Here in Waveney Valley, our market towns of Diss, Eye, Harleston, Bungay and Halesworth are at the heart of our community and their high streets a vital lifeline for so many. Similarly, many of our larger villages are home to key services. As someone with a small business, I know just how hard owners have fought to bounce back after the pandemic and to deal with high inflation, compounded by the invasion of Ukraine. We need to keep our high streets vibrant and active and ensure vital services remain available. Elsewhere on this site I talk about the need for Business Rate reform but there is more we can do. An innovative approach to ensuring banking services remain available is essential. Mobile banking is not the answer we need, instead we need to look to small hubs near high streets that can house banking services.
To sustain these services and local businesses, we need more people living and working in our town centres. I’ve met with architects who are frustrated by how difficult it is to bring vacant space above and around our high streets back into use. We urgently need national planning reform to enable this and to ensure that when town centre development does occur, adequate parking is provided. Alongside banking, we need to ensure proper healthcare provision – access to GPs, dentists and outreach services. For example, it is challenging for many residents to be asked to travel miles from their surgery for a simple blood test. Equally, we are all aware of just how difficult it is to access an NHS dentist. We need firm voices at Westminster advocating for further changes to NHS contracts, ensuring we’re training enough UK dentists and pushing through reforms to allow greater flexibility around international registration.
