2025: Week 18 - Housing and Education

It’s been a glorious week weather wise, I hope you have been able to get out and about and enjoy the beautiful weather. 

This week I took part in a Westminster Hall debate about reforming the standard method of assessing housing needs.  There were lots of interesting speeches and the general theme was that there is a huge shortage of affordable and safe housing across the country.  The Minister spoke at length and conceded a lot of the points made.  He agreed that planning decisions should always be prioritised to be made at local level, as that is where the knowledge is.  He also agreed that when talking to other involved stakeholders, such as water companies, it should be made clear that they should not concentrate on small, isolated developments, but consider the applicable local plan in the whole. I believe the points made were taken on board by the minister and will hopefully shape future discussions around planning and housing assessment needs.

This week the long awaited Ofsted report into Children’s Services at Devon County Council was published. The assessment took place in September 2024 and the delay in publishing the report is unacceptable, although the report confirmed what was already known, the service has been rated as inadequate. Now that the elections are over and the Lib Dems have the largest number of Councillors at Devon they can begin the process of addressing this report and ensuring that children in Devon receive the support and care that they deserve.  For too long children have been failed by Devon County Council, the provision has declined since 2015 and little has been done to improve it. Since 2020 it has been rated as inadequate by Ofsted, and despite regular monitoring visits over the past 5 years there has been no significant improvements.  In addition to this I have written an open letter to the Secretary of State for Education to question why Devon receives substantially less funding for Education than other areas in the country. I have heard from my constituents, especially in rural areas, that their schools are at risk of closing due to a number of factors, not least the inequality of funding.  I will be asking questions in Parliament about this, and fighting for equality for our children alongside our Devon County Councillors.

Finally I had a very enjoyable visit to Hazeldown School to meet with their Eco Committee and discover the initiatives they are deploying throughout the school which will help the environment and lower their carbon footprint.  They have come up with some very inventive ideas, including recycling old school uniforms into cushions to make the library a comfier place to sit, planting around the school and creating hedgehog houses in the forest school area.  The children in the committee were passionate about their subject and it was brilliant to see the next generation making a real difference.  The work of the teachers and parent volunteers to inspire these children should also be commended, it is through initiatives like these that we can embed good habits for the next generation.