2026: Week 44 - Remembrance, Water leaks and GP funding

This week marked Remembrance Sunday, the time of year we remember our armed forces and those we have lost. I was honoured to join remembrance services and come together as a community to pay my respects and lay a wreath.  We live in a dangerous world, and we rely upon our armed forces to keep us safe.  We must remember their sacrifices. 

In the last few weeks South West Water received the lowest possible environmental rating, and on Thursday it was reported in the news that their failure to fix leaks was ‘putting customer supplies at risk’, amid severe drought in parts of Devon 

In response I have launched a petition to ‘Take Profit Out of Water’, and already hundreds of people have been telling me how fed up they are with the current system. Of course, we’ve known this for a long time, and are continually reminded that the privatised model has failed.  

Back in August, data showed that South West Water lost 107.8 million litres of water per day due to leaks last year. At the time I spoke to BBC Radio Devon about this and called for an urgent overhaul of how water companies are run.  

I will give this petition in to Parliament and continue to urge the Government to put the environment and billpayers before profit. 

In international news this week we have seen historic mid-term election results in America, with Democrats taking control of US Congress and Senate. 

This was a comprehensive rejection of the divisive and harmful politics of Donald Trump. I hope this leads to greater global stability in the months and years to come, but we will have to wait and see how things play out. 

Also this week, we saw the UK agree a draft deal with the EU on removing post-Brexit checks from food and agriculture exports, ahead of the UK-EU summit later this month.  

A welcome move towards a closer relationship with the EU, but long overdue as unnecessary trade barriers have been holding back British farmers and businesses for years. Removing barriers to trade means stronger businesses, lower prices and a growing economy. The longer-term solution is to rejoin the single market and a customs union with the EU, but there is much yet to be done before that could happen. 

Locally I attended the opening of Buckland Surgery’s expansion. I was pleased to support this project and now see it completed. The surgery is impacted by the inverse care law as caused by the outdated Carr-Hill funding formula, which often means areas with the greatest health needs have the least access to healthcare resources.  

This is an issue I raised in Parliament and was pleased the Government agreed to change in order to better account for factors like deprivation in rural areas.  

The extension provides four new clinical rooms, office space, including a health and wellbeing room, and kitchen facilities for staff. The doctors tell me this represents investment in local primary care services and a long-term strategy for community health and wellbeing, and they have already received positive feedback from patients, which is wonderful to hear.