Coastal Communities: Government Support
Anna Gelderd Excerpts(1 week, 2 days ago)
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Neil Duncan-Jordan
My hon. Friend is absolutely right that the beaches are first-class in Poole; if your constituency had beaches, Madam Deputy Speaker, I am sure that they too would be first-class.
The nutrients that go into the water system come from a number of sources, including both treated and untreated sewage, as well as agricultural sources including poorly managed soils, animal waste and fertiliser. Sewage discharge has grabbed the headlines in recent months; as well as the nutrients from treated discharges, outdated infrastructure and regular system overflows in stormy weather can result in untreated or partially treated sewage entering our rivers. In Poole harbour, that can lead to shellfish contamination, as well as direct health risks that put restrictions on the local fishing industry.
The Environment Agency monitors water quality at designated bathing sites from 15 May to 30 September, but not all year round, and only in the areas that have been officially recognised as suitable for bathing. In Poole there are many different types of water users, from paddleboarders to windsurfers, who are excluded from those forms of oversight. That is why we need to expand the definition of bathers, monitor water quality all year round and have a serious conversation about bringing water back into public ownership.
Finally, I want to consider the issue of tourism and its impact on the local economy and public services. Like most coastal communities, Poole relies on tourism as a key part of our local economy, but with that comes a number of challenges. The local council no longer has a dedicated tourist office promoting the area or funds the kind of events on the quayside that would attract visitors, and the idea of a tourist tax or levy is contentious in my town.
Government funding also fails to take account of the seasonality that my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth West (Jessica Toale) mentioned earlier. With the influx of additional people and the extra demands the area faces in terms of car parking, public order and even litter collection, both our police and fire services regularly witness a seasonal surge in demand.
Anna Gelderd (South East Cornwall) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate. During half-term last week, Looe in my constituency saw some really difficult antisocial behaviour, with our public services under pressure to deliver. I welcome the dispersal order that was granted and thank our frontline services for their work, but we need a fair funding formula in our communities to ensure that services are provided during peak tourist season, and I look forward to hearing more about that in my hon. Friend’s speech.
Neil Duncan-Jordan
I absolutely welcome and support my hon. Friend’s point. A fair funding formula that properly reflects the diverse demands, unique demographic complexities and specific geographical challenges faced by the police and fire services is long overdue.
St Piran’s Day
Anna Gelderd Excerpts(3 months ago)
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Perran Moon
I thank my hon. Friend for his excellent observation. If St Piran can do it, we should be doing it today. I totally agree with him and, in a humorous way, he makes a very valid point.
This simple, powerful image is immortalised in our flag—a white cross on a black background—symbolising not only tin emerging from ore, but light from darkness and hope from hardship. It is a symbol of industry, resilience and Cornish pride. Mining has shaped Cornwall’s destiny, sending Cornishmen and women around the globe with skills in engineering, mining and metalworking. These pioneers have left their footprints of Cornish life far from home, with Cornish pasties in Mexico, Cornish churches in Australia and Cornish customs around the world.
Anna Gelderd (South East Cornwall) (Lab)
I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this really important debate. He talks rightly about our pride in our industrial heritage and in the industrial future we will secure when we work together with all communities to celebrate Cornish innovation. The right place for Cornwall is at the heart of our green revolution, and does he agree that the work over the last year is really about celebrating that as we celebrate St Piran’s day tomorrow? I also take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy St Piran’s day for tomorrow.
Perran Moon
Again, I thank my hon. Friend for making a very important point. I will come on to that point a little later in my speech, but the future for Cornwall is very much around the new industries of the 21st century.
Today, these global connections endure. At the end of last year, I was pleased to host here in Parliament the launch event for Global Cornish, which is a vibrant, growing network reconnecting the Cornish family worldwide through heritage, industry and culture. Cornwall’s story has always been one of outward-looking industry. Today, we celebrate not only who we were, but who we are and who we are becoming.
No discussion of Cornish identity is complete without recognising the enormous step taken last year for the Cornish language—Kernewek. On 5 December, the United Kingdom formally notified the Council of Europe that it was applying part III of the European charter for regional or minority languages to Cornish. This is not symbolic; it is substantial. Part III status requires the Government to deliver 36 specific commitments across education, justice, public administration, culture, media and economic life. It means recognition, for the first time, that Cornish is not simply a cultural artefact, but a living language that deserves support, a nurturing framework and proper institutional backing. These commitments matter. They will shape the next generation’s access to Cornish in schools, the visibility of the language in public life, and the availability of media and cultural resources that are free to access to learn Kernewek. They also come with obligations that the Government must meet. I have written to the Prime Minister to request that this commitment is matched by delivery. The revival of Kernewek in recent decades is one of the great cultural stories of this island, but we should be ambitious. Language is not merely something to preserve; it is something to promote, celebrate and embed for future generations.
When we talk about the future of Cornwall we must, alas, talk about devolution. Cornwall is a mature, stable unitary authority with deep experience of strategic planning, economic development and cultural engagement. It must be treated as a single strategic authority with the same powers available to a mayoral combined authority.
Housing: Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
Anna Gelderd Excerpts(1 year, 9 months ago)
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Matthew Pennycook
I will touch on rural exception sites, and the land market in particular, but I come back to the point that none of that negates the need for ambitious housing targets, via consents and oversupplying consents, to ensure that we build the number of homes that we need, but I take the hon. Gentleman’s point and will address it directly in short order.
I shall start with land values, because the hon. Gentleman has raised a concern, not only in this place but in other forums, about our proposed changes to national planning policy potentially placing upward pressure on land values, thereby frustrating our objectives. We fully appreciate the risk, which is why we are committed to further strengthening the system of developer contributions and to the reform of compulsory purchase compensation rules. Indeed, just today I brought into force regulations that allow action to be taken on hope value, where required in the public interest, but we will go further in the forthcoming planning and infrastructure Bill.
The hon. Gentleman touched on rural exception sites. The Government very much recognise that people living in rural areas often face challenges finding adequate affordable housing. Ensuring robust support for the necessary housing in rural areas is essential to supporting the broader sustainability of rural communities. The national planning policy framework is already clear that planning policy and decisions should support opportunities to bring forward small sites for affordable housing in rural areas. These rural exception sites should help to meet the housing needs of rural communities, enabling local people, and those with family or employment connections, to live locally and help sustain thriving places.
However, I want to go further in supporting rural affordable housing. In the consultation on the proposed reforms to the NPPF, launched on 13 July, we are actively seeking views on what measures we should consider to better support an increase in affordable housing developments in rural areas, and I very much welcome the hon. Gentleman’s engagement with that. I will take away his point on cross-subsidy and give it further consideration.
I very much recognise the unique situation on the Isles of Scilly, particularly the challenges to the viability of construction. My officials are working closely alongside Homes England to support the council in achieving its housing ambitions, and it is important that this close collaboration continues. I also note the wider challenges on the isles and how housing challenges interact with other pressures faced by residents. In recognition of this, my officials are looking to convene a working group with other Departments to highlight the plurality of issues, and to ensure that the Government can best support island residents.
I appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s interest in community-led housing, including the role of community land trusts, and his professional experience in this area. I recognise the role that community ownership of land and affordable homes can play in delivering the Government’s agenda, although I hope that he will recognise that the support we are able to offer must be considered in the round, alongside the full range of departmental programmes. Again, the Government have set out changes to how we plan for the homes we need as part of the NPPF consultation, which includes proposals designed to strengthen support for community-led housing.
Anna Gelderd (South East Cornwall) (Lab)
I thank the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George) for securing this important debate. Local residents are being priced out of the constituency I represent, the beautiful South East Cornwall, and we do not have the homes we need. Earlier this summer, an elderly couple from Torpoint, both in their 90s, were forced to live apart for more than four months after an accident at their home left one in hospital. A lack of suitable housing meant they could not live together. Does the Minister agree that we need action on second homes so that local people, such as this couple from Torpoint, can benefit from more of the housing that is being built?
Matthew Pennycook
My hon. Friend pre-empts what I was about to say; I was just about to address second homes and short-term lets. I take her point, and I am sorry to hear about the situation in which her constituents from Torpoint find themselves. The Government recognise that this is an area in which more needs to be done.
Both in the constituency of the hon. Member for St Ives and in the county more widely, it is beyond doubt that the prevalence of second homes and short-term lets has constrained the availability of homes for local residents to buy and rent, and that it is having a detrimental impact on local services in many areas. A balance obviously needs to be struck between the benefits that second homes and short-term lets can and do have for local economies and their impact on local people, but many coastal, rural and indeed urban communities are grappling with excessive concentrations of such properties. When I was shadow Minister for Housing and Planning in the last Parliament, I spoke to many colleagues who faced acute pressures in their constituency, and the feedback we are getting from coastal, rural and some urban communities makes it clear that we have not yet got the balance right.