The everyday work at Westminster - Selaine Saxby

Alongside asking questions and raising concerns to ministers in the Chamber a lot of my work in Westminster is with All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs), which as the name suggests work cross party to work on specific issues.

These can range from supporting relations with another country to a particular sport or industries such as championing British beer. I Chair four APPGs: Broadband and Digital Communications, the Celtic Sea, Cycling and Walking, and Wood Panelling.

I took on the Broadband APPG after being elected to ensure the rural rollout of broadband reached everyone, even in our most remote areas of North Devon. This became especially important during the pandemic when I was able to get rural schools and services connected. Since then the the Government has invested £5 billion in Project Gigabit to connect many hard to reach areas like here and hundreds of other communities, there are many more places to do but progress is being made.

It is not all about government investment, many private companies like Jurassic Fibre and Wildnet are providing gigabit capable, Fibre to the Premise, in Barnstaple and South Molton. Openreach are of course everywhere and I am still delighted that they heard my call for more investment in North Devon when they connected Lynton and Lynmouth, one of the largest and most complicated rural projects they have undertaken.

Before recess I was delighted to host a meeting with newly appointed Rural Connectivity Champion, Simon Fell MP, Simon Blagden, Chair of Building Digital UK (BDUK), and industry experts in the field. Simon Blagden took us through progress on Project Gigabit and the Shared Rural Network (working with mobile operators to deliver 4G coverage to rural and remote communities). It was good to hear that progress is being made, however we need to focus on connecting all communities, not just the easy wins, to ensure that our remotest areas are not left behind in the digital divide. I look forward to welcoming the BDUK team to North Devon in September to discuss how we can make further progress.

I am Chair of the Wood Panelling APPG because West Fraser (previously Norbord), based in South Molton, is an important local employer, and as an industry they are working hard to produce sustainable, British wood products for us all to use in our homes. Key to this is a steady supply of timber which relies on industrial support, regular planting of trees, and a fair market which values wood being used in manufacturing and construction and not burnt for energy.

As Chair of the APPG I engage with ministers across departments to tackle these issues. We were recently joined by Minister Trudy Harrison from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to discuss our new report and it is good to hear that she takes concerns over industrial tree planting seriously as she works on the new Land Use Plan due this Autumn. Later in the year we will also be meeting with Minister Nus Ghani to discuss how the Department for Business and Trade can support the industry so that they can continue to supply high quality British wood products.

Since I was elected, I have been keen to push forward the development of Floating Offshore Wind (FLOW) in the Celtic Sea. Not only does it offer the opportunity of a genuinely sustainable energy source, but the development, manufacturing and maintaining of the turbines will bring a wealth of job opportunities to the region.

I was heartened to chair a very oversubscribed meeting bringing together MPs from across the political spectrum, the industry, and policymakers as we look to accelerate the development of FLOW. My role is to work with Government to remove any obstacles to this development and I have secured a meeting with Minister Graham Stuart in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to look at removing these to give confidence to developers who are raring to get going!

Written by Selaine Saxby, MP for North Devon