to keep people safe, particularly the most vulnerable. Our households, businesses, farmers and councils now need the Government to step up and do their bit by releasing funds to support our communities to recover and improve resilience.”
“My hon. Friend is exactly right: it is very frustrating. I know that constituents who farm in my constituency are incredibly frustrated that funding will not be made available. The persistent wet weather is a disaster not only for farmers, but for all of us, because it impacts yield and quality, resulting in higher food prices and threats to national food security. The Government need to take action, recognising that farmers in Bedfordshire are businesspeople, but also that they provide a public benefit by taking flooding that would otherwise flow into our towns and villages. I hope the Minister will work with colleagues to design a scheme to properly recognise the contribution our farmers make by allowing their fields to flood, and to remunerate them for that contribution.”
“With the Government set to review the planning system and ask for our towns and villages to take thousands of additional homes, I implore the Minister to work with colleagues to deliver reforms that require flooding authorities to take a wider systems view of the impact of developments. We need to ensure that housing targets do not put the delivery of new homes over the habitability of housing stock, or the safety and sustainability of our communities.”
“While an individual development might not be enough to overwhelm the system or cause knock-on flooding impacts, the accumulated weight of development is creating huge problems across the country—including in Maulden in my constituency, where development has crept gradually up the slope of the Greensand ridge, resulting in water having fewer places to stop and soak, so that it instead surges down into the village. While the flooding infrastructure for these new developments might in theory be sufficient for planners to justify development, planning is failing to cope with the demands placed on it by multiple and interconnected developments, which is piling pressure on to networks and our natural environment.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. I agree that that is something the Government should be looking at. During the recent flooding, I was appalled to learn that drains and sewers in the new town of Wixams were overloaded with surface floodwater. Seventeen years after construction began in Wixams, the drainage infra- structure should be adequate to accommodate many more houses than have so far been built. I urge the Minister to join me in pressing Anglian Water to take urgent action to expand its sewerage and drainage infra- structure. Wixams is merely the most obvious example of a problem that residents are seeing repeatedly with development. House by house, development by development, infrastructure is failing to keep pace.”
“I will conclude with a final lesson that I hope the Minister will reflect on. My constituents were disappointed that, while she took the time to visit those in nearby Leighton Buzzard and to observe the impacts of flooding there, our towns and villages in Mid Bedfordshire received no attention from the Government at all. With a major road closed and a substantial number of houses and businesses impacted, had the flooding in Mid Bedfordshire been concentrated in a single major urban area, I have no doubt that we would have attracted some specific focus. I have raised questions with the Minister and the Department that remain unanswered. I urge the Government to remember that rural areas are impacted by flooding too, and that they should be properly served by this Government, not an afterthought.”
“Natural upstream solutions would help capture water and absorb some of the worst impacts of flooding. The Bedford and Milton Keynes waterway park is a great local example of a project that has the potential to remove water during flooding—and, indeed, to deliver water when it is most needed during droughts—and we must press ahead and deliver it at pace. In addition, we need the Government to look again at their plans to designate inferior-quality areas of the countryside for development, and instead commit to a bold strategy of restoring nature, and in so doing, creating natural flood defences for our towns and villages. In our towns and villages themselves, I would like the Government to commit to a natural regeneration programme, using trees and nature to create sponge cities by enhancing drainage to prevent surface water flooding.”
“I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. That story is felt and heard all across Mid Bedfordshire, and I agree with the points he made. As a starting point, I would like the Government to consider urgently introducing secondary legislation to bring into effect schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. The Minister smiles, so she perhaps has a point to make on that when she winds up. I understand from a recent answer to my written question that the Minister wants to be mindful of the impact of over-regulation on developers, but building homes in a way that increases the flooding risk in our towns and villages does nothing to alleviate the housing crisis. We must also consider the benefits of nature and nature-based solutions.”
“T3. I welcome all efforts to increase the number of GPs throughout England. Residents in new and growing towns such as Wixams in Mid Bedfordshire need a GP surgery. My local councils have been told that they need to put up the capital to deliver one, causing concern about cash flow and borrowing costs. Will the Minister meet me to discuss a new capital investment programme to ensure that residents in new towns such as Wixams do not have to wait for developer contributions to get the services they need?”
“Independent schools contribute £800 million to the east of England’s economy, supporting 47,000 jobs. In a recent visit to Orchard school in Barton-le-Clay in my constituency, I was struck by its wider economic impact. It employs local people, uses local suppliers, and supports local businesses.”
“A new school will not come along until 2027, and it is anticipated that even that school will be filled by future housing growth. Just over 15% of children in Bedford borough, and nearly 10% of children in central Bedfordshire, did not receive an offer for their first choice secondary school. That situation will get worse as our population grows. Across Bedfordshire, 19 independent schools currently support 5,744 pupils. It is a policy of envy—the Labour Government want to drive pupils away from the independent sector and into state schools. That means less choice for parents and bigger class sizes, reducing the quality of education for all. The Government have talked about growing the economy, but imposing VAT on independent schools will fundamentally damage the economy in Bedfordshire.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Caroline. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bromsgrove (Bradley Thomas) for securing this debate. I should declare that I am a governor at Shillington and Stondon Federation, and a Central Bedfordshire councillor. Labour Members are notable by their absence. I can only imagine that they are ashamed of this policy to charge VAT on education. Parents across the country and in Mid Bedfordshire deserve to be able to send their child to the best school for them. Parental choice is crucial to ensuring that our children get the best start in life, but too many parents in Bedfordshire are already struggling to get that for their children. The Department for Education has acknowledged that Bedford borough’s secondary schools are effectively full.”
“6. What steps she is taking to ensure pensioners who are eligible for but have not previously claimed pension credit receive a winter fuel payment in winter 2024-25.”
“Around 93% of pensioners in Mid Bedfordshire face losing the winter fuel payment this year; some of them earn less than £1,000 a month. What further support will the Minister give them to fill Labour’s black hole in their household finances so that they can keep warm this winter?”
“Q10. If the Prime Minister were a pensioner earning £11,350 this year and receiving no winter fuel payment, what would he prioritise this Christmas—heating or eating?”
“I declare an interest as a Central Bedfordshire councillor, which puts me in a somewhat awkward position. I thank the hon. Member for securing the debate. As my predecessor in Mid Bedfordshire, he knows all too well the challenges across the constituency, and I thank him for his work on the matter. It is important for all the parents and grandparents in our constituencies that children with special needs get the right support, and I absolutely want to deliver that for the people of Mid Bedfordshire. I know there have been failures in the past; we need to move forward and find solutions. I want to do that in a cross-party way and I hope I can work with the hon. Gentleman, who is my neighbour, and with the Minister to do that. I think that is the right way to go.”
“Those include difficulties for remote and isolated hamlets, which have poor access to poor health services, in accessing treatment; insufficient public transport; narrow roads; bad broadband; longer travel times to access the local GP and dentist—if there is a dentist; and all the challenges that many of our more rural healthcare settings face in recruiting staff. During this Parliament, I would like to see the Government commit to delivering for rural areas, with focused efforts to deliver staff and services that reach out into the most isolated communities, to ensure that everyone can access the healthcare they need within a short journey from their front door. I hope that colleagues across the east of England share that ambition.”
“In the coming months, I look forward to engaging further with the Minister about the Government’s plans to drive forward NHS digitisation in Bedfordshire, and to discussing how we can ensure that people using Bedford Hospital—mostly people from the north of my constituency—have access to the state-of-the-art facilities. My third point is on rural communities and health inequality. Across the east of England, many of us represent highly rural constituencies. I do not think that I will “out-rural” colleagues from Norfolk, but Mid Bedfordshire is among the most rural; as a result, some of our residents face significant health inequalities.”
“I welcomed the fact that the previous Government had committed to the inclusion of the Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital and the Milton Keynes Women’s and Children’s Hospital in the new hospitals programme, and I urge the current Government to confirm that they will proceed with that investment. However, we cannot stop there. Right across the east of England, we see hospitals failing to deliver the high-quality services that our constituents need. That is not the fault of the hard-working doctors and nurses who work in the hospitals; it is because of crumbling buildings and poor technology. In Bedfordshire, we are behind on NHS digitisation, and significant investment is needed in the fabric of our local hospitals—particularly in Bedford, where I understand there is a significant and serious maintenance backlog.”
“If the Government are serious about plans to deliver 300,000 new houses per year, they also need to be serious about their plans to deliver the infrastructure that our communities need, starting with a clear plan for a capital investment programme that will give local communities up front the funding they need to deliver GP surgeries rather than having to wait for developer contributions after the houses are built. I will be interested to hear what the Minister says about infrastructure alongside housing development. My second point is on hospital modernisation. Communities across the east of England deserve access to modern and advanced hospitals.”
“I ask the Minister, if I may, to respond to that and to join and help me to unblock the issues that we are facing with local, unaccountable integrated care boards, to deliver the healthcare in Wixams. I know that that case in Wixams is not an isolated one. Across Mid Bedfordshire, I hear time and again of cases where GP surgery capacity has failed to grow and meet population growth. We have heard statistics from colleagues in this room; in our ICB area, the average number of patients per GP is now 2,955, up 651 since December 2016; in the same period, GP numbers have reduced by 44. That just is not good enough—we need better healthcare for our constituents. I am sure that that picture is painted in constituencies right across the east of England.”
“Nowhere is this more apparent than in a planned new town called Wixams in my constituency. Residents had reasonably expected that the infrastructure they needed would be staged throughout the development so that they would have the healthcare that they need as that community grows, but that has not happened. Seventeen years after shovels went in the ground, around 5,000 people now call Wixams home. That number could be as high as 20,000 when the development is finished, but they still do not have a GP surgery. The community has been fighting for years to have a GP surgery, and their demands have been falling on deaf ears, between the local authorities—Bedford and Central Bedfordshire—and the ICB. The ICB is not accountable to our local populations, and that demand for a GP surgery is falling on deaf ears.”
“I thank the hon. Member for Norwich South (Clive Lewis) for securing this debate. We seem to be on a journey from east to west; we have covered Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, and now we are in Bedfordshire, one of the smallest counties in England—and I am pleased to be joined today by my constituency neighbour, the hon. Member for Bedford (Mohammad Yasin). We are a small county, and my very rural constituency is squeezed between Bedford and Luton. I would like to dwell on three points: housing growth and primary care, hospital modernisations, and rural communities and health equality. Our communities in Mid Bedfordshire have done more than their fair bit and taken more than their fair share of housing growth. We have seen population growth far outstrip the delivery of new infrastructure.”
“In Mid Bedfordshire we have a mix of historic towns and villages, as well as newer developments such as Wixams. We take more than our fair share of development, and my constituents want to see beautiful homes with the right services that are sympathetic to the traditional character of our communities. Does the Secretary of State agree that people want to see beautiful homes throughout England? In that case, will she reinsert beauty as a house building objective in the revised framework?”
“I will play my full role in scrutinising the plans that come forward to ensure that the Parliament that I am so proud to be a Member of embodies the standards in public life that the people of Mid Bedfordshire and across the country expect.”
“We have an opportunity to challenge the status quo and to breathe fresh life into our politics. Modernisation must be thoughtful, reflecting a consensus, which certainly emerged in my election campaign, that our politics must improve. But we must recognise that this place needs the experience and knowledge that comes from working in industry, commerce, law and, yes, even in politics, lest we become a House of politicians interested only in the next election, the next poll and the next headline. That is not what the people out there want. They want a competent Government to address the issues that they are concerned about and an effective Opposition to hold that Government to account.”
“I hope to spend time in this House and at home ensuring that our economy is working for young people from modest backgrounds like mine. Let me conclude my tour of Bedfordshire by mentioning our county’s son, John Bunyan. He was the legendary puritan evangelist—not quite a man after my own heart—who was famous for writing “The Pilgrim’s Progress” in the 17th century while incarcerated for preaching without a licence. After the Bible, his novel is said to be the most published book in the English language—a record that perhaps one former Member for Mid Bedfordshire is intent on challenging. No doubt, if a ban on second jobs for Members comes to pass, those on both sides of the House may find that they also have a natural flair for writing similarly successful fiction. We are a large intake of new Members.”
“Similar concerns exist throughout Mid Bedfordshire, whether in the green belt or not, and those communities have my full support. Let us remind ourselves that the green belt is a Labour policy, and one that I am happy to support, but not if, in the words of Lord Prescott, it is one that they intend to build on. As beautiful as Mid Bedfordshire is, it is not a sleepy hollow. It is within easy reach of Cambridge, Oxford and London. We host the world-class Cranfield University, numerous start-up technology companies, a Nissan research and development site, the Millbrook proving ground—for those who fancy a nice trip on a wobbly road—and Lockheed Martin, which is a significant defence partner working hard to keep us all safe at night. We are home to a vibrant high-tech economy and boundless opportunities to get on.”
“The Greensand ridge, stretching for 40 miles, offers spectacular high level walking, and in the community forest of Marston vale—one of only 13 in the UK—trees are being planted in the pits dug to supply clay to the nearby Stewartby brickworks: a great example of how we can restore and enhance our local and natural environment. While commuters may blink and miss it, constituents are deeply passionate about our beautiful countryside, our communities and our heritage. That is why proposals to build thousands of homes on green-belt land near Barton-le-Clay, Silsoe and Gravenhurst have been met with stiff resistance from local action groups, as have proposals to concrete over Steppingley road field, a site on the edge of Flitwick that is home to skylarks, deer, badgers and hares and sits alongside semi-ancient woodland.”
“Samuel Whitbread even represented part of the constituency, although I believe he may be more famous for founding a moderately successful brewery. Many people pass through Bedfordshire on one of our major roads or railway lines—sadly, without a second’s thought for the county. Though lying within one of the smallest counties in England, Mid Bedfordshire has in its borders a beautiful and varied landscape. The outstanding chalk escarpments of the Sundon hills, the Sharpenhoe clappers—I do not know what a clapper is—and the Pegsdon and Barton hills offer stunning views across the county.”
“After working as a maths teacher and at the Bank of England, the hon. Gentleman became the first Labour MP to represent Mid Bedfordshire. He should be very proud of that achievement, and of course I will be very proud if he remains the last Labour Member of Parliament for Mid Bedfordshire. Except for that recent interruption, Mid Bedfordshire in its various guises has been represented in this place by Whig, Liberal and Conservative MPs. I have some big shoes to fill. Lord Boyd, who represented the constituency from 1931, was a leading advocate for decolonisation and served in Churchill’s post-war Government. Stephen Hastings helped create the circumstances that led to the first steps towards the independence of Zimbabwe. More recently, Lord Lyell, who I believe is still the longest-serving Government Law Officer, was a Member up to 1997.”
“Prior to being elected, I had a 15-year career in the City, where I was responsible for compliance and conduct, keeping overenthusiastic traders and lightning-sharp minds in check and ensuring that they stuck to the rules—although perhaps not with your aplomb, Madam Deputy Speaker. Within the constituency, many people are doing fantastic work in public service, running businesses, farming and investing for the future in their community or their family, or both. I am here to support them all in their aspirations by championing our dynamic economy and opportunities for all. I pay tribute to my predecessor, who is now the hon. Member for Hitchin (Alistair Strathern). He is a Bedfordshire lad who returned from London last year to win the long and hard-fought by-election in our county.”
“Member for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh (Chris Murray)—I have probably not pronounced that correctly, and I apologise not only to him, but to all his constituents—and thank him for that whistlestop tour of his constituency. I think I should take up the offer and go to Edinburgh in August over recess. I thank Members for all the excellent maiden speeches that have come before us. Members have set a high bar, which bodes well for this Parliament. I am sure that all newly elected Members feel as I do that we have been given a great honour in being elected. I feel that most strongly because Mid Bedfordshire has been my home for 10 years, so I am deeply grateful to the electors who placed their faith in me at the ballot box.”
“I congratulate you, Madam Deputy Speaker, on your election and for taking your place. I thank the House for the warm welcome to the Chamber. I am grateful to be called to make my maiden speech in this debate on second jobs and the modernisation of Parliament. It is a tricky, but important subject, so in preparation I thought I would flick through “Erskine May”. I popped into the Library the other day and did so, and swiftly fell asleep. I came to the swift conclusion that a bit of modernisation in this House would not go amiss. Members will find that I engage in that debate constructively and thoughtfully as we think about how this Parliament and future Parliaments should progress. I first congratulate the hon.”
“T6. The Government have announced ambitious house building targets but, as far as I could tell, the Labour party manifesto was silent on the GP estate upgrades. Does the Secretary of State agree that the Conservative policy of rebuilding or refurbishing 250 GP surgeries in England is a sensible policy to implement?”