Budget Resolutions

Derek Thomas Excerpts

Monday 1st November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Derek Thomas (St Ives) (Con)]

The Chancellor’s Budget is good news for my constituents. In fact, a number of priorities that I have either worked on or took particular interest in saw light in this Budget. The most obvious was the £48.4 million for the sea link between Penzance and Scilly. For years, I have been working with others to find ways to deliver improvements to Penzance harbour and harbours on St Mary’s, along with securing the funds to replace the ships that serve the islands. In 2018, I set up meetings between the then Transport Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Wealden (Ms Ghani) and her staff and leaders on Scilly, leading to the reform of the local transport board, which I now chair. Last year, the board battled to save the transport system itself once lockdown had kicked in, successfully securing nearly £10 million to keep various transport operators afloat. That was because tourism, which is the mainstay of the islands’ economy and the source of the lion’s share of income for transport operators, was shut down at the very eve of the season’s start.

Recognising that resilient and affordable transport was a critical issue for everyone on Scilly, Whitehall saw fit to include Scilly as a category 1 area for levelling up funding. The council and local transport board, whose membership represents businesses, stakeholders and the community, worked like billy-o to complete a comprehensive submission for the fund in June. It was a remarkable example of nearly everyone putting their differences aside and knuckling down to deliver what the islands most need: an improved, resilient and affordable method of handling freight and transporting passengers. The work we do with this money, along with money announced as part of the Penzance towns fund early this year, will be a welcome and much-needed improvement to harbours and deliver a far greener and accessible link to Scilly.

Further to that, all six Cornish MPs have been working to secure continued investment in Cornwall and Scilly from just weeks after the Brexit referendum. I remember that we met the then Chancellor, Philip Hammond, at the start of the Government of my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), to explain why money we received via the EU for Cornwall would still be needed once we had left the EU. Soon after, the idea of shared prosperity was announced and I am pleased that the Chancellor confirmed last week that Cornwall and Scilly would continue to receive the same level of funding for the life of this Parliament. I expect shared prosperity money to impact more households more positively than the EU funding did.

Other initiatives I have taken a keen interest in for some time include the first 1,000 days, led by my right hon. Friend the Member for South Northamptonshire (Dame Andrea Leadsom), which looks at how we can best support a young life from the very start. There is also the role of family hubs promoted by my hon. Friend the Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce). Both initiatives received cash boosts as part of the Budget, and Cornwall is well placed to use that cash to transform the life chances of our constituents.

The cut in business rates and changes to VAT for retail and hospitality are good news, and we must not underestimate the positive impact of the increase to the lower rate income tax threshold, the rise in national living wage and the changes to the taper for universal credit. The rising cost of living must be brought under control, but these changes will help many families in Cornwall and on Scilly.

Match funding to build the stadium for Cornwall was not forthcoming. The stadium we envisage will house the UK’s first concussion unit and additional facilities for Truro and Penwith College, be the home of elite rugby and football and have a state-of-the-art pitch for grassroots football and rugby. Cornwall has a population larger than Iceland, but no stadium or facility of that scale. We must persist, and there is absolutely no reason why the stadium cannot secure shared prosperity funding, if Cornwall Council and the local enterprise partnership are minded to see it through.