Parliament's party history for this member: Labour ( – present).
Register of interests
Every entry the member has in the Register of Members' Financial Interests, as Parliament currently publishes it. The wording and values are the member's own declarations; nothing here has been assessed by this site.
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Many local towns like Rye and Bexhill give free Saturday parking during the festive season to boost local high streets, but not Hastings. That is why last year I launched a campaign calling on the local council to roll it out in Hastings, too. Does the Leader of the House agree that after the Government took decisive action in the Budget yesterday to support local businesses and cut business rates, Green-run Hastings borough council should get in the festive spirit early and support my campaign for Christmas parking in Hastings?
I want to raise the issue of water outages, which I know you have also been working on in Sussex, Madam Deputy Speaker. I have previously lobbied the Minister about upgrading how we see the risk of a water outage in the national risk register, and I was pleased to see it upgraded from the lowest form to the highest form of risk in the most recent register. However, I want to flag some issues, particularly with the priority services register, that we have encountered during outages in Hastings.
The first issue relates to blocks of flats with multiple residents but one bill payer, such as a management company, which is particularly common in sheltered accommodation. Southern Water has told me:
“Across the water industry…arrangements are designed around identified account holders and bill-paying customers. In centrally billed or bulk-metered properties, such as some blocks of flats, water companies typically have no direct relationship with individual residents and do not hold information about…personal circumstances. This creates a recognised industry challenge”.
We really need to look at that in relation to resilience. Secondly, I am aware that the risk register is not updated in line with the electoral register, so the register is not updated when people move out and it ends up with so many people on it that delivery becomes unsustainable. Will the Minister look at those issues?
Reform-run East Sussex county council is responsible for unblocking drains and filling potholes, but too often nothing is done when residents report those issues. I have been shocked to discover that the same contractor, Balfour Beatty, is paid both to independently check the quality of pothole filling and to fill potholes. I was also shocked to discover today that the number of miles of road that East Sussex is resurfacing this year is down on last year, bucking the national trend, despite extra money <span id="1297" class="column-number" data-column-number="1297"></span>from this Labour Government to sort those issues out. Does the Leader of the House agree that Reform-run East Sussex county council must get a grip, fill the potholes and unblock the drains?
<Question HRSContentId="{143862C8-B354-449E-8784-B5095CAB7437}">T7. <QuestionText HRSContentId="{99FAF1F9-72CE-44F3-83C4-5E37309F30F4}"></QuestionText>Many hospital specialisms are increasingly shared between Eastbourne hospital and Hastings Conquest hospital, which is in my constituency. That means that the people I represent who do not drive are required to travel a long way by public transport to get to Eastbourne hospital—between 90 minutes and two hours, and that involves a lot of walking. The hon. Member for Eastbourne (Josh Babarinde) shares my concerns about people travelling in the other direction. With so many services shared between the two hospitals, I am calling on the NHS integrated care board, the trust, and the Reform-run county council to look at providing a shuttle bus that would make it easier for people to travel between the two hospitals. Does the Minister agree that this is something health commissioners should look at when planning services?</Question>
I welcome the Prime Minister’s commitment to strengthening relations with our European neighbours. Can I give him one example of how he can boost economic growth by doing just that on the south coast? Thousands of the people I represent have called for international trains to come back to Ashford International. It would boost our economy by £2.7 billion and bring half a million more visitors to Sussex and Kent every year, and we have an international terminal sitting there ready to be used. It is a no-brainer, so will the Prime Minister give me his commitment that he will support this, like the Transport Secretary?
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy.
I pay tribute to the campaigners and citizen scientists—some of whom are in the Public Gallery—who have exposed the scale of the sewage scandal. It is only because of them and their campaigning that we are having this debate.
Our water industry is fundamentally broken. I sat with my hon. Friend the Member for Mid and South Pembrokeshire (Henry Tufnell) on the Select Committee and questioned the water bosses, and all we heard was excuse after excuse. We need a fundamental change to protect our failing water infrastructure. That is a top priority for our Labour Government and I welcome the steps that have been made so far to ramp up regulation and get tough on the water companies, but as I will outline, we need to go further.<span id="493WH" class="column-number" data-column-number="493WH"></span>
Nothing enrages the people I represent in Hastings and Rye more than bills going up every year to prop up failing companies, while executives and shareholders try to find ways to evade bonus bans as their companies edge towards bankruptcy. We have already taken important steps, but we must go further to protect vital national infrastructure. In Hastings and Rye, we already see the impacts of the regulation that we introduced: more Environment Agency staff focused full time on monitoring Southern Water, more inspections taking place, and more enforcement notices issued. We are starting to see the results of that work, but there is still more to do. Those of us in the Chamber who favour a co-operative model believe it is the solution that would put people before profit in fixing our broken water industry.
I will talk briefly about the impact of our failing water industry on the people I represent. We have had two major water outages in the past couple of years, one lasting nine days and one five days; there was major flooding in Hastings town centre that ruined people’s livelihoods; and 300 million plastic beads washed up on our coastline—we found out that they came from a Southern Water treatment plant only because we got down on our hands and knees and exposed that scandal. Public health has been compromised and sewage is dumped in our sea regularly. Right now a digger sits on the beach in Hastings, an eyesore, because of Southern Water’s failings. I believe that the solution is to move to a co-operative model, which would be the radical shake-up that this industry needs.
Does the hon. Member agree that some of our water companies operate in extremely murky arrangements? Often, there is a complicated network of <span id="496WH" class="column-number" data-column-number="496WH"></span>different companies that sub-contract from each other, meaning that the customer who pays the bill has no idea what value for money, if any, they are getting.
Everyone is so excited about the return of the Bayeux tapestry, which comes back to our shores for the first time in almost 1,000 years. That is a testament to this Labour Government’s work to strengthen our relations with European neighbours. Hastings has often been at the centre of historical events, but we have not felt the benefits and we rank in the bottom 10 places nationally for social mobility. Thanks to my campaign, the young people I represent will get free priority access to the tapestry exhibition and not be priced out by the cost of a ticket. Does the Prime Minister agree with me that <span id="169" class="column-number" data-column-number="169"></span>this is great news, and that the British Museum must do all it can to ensure as many as people from my area as possible can see the exhibition?
Of vital importance to our maritime sector is our coastguard and our volunteer coastguard officers. I know that the MCA’s planned changes to the operating model have been causing serious concern in coastal communities such as mine in Hastings, Rye and the villages. I thank the Minister for really listening to those concerns from our coastal communities. Can I urge him to ensure that these plans are paused and do not go ahead on 1 September, and to really look at the MCA’s handling of this situation? Will he also join me in thanking the brilliant coastguard rescue officers and the many people in the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in my constituency and up and down the country?
Our roads in Hastings, Rye and the surrounding villages are riddled with potholes, and it is one of the biggest issues we face. One of the most frustrating things is that on the rare occasion that a pothole gets filled, all the other potholes around it are left untouched. That is why I wrote to the new leader of the Reform-led East Sussex county council on 21 May to urge him to take decisive action on this issue by reviewing the contract with Balfour Beatty and changing the intervention criteria. Two months later, and despite my writing repeatedly to him about this issue, he has not responded to any of my questions about potholes. Does the Leader of the House agree that this shows that Reform is not interested in fixing the issues that local people care about, even when it gets record money from this Labour Government to do so?