Mary Creagh: The countryside needs a government that is on their side

The Great Yorkshire Show brings together our traditional farming heritage, our growing tourism economy and our specialist foods industry. We have been brewing beer and baking bread in Yorkshire for millennia.

In Wakefield, we are proud of the prize-winning Cupcake Shoppe on Dewsbury Road, award-winning meats from Edward Garthwaite at Blacker Hall Farm and fantastic beer from Ossett and Clark’s breweries.

In Wakefield district, Warburtons have the largest bakery, and Coca Cola, the largest drinks factory in Europe. Our rhubarb and liquorice festivals celebrate Wakefield’s food heritage and history. These companies and festivals bring jobs and tourists to our city and district.

Over the last two years, Welcome to Yorkshire has helped boost income from tourism from £5.9bn to £7bn, no mean feat in an economic downturn. But we should not be surprised – Yorkshire has a lot to offer from six blue flag beaches and the North Yorks Moors and Yorkshire Dales National Parks to the new Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield.

Much of this is now threatened by the Government’s reckless cuts which go too far, too fast. Rural families and businesses are feeling the squeeze from rising food and energy costs. Living costs in rural areas are already 10-20 per cent higher than in urban areas.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation states that high petrol costs, lack of affordable housing, cuts to buses, poor access to employment and slow broadband speeds, are responsible for this “rural premium.”

The Government is risking a vicious circle where there are fewer people in work paying taxes and higher unemployment makes it harder to get the deficit down.

Yorkshire’s future prosperity needs new industries in rural areas as well as food and farming. However, the abolition of Yorkshire Forward, the cut to Welcome to Yorkshire’s budget and frontloaded cuts to local councils make this task much more difficult.

The Commission for Rural Communities found that while 60 per cent of urban areas have high-speed broadband, only 1.5 per cent of villages and hamlets benefit from super-fast internet services. Yet universal access to broadband – a key concern in rural areas – will not happen until 2015, three years later than Labour planned.

Ministers have confirmed that they will only put forward half the money needed to expand rural broadband, leaving councils and communities to find the rest – a tough challenge when council budgets received the biggest cut in government. This creates more uncertainty for rural businesses and start-ups.

I recently met Wakefield farmers who told me they are being hit by rising feed and fuel costs and supermarket price wars. Our dairy industry is struggling – the number of dairy cows has halved since 1980, the number of dairy producers has halved since 1995. Something is wrong.

I support the National Farmers’ Union’s calls for transparent dairy contracts to ensure fair prices from processors. I also want the Government’s proposed Groceries Code Adjudicator to be beefed up to ensure that the big supermarkets treat farmers and consumers fairly.

The Tory-led Government has a plan for cuts, but no plan for jobs and services for the countryside. Last October’s budget took over £2bn of cash out of Defra’s budget over the next four years, the second biggest cut of any department.

This has led to a series of short-sighted decisions: a breathtaking attempt to sell-off England’s forests; a 28.5 per cent cut to our National Parks; and £500m cut from flood defence investment leaving people uncertain about whether they will be able to insure their homes after 2013 when Labour’s deal with the insurance industry ends.

Rural bus services are experiencing a “perfect storm.” North Yorkshire County Council has announced a £600,000 cut from its bus budget meaning fewer services on Sundays and in the evenings.

The Government is cutting its Bus Service Operators Grant, which supports many services by 20 per cent from next January, which means higher fares and fewer buses. ‘Innovative’ community transport solutions are not the whole answer – you still need scheduled bus services, seven days a week, to get people where they want to go – including tourists coming into our area.

Over the last year, I have talked to farmers, small businesses and people in rural communities. Their message is the same, time and again.

The countryside needs a Government that is on their side, that helps the food, farming and tourism industries and protects the quality of community life. We need to invest in jobs and communities to get the economy growing again.

Mary Creagh is the Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Labour MP for Wakefield.