Getting a real account from real people in the Dales

Sarah Dines talks about meeting local people to talk about local issues as part of being a Member of Parliament

I HAVE to be in Parliament Monday to Thursday for voting and then I get to come home and experience a good dose of Derbyshire Dales common-sense and straight talking from my constituents before I head back to Parliament on a Sunday evening. Every weekend I try to talk to as many constituents as possible so that I can get a measure of what people are actually thinking, not what the loud minority on social media are saying, nor the media in general nor the nonsense in the Westminster bubble, but instead I get a real account from real local people on the issues that matter to them.

On Sunday I was out doing my usual door knocking with the team in Ashbourne.

You can always count on Ashburnian’s to tell it how it is, and I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to come home to Derbyshire after a week in Westminster.

One of the things I value most about talking to people on their doorsteps is that the issues they raise and the solutions they offer are common-sense.

Like me, they want to see us tackle immigration, stop the small boats, reduce inflation, allow for innovation and growth all whilst preserving the things that make our communities so special. In short, people want more money in their pockets, less government intervention, their area to be clean and safe and for their values to be respected and upheld.

More locally, the issue of the Relief Road remains high on the agenda, and I am pleased that this project is moving forward. Please know that I am consistently working on this issue, and I will not let it go.

We recently had the Budget and although there were some brilliant parts of it that are very helpful in our local community, residents have been contacting me about the proposals to abolish the Furnished Holiday Let Scheme.

Whilst these proposals may be very popular in other parts of the country, here in Derbyshire Dales the people that will be hurt most are farmers, who have diversified and small business owners. I do see it as my duty to look at the ‘big picture,’ but first and foremost my duty lies in getting the best for Derbyshire Dales and I completely understand why those with holiday lets are concerned.

I do worry about the wider impact this move will have on our hospitality and tourism economy, on which our local economy relies so heavily.

It does seem nonsensical to me that at a time when we are encouraging people to holiday closer to home to avoid using polluting means of travel, that these measures may make it more difficult for the local holiday let businesses to survive.

While the Chancellor and I do not agree on every subject, I fully understand the difficult balancing act he has had to perform to start paying down the debt while stimulating growth in the economy.

It is growth that will enable the funding needed by our public services, and so it is right that the Chancellor has sought to encourage work by cutting the rate of National Insurance. While the Government has been successful in boosting employment since 2010, there are also more than 5,000,000 people who are economically inactive in the UK. This is not sustainable.

I have of course been making my views known at the highest levels and lobbying the Treasury ministers with vigour to ask this to be withdrawn or at the very least, for there to be adequate consultation as to the effects on small businesses, tourism, and the local economy, prior to the removal of the Furnished Holiday Let scheme allowances.

We need more homes for local people, but I worry all that the proposed measures will do is mean that current holiday let properties will end up not being owned by local people at all, instead local people will sell and people from outside our area will buy them to keep as holiday lets. Farmers have diversified, as they were encouraged to, by investing in holiday lets on their land, these properties never took houses from local people. It is these people who will be impacted the most.

We need more affordable housing for local people, but to remove the FHL scheme appears in essence to be just an extra tax; an extra tax I do not support.