Westminster Life: facing the challenges of a changing climate

Last week I returned to Park Farm in Thorney to lend a hand with the spring barley harvest. My thanks to Jim, Michael and the whole team for welcoming me back, two summers after my first visit. The difference between then and now was striking. Two years ago, the harvest was only just getting underway at this point in the summer; this year, it was almost complete. It’s a stark reminder of just how quickly our climate is changing, and how those changes are already being felt here in Peterborough.

Farmers across the country are facing one of the toughest harvests in years. July was the driest month on record for England and Wales, and we have now had six heatwaves since May. East Anglia has officially been declared in drought, alongside more than half of England, with rivers running low and reservoirs falling fast. This should matter to us all. Food security is national security, and I've told ministers I want more urgency in preparing for longer, drier summers and wetter winters.

The truth is we don't have too little water in this country; we simply don't capture and store enough of it to use in dry periods. We haven't built a major reservoir since 1992. The new government is changing that, with the nearby Fens Reservoir finally moving through planning. When completed, it could supply a quarter of a million homes. I want it delivered faster, alongside quicker approval for on-farm reservoirs so farmers can store water when it does rain. I'll keep pressing the National Farmers' Union's case in Westminster.

Then there is the bigger question of who runs our water. Privatisation has been a disaster: higher bills, more sewage in our rivers, and not nearly enough investment. The only winners have been the water bosses and shareholders who have taken us for a ride and paid themselves handsomely.  I'm not interested in simply turning back the clock and handing control back to Whitehall. What I do support is the mutualisation of the water sector. Turning failing water companies into not-for-profit mutuals that answer to customers and reinvest every penny rather than ripping us off.

Closer to home, our emergency services have again gone beyond the call of duty. Firefighters have now tackled two separate blazes at Holme Fen Nature Reserve in the space of a fortnight, the latest requiring more than 80 crews working in punishing conditions, with the first fire suspected to have been started deliberately. I've written to Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service and our local Volunteer Brigade to thank them for their extraordinary efforts. Please help them by staying vigilant in the countryside during this dry spell: think twice before lighting a disposable barbecue or letting off fireworks.

This heatwave will pass, but the pattern behind it will not. Peterborough's farmers, firefighters and residents deserve a government that plans for the climate we actually have, not the one we used to.