North Norfolk MP Steffan Aquarone argues for devolution

Norfolk is a unique and beautiful county.

Visitors and onlookers alike are rightly envious of our green spaces, historic market towns and stunning coastline.

However, successive governments have overlooked our county, as has just happened again in their rejection of the Norfolk devolution deal.

In Norfolk we have needs that are broad and typical of many similar rural and coastal communities.

Our health and care systems are under greater strain; our economy needs reinvigorating to move with changing industries; and our transport system is woefully inadequate - denying people the great economic and social opportunities that are vital to health, prosperity, and wellbeing.

(Image: Alex Broadway)

The United Kingdom has the most centralised political system in Europe.

There is a very simple way to improve all the issues we have identified, and that’s to give our communities more power and resources to tackle these problems themselves.

Local people know what’s best for their area; they know their own priorities and needs far better than anyone who dictates decisions down to them from Whitehall.

Because I believe in the power of Norfolk to deliver change for itself, I had been critical of the limited devolution deal that is currently proposed for Norfolk County Council.

But I am disappointed and frustrated to see that the government has taken a sledgehammer to crack a nut, and killed the latest deal altogether.

I am keen to hear more on the government’s plans for greater local devolution and believe this can unlock huge opportunity for our fantastic county.

It’s vitally important that Norfolk is not left behind in these developments, and that we secure the powers and investment that local people want and need.

It would be a tragedy for the government to now try and bundle us in with an ill-fitting devolution deal – for example with our friends and neighbours in Suffolk.

Our two counties frequently collaborate on shared issues like the erosion of our precious coastline.

But a deal which forces us together fails to appreciate the individual challenges we face, and opportunities that our counties can seize upon respectively, rather than creating another centralised body that risks trying to spread services too thinly, and connect systems and communities that are geographically very separate.

Health commissioning, for example, has a number of challenges in Norfolk which require a continued astute and laser-like focus, supported by local partners, rather than having to fight for our priorities inside a larger forum.

Out of this disappointing setback, we must seize new opportunities.

If the government wants to start the deal again from scratch, then we must ensure a new deal achieves more for Norfolk.

The council should push for more powers over public transport systems, like our buses, to allow us to transform our broken public transport infrastructure in rural areas to improve the lives of those who rely upon it.

We can demand more support for tackling our housing crisis, in our rural and urban areas, to ensure local people have homes for the future.

We must push, with urgency, for greater powers.

We need to showcase a positive vision for the future of Norfolk, with the power to control its own destiny.

We can turn Norfolk’s problems into opportunities, offering a bold new future for our public transport, for our health systems, for our councils, and for our local economy.

I hope that the government will hear the call, loud and clear, from the people of Norfolk that now is the time to empower them, and trust them to take their future forward.

The future of Norfolk must be decided in Norfolk, by Norfolk.