Rural Communities

Baroness Jolly Excerpts

Thursday 16th July 2015 Grand Committee

[Baroness Jolly (LD)]

My Lords, my home is in the north-east of Cornwall. When you drive west on the A30, if you are on holiday, you will drive straight through the middle of Lewannick Parish. It has a population of just under 1,000 and the two main settlements are separated by that road—Lewannick to the south and Polyphant to the north. Their closest town, Launceston, five miles to the east, has the basics: a secondary school, a community hospital, a library, a leisure centre, a mix of shops—several charity shops—and many estate agents.

I shall describe the parish. There are more people over 65 than the Cornwall figure, which in turn is much higher than the national average. There are fewer people under 18 or with degrees or professional occupations. Car ownership is high—poor public transport—home ownership is not. For any community to start on the path to sustainability, there must be people to live there, jobs for them to go to and houses for them to live in. There is a primary school in Lewannick, a pub, a village hall, a shop, a branch GP surgery and the parish church—open at all times. Polyphant has a Methodist chapel and a mobile library. Both villages have residential care facilities. In a neighbouring village on Monday the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Truro opened a shop and post office in the parish church, a project of our energetic shared vicar.

Today the first rural devolution deal was announced. Lib Dems have long campaigned for local devolution. This deal, as the noble Baroness, Lady Byford, said, will give Cornwall the ability to franchise bus services and commission what is needed—even a bike—when and where. It will give the promise of integrated health and social care, support for the renewables industry, improvements to home energy efficiency and the reshaping of training and skills provision, leading to innovative apprenticeships and local jobs. Cornwall will have intermediate body status for the two EU structural funds, letting us make our own minds up about what to fund, not be told by Westminster.

We are disappointed—we should not be lacking in gratitude, but we are disappointed—that there was no ability to deal with a burgeoning second home market which pushes out locals and does little for our economy. Cornwall has world-beating natural beauty but in 1997 had an economy on a par with Portugal. I pay tribute to my noble friend Lord Teverson who, as MEP for Cornwall, worked incredibly hard to ensure that Cornwall became eligible for Objective 1 funding, which was the highest funding available and which has completely changed the economy of the county. Thanks to this European funding, and others, we have wi-fi and, for those who want it, fibre-optic provision is available. This is a boon for those running businesses from home. I am short on time, but I must pay tribute to the work of the Cornwall LEP. It will play a large part in delivering the devolution agenda.

Back to Lewannick. The past few years have seen a marked increase in the availability of affordable housing, which is not common across Cornwall. Some 40 units across the parish have given the opportunity for young people to stay in the village and young families to move in. This is good news for the school, the shop and the pub. Sadly, this is not typical. Core services are fairly well provided for, but what of their sustainability, and what else is available that makes the village a good place to live?

The factor that will mean one community is sustained over another is the people who make a place worth living in: the volunteers and those who are committed to running services that do not have to make a major profit for a multinational—I welcome the description of vibrancy given by the right reverend Prelate. It should be said that the volunteers in Lewannick would not recognise this as a description of themselves or what they do, but these vibrant volunteers run the village hall committee, the pantomime, the May Day with its maypole, the film club, the garden club, the ladies club—this in a village of 1,000—the flower and produce show, the fete and dog show, the oil-buying consortium, the parish council and, of course, the PPC. My apologies go to those groups I forget—I am sure they will remind me at the weekend. Villages in Cornwall that are not sustainable are those that are dead out of season, with dwindling working populations. They have often lost their shops and services, and suppliers find it difficult to provide services such as education, health and care or transportation.

Today’s devolution deal offers a hope that decisions will be made closer to the provision with less need to be bound by nationally determined criteria. Communities that survive are those where work and housing are fit for the population and the local economy. They have a living heart. They are not always where you might want to spend your holiday, but they are places where you would say hello to anyone you meet and expect to get caught in the shop for a long chat about the weather or the state of the world. These are true communities with a stake in their own sustainability.