Rural Development (Hansard, 23 October 2003)

§ 7. Mrs. Patsy Calton (Cheadle)
What discussions she has had with colleagues in other departments to discuss delivery of sustainable rural development. [133788]

§ The Minister for Rural Affairs and Local Environmental Quality (Alun Michael)
We have discussions with colleagues in other Departments on rural development issues almost daily. I must have spoken to some five or six colleagues yesterday alone. Ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for future generations, lies at the heart of DEFRA's vision of sustainable development, and is relevant to everything that we do, including sustainable rural development. Over the coming weeks, I shall meet colleagues in other Departments, along with Sir Ewen Cameron, to discuss these issues and other matters of mutual interest in relation to each Department's responsibilities.

§ Mrs. Calton
In his discussions, will the Minister take up the issue of the closure of rural post offices on the edge of urban conurbations, which the Post Office considers to be urban post offices? I am especially concerned about the effect on the quality of life of urban communities, but I am also worried about the transport implications for those communities.

§ Alun Michael
The hon. Lady makes an important point. The interface between rural areas that are near to urban areas and the maintenance of services is a difficult and challenging issue, not least because people living in villages often choose to shop in the town rather than at the rural post office.
We have provided a £450 million support package for 2003 to 2006 to help Britain's 8,500 rural post offices, but we need to look beyond that to the creation of a sustainable future. I am pleased that colleagues across the Government have agreed on the importance of co-location and co-delivery of services in rural areas, and of ensuring that services that would otherwise be unsustainable support each other.
I agree that we need to look particularly at rural areas that are close to urban areas.

§ Mr. David Chaytor (Bury, North)
May I return to the subject of the role of energy crops in sustainable rural development? Does the Minister agree that the market for such fuels will grow only if consumers know where they can buy them? Does he know how many retail outlets we currently have for biodiesel and where they are, and what could his Department do to publicise them?

§ Alun Michael
I know that there is one in my hon. Friend the Minister of State's village and that he uses it, but he has expert knowledge of his awn area, and I agree that a market needs to be created. The difficulty lies in ensuring that supply and the creation of the market do 780 not outpace production and sales, and delivery independence. That is not easy, but we are trying to deal with it, as I have indicated in earlier answers.

§ Mr. Boris Johnson (Henley)
In delivering sustainable rural development, what steps are the Government taking to encourage supermarkets to stock locally produced meat and other products, so that consumers can not just assist the British livestock sector but have the security of knowing where the meat came from and how it was reared?

§ Alun Michael
I acknowledge the value of that approach, which we try to encourage in regional food strategies. I talked to a regional development agency this morning about the link between the use of local products and tourism, and the importance of encouraging those who run restaurants and hotels to make such choices.
The industry can help itself in this regard. A short time ago, I met a farmer in Cumbria who had taken the produce of some 40 farmers to a supermarket and persuaded it to provide a rack featuring local produce, which subsequently outsold many national brands.
The Government's promotion of the outcomes of the Curry report "Farming and Food: A Sustainable Future" is very relevant. I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman's endorsement of that approach.

§ Joyce Quin (Gateshead, East and Washington, West)
Does my right hon. Friend accept that if the Government's policy of devolution within England is to work, it will be vital for rural interests and the rural economy to be a central, integrated part of the process? Will he assure me that the Government will ensure that the task of addressing rural needs and issues such as that raised by the hon. Member for Henley (Mr. Johnson) becomes an essential part of the work of regional development agencies and, where they are established, regional assemblies?

§ Alun Michael
I can certainly assure my right hon. Friend of that. Only last week we had discussions with regional development agency chairs, during which my right hon. Friend the Minister for Sport and Tourism and I spoke of the consonance between the issues of food production and tourism. This morning I emphasised to RDA representatives the link between tourism and commercial opportunity for producers and processors. This is very much a regional and local issue, which should not be viewed only at national level.

§ Mr. James Gray (North Wiltshire)
One would have thought that the Minister would have welcomed one of the recommendations in the Labour-dominated Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs report on broadband that he should play an absolutely central role in promoting broadband in rural areas. But his response, which was published yesterday, was: Defra Ministers have stressed that it would undermine rural delivery … were policy for rural broadband … to be divorced from the mainstream. 781 He says that in this case the Department of Trade and Industry must ensure that delivery is as good as it can be in rural areas. Does not he understand that broadband can, broadly speaking, be easily delivered in urban areas, that it is much harder in rural areas but that it is much more essential that we should have it in rural areas? Does not he understand that, as Minister for Rural Affairs and Local Environmental Quality, he should be taking a key and central part in pressing the other Government Departments and other agencies involved to ensure that broadband is spread as widely as possible?

§ Alun Michael
The Select Committee is Labour dominated because this House is Labour dominated, and long may that continue. It is certainly in the interests of rural areas that we have strong representation on the Labour Benches—Labour Members really are interested in the regeneration of rural areas.
The hon. Gentleman has been wandering around in a fog for many months. He seems to be pre-occupied by one or two other issues, rather than the interests of rural communities. Great steps forward have been made in the delivery of rural broadband. I am pleased that the Minister for Energy, E-Commerce and Postal Services has given the same undertakings that we have been willing to give on the delivery of broadband to rural areas.
We need to remind rural areas—I reminded some of its regional representatives this morning—of the opportunity that broadband gives for commercial activity based in rural areas, which previously could exist only in urban areas. The way in which we are pushing forward the delivery of broadband in rural areas will show us competing successfully with other countries and surging ahead of them. [HON. MEMBERS: "Where?"] Opposition Members really should get out a bit more.