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Dear Resident,
Welcome to my final newsletter as the Member of Parliament for the Bexhill and Battle constituency.
After over 9 years as the Member of Parliament for the Bexhill and Battle constituency, I have decided not to stand for a further term. With the General Election called, my last day as an MP will be today.
I have loved being an MP and I leave with a heavy heart. The constituency is a beautiful place, with wonderful people in every town and village. I’ve been lucky enough to work across the community, and political divide, with some fantastic people. I’ve also been fortunate to have had the best constituency staff, and Association, an MP could ask for.
Transport has been my passion throughout my time in Parliament. I am grateful to have served for seven years on the Transport Select Committee, with almost three as Chair. I’ve loved my time as Rail Minister and am grateful to the Prime Minister for trusting me with this important portfolio.
It has been a pleasure and an honour to serve you. I wish my successor well in their role as Member of Parliament.
Below, I have selected a few highlights of my political career over the past 9 years, which have been challenging, inspiring, and eventful, to say the least.
With my very best wishes for the future,
Huw
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£20 million Levelling-Up Funding for the De La Warr and Sidley
During my time as MP, I was a frequent visitor to the Department for Levelling Up to bang the drum for more investment into Bexhill. Over the past 18 months, £60 million of Levelling Up funding has been allocated to the local area through three different pots of money.
The first of these was announced in January last year with Rother District Council's bid to the Levelling Up Fund being successful. I was closely involved with the bid, and it was fantastic that we have achieved this nearly-£20 million investment to help residents in Bexhill and Sidley (our most deprived wards) by delivering jobs, training, culture, and education. By building state of the art community facilities in Sidley and investing in the De La Warr Pavilion, we are securing a future for local people and inspiring confidence for further investment in our town which is good for business and economic growth.
You can find out more about this investment here.
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Bexhill Jobs & Apprenticeships Fair
One of the highlights of the year was always the Bexhill Jobs and Apprenticeships Fair. I started working on setting these up with local stakeholders in 2016. Eight of these were held during my time as MP, with a record number of people visiting this year’s fair. Visitors could come confident in the knowledge that every business and organisation exhibiting would have something tangible to offer and I heard from one accountancy firm that they recruit all of their apprentices at the fair every year. You can read more here.
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£20 million Long-Term Plan for Bexhill
Last October, I received the good news that Bexhill has been chosen as one of 55 towns which will benefit from a £20 million 10-year endowment-style fund called the Long-Term Plan for Towns. The Plan requires each of the chosen towns to set up a new Town Board of local stakeholders which will lead the investment and work with the community on ideas to ensure this funding leaves a lasting legacy for our town and area.
The Board wants to hear ideas from the Bexhill community about what they think the Long-Term Plan should deliver and has launched its own website which can be found at www.bexhilltownboard.co.uk and email address [email protected].
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Improving Local Bus Services
I was delighted in 2022 when East Sussex County Council was awarded £41 million by the government to improve local bus services. I had urged the Council to bid ambitiously for this scheme to help improve transport connections for rural communities.
This £41m was one of the highest funding allocations in the country. The money has been used to implement the county council’s Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) which sought to provide residents in rural areas with access to a bus service, enabling more people to access health, education, retail, or to connect with the wider bus or rail network.
The BSIP was created in response to the Transport Select Committee’s report and recommendation for a bus strategy to deliver a vision and breathe life into the bus market. I was the Chair of that Committee so it’s good to see the ideas put into action. I wrote more about this here.
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Supporting Our Farmers
Farming is a crucial sector locally. The South East contributes more than £800 million toward the total income from farming in England and, nationally, agriculture’s contribution to the UK economy is close to £14 billion.
I enjoyed working with the local NFU and visiting our fantastic farmers across the constituency. It was also a pleasure to hold a number of farming and rural roundtable where we could discuss the challenges and opportunities that exist.
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Protected Status for Sussex Wines
Sussex Day in June 2022 was even more significant as the government announced that still and sparkling wines produced in our county would be added to the list of products given geographically protected status.
Our local vineyards produce some of the best, high-quality wines in England, and make such a contribution to our local economy. This protected status is thoroughly deserved.
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Rother Valley Railway
I am a supporter of the Rother Valley Railway project to connect to the East Sussex and Kent Railway line. I know this has been a contentious issue for Robertsbridge village but I do believe that once achieved, the heritage railway line will be a huge boost for the local economy and provide jobs in rural areas. The connection to the mainline railway to London supports sustainable tourism in East Sussex.
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Supporting the Rollout of the Covid Vaccine
When the Covid vaccine became available, it became clear that there were challenges and barriers in setting up vaccination sites across some parts of Rother and Wealden. I worked urgently with the local NHS, who were responsible for delivering the vaccine, to provide an alternative centres. I also used a question in the chamber to the Prime Minister for assistance in getting a vaccination set-up for rural Rother. I will never forget the mammoth effort of our GP surgeries, their dedicated staff, NHS partners, parish councils and residents for their efforts in getting more vaccination centres set up across the area.
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Pevensey Library
Back in 2016, I was pleased to be involved in helping volunteers save the library in Pevensey. I called a public meeting when East Sussex County Council threatened to close the library, and I am delighted that it is now a successful community-led service and hub looking to secure its long-term future in the heart of the village.
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Cladding Remediation
New checks on homes since the Grenfell Tower fire in London, which killed 72 people in 2017, have laid bare decades of poor building practices and defective materials. This has left at least 3 million people across the UK living in homes which are deemed unsafe.
66 residents of the Landmark in Bexhill at one point faced the possibility of meeting the cost of remedial cladding work through no fault of their own. I was pleased to work with the residents and engage with the government to ensure they would not have to meet the cost of the works that were required.
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Supporting BA Employees
I am proud of the work the Transport Select Committee undertook during my time as Chair to support BA employees during the Covid pandemic. In our report, we found that BA had made a calculated attempt to take advantage of the pandemic to lay-off 12,000 employees, with the remaining 30,000 put on inferior contracts. I met many loyal BA staff during this time and was proud to join and address them at a protest in Brighton against the job cuts.
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Brexit Debates
Shorty after I was elected, the Brexit referendum was upon us and was one of the biggest national issues during my nine years as an MP. Constituents had a wide range of views on both how the UK should leave the EU, or indeed whether we should leave at all. I didn’t believe it was right to tell people which way to vote given MPs had voted to let the people decide. Instead, I sent balanced information from the House of Commons library to every household to allow constituents to weigh up the arguments and understand the process.
I also presented this at a series of public meetings right across the constituency, hearing the views of local people and having a speaker from either side to set out their case. In the final week, I visited around 25 schools to explain the process to young people who were not old enough to vote. I’m pleased that we were able to have a sensible debate in the constituency; it helped us through the heated events when Parliament was finding it difficult to deliver the ultimate result.
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Improving Accessibility at Battle Station
I was really pleased last week to learn that Battle Station will become fully step-free, with the installation of new platform lifts, under plans announced by the Department for Transport. The station was one of fifty selected, out of 300 nominations, from the Government’s Access for All scheme. Over the last twenty years, step-free access has been delivered to over 200 stations across Great Britain.
Working with Southeastern Trains, local rail user groups and the Town and District Councils, I’ve long championed this application and was sore not to see it succeed in previous rounds. For this round, it’s made it and I’m so pleased for residents who currently find it difficult to travel by train from the station, or cannot access it at all, due to disability or mobility challenges.
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£20 million Levelling-Up Partnership for Rother
In March 2023, it was announced that Rother would become one of 20 new Levelling Up Partnership areas which would benefit from £20 million of bespoke place-based regeneration.
The projects include £5 million to establish a new health centre for Little Common, £9 million towards a brand-new King Offa Leisure Centre, over £2.1 million for Rother’s voluntary and community sector, including establishing a new Bexhill Community Hub, £1.7 million to support the visitor economy, £200k to support local high streets and introduce a system to tackle shop-lifting, and £1.25 million to complete the Queensway Gateway Road.
I have long campaigned for Rother to receive more government investment to ensure that all residents, in both urban and rural areas, and especially the more deprived areas, have equal and fair access to opportunities. Rother is a district which has long been overlooked or lost out to neighbouring towns. These projects have been carefully selected to deliver improvements for residents’ health and well-being, strengthen local transport links, boost business and tourism, provide much-needed housing, support learning and skills, as well as extra help for children, young people, and families.
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Tackling Sewage Pollution
One of my key priorities for the constituency over recent years was to make a concerted effort to deal with sewage pollution. To see sewage pumped into our seas and rivers during heavy rainfall or at times when our sewage system risks being overloaded is shocking. It harms the environment, wildlife, and everyone who enjoys our seas and rivers.
Having previously voted against the government in 2021 to press for more stringent measures to tackle this problem, I have spent a considerable amount of time over the past two years pushing Southern Water and the Environment Agency to act, as well as lobbying government ministers. I still believe that greater transparency is needed on local outflows, and when and why they are used, as well as a more diverse testing regime being required right across our local beaches to provide swimmers with more accurate information on water quality.
I hope that more progress can be made over the coming months and years. You can read about the work I was involved in here.
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A21 Safety Improvements
The A21 has a poor safety record. Since 2015, I have held numerous meetings with National Highways and the police to get improved safety measures on this road. My main focus were the villages of Hurst Green, Whatlington and outside the school at Vinehall. This is where speeding cars and dangerous driving were having the most impact on constituents lives. In 2021, I insisted to the Roads Minister, with the support of the A21 Reference group, that a £19m Road Safety package had to be implemented in the current investment period as it was at risk of being delayed. Safety measures are now being designed and installed and I heard last week that the speed limit at Vinehall School would now be reduced to 40mph, it has been a long time coming.
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New Marine Conservation Zone for East Sussex
I was the lead MP for this zone and chaired meetings in Parliament to promote our application. I was pleased, in 2019, following nearly two years of campaigning, that the new Marine Conservation Zone called Beachy Head East was announced by the Government.
This was one of 41 new Marine Conservation Zones, marking the most significant expansion of England’s ‘Blue Belt’ of protected areas to date. Stretching from Cornwall to Northumberland and including East Sussex, the new protections safeguard 12,000 square kilometres of marine habitat, an area almost eight times the size of Greater London. The results since the zone was created are very positive.
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Transport Select Committee
When I was first elected in 2015, I joined the cross-party House of Commons Transport Select Committee. I did so because I knew Transport would be a game-changer for improving the needs and economy of the constituency. I threw myself into the role and was elected by the 650 MPs in the House of Commons to become Chair for almost three years.
The committee holds the Department for Transport to account on all aspects of transport policy. Much of the work that we undertook had a real relevance to the constituency and country. Our inquiry, report and recommendation on Smart Motorways led to the roll-out being scrapped. Our call for a Bus Service Improvement Plan was adopted. Our backing for the aviation industry during COVID eventually led to a relaxation in travel restrictions. We still await a nationwide ban on pavement parking. Select Committees do vital work and are a key part of Parliamentary democracy.
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Support for Autistic People
After first being elected as MP, I spent time visiting parents who have autistic or Asperger’s-impacted children. Seeing first-hand the commitment of the families and how difficult it is for parents to get the support that they need deeply affected me and led me to joining the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Autism.
In 2017, my Sussex Parliamentary colleague Maria Caulfield and I published a report on the provision of education for children with autism which concluded that the education system is still struggling to meet the needs of autistic children.
It was a pleasure to be elected as the Chair of the APPG in 2021 following the sad passing of my colleague Dame Cheryl Gillan, who previously led the group and was a long-standing advocate for autistic people and their families. I served as Chair until becoming a government minster in October 2022. A record of my work on autism can be found here.
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Rishi Sunak Visits Bexhill
On a sunny day in Bexhill, I was pleased to invite Rishi to speak to our members in his pitch to be party leader and Prime Minister. Here he is with Bexhill legend, and my great friend, Jimmy Carroll.
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Smart Motorways
One area where the Transport Select Committee achieved real change during my time as Chair was on smart motorways. These motorways use techniques to increase capacity and traffic flow, such as turning the hard shoulder into an additional lane. There was concern about their safety following a number of tragic fatalities.
In our report, our recommendations included a pause on all new smart motorways for five years, whilst data on their safety could be collected, and the retrofitting of safety measures along existing stretches of the motorway. The government accepted every one of the committee’s recommendations, and subsequently, in April 2023, cancelled plans for new smart motorways.
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Civil Parking Enforcement for Rother
Upon being elected as MP, I began my campaign to introduce Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) in Rother District following concerns from local businesses and retailers about the "Wild West of Parking" in the area. I am pleased that this was finally achieved in September 2020. I'm not convinced that the implementation is working for all but it will continue to be assessed and I would urge residents to take part in future consultations so we get it right.
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Work Experience
I have always been a supporter of work experience. My own confidence and self-esteem was boosted greatly when I undertook work experience at age 16 in a local building society. As an MP, I wanted to make sure that I offered this opportunity to young people in the constituency. Since 2016, my office has hosted 57 work experience students alongside 15 paid internships. One of our early work experience students now works as my Parliamentary Assistant and a number of them secured jobs within the Parliamentary community.
I also worked closely with the National Citizens Service scheme in the constituency which offers young people the chance to build skills, run events and take on work challenges.
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