St Piran’s Day
Debate between Perran Moon and Anna Gelderd(1 week, 1 day 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.
Remote Coastal Communities
Debate between Perran Moon and Anna Gelderd(6 months ago)
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Perran Moon
I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. Again, I will come on to that a little later in my speech.
On higher costs, the pressure that is felt most acutely by residents of Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, as I hear on the doorstep or in constituency surgeries, is housing. Coastal housing markets, shaped by seasonal appeal, have a high proportion of second homes and short-term holiday lets, which significantly reduces supply and drives prices beyond the means of local people, while many of those homes sit empty for months. I appreciate the decisions that this Government have made on stamp duty to dampen demand for second homes, but I was horrified to hear last week that the Reform party suggests that the excessive purchase of second homes in Cornwall is not a problem. I am disappointed that Reform Members are not here now.
Anna Gelderd (South East Cornwall) (Lab)
In my constituency, high levels of second home ownership, short-term holiday lets and holiday homes reduce the housing supply for local families and force them away from their important support systems. Does my hon. Friend agree that we need stronger support for generally affordable housing delivery in coastal areas such as ours, backed by sufficient infrastructure?
Perran Moon
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and that is something I will talk about in a moment. There is a particular pressure in Cornwall, but there is also pressure in other remote coastal areas relating to second home ownership and Airbnbs—sorry, I should say short-term lets. According to 2024 data from Lighthouse, Cornwall had the largest supply of short-term lets in the country. The figure was around 24,000 properties, which is up by 30% since 2019. I have long supported a compulsory registration scheme for short-term lets—one that includes fire safety regulations—and I look forward to the Government’s forthcoming housing strategy.
Cornwall suffers from a chronic lack of affordable homes—I appreciate that it shares that problem with other remote coastal locations. With the second highest housing target in the country and over 23,000 people on the housing waiting list, the scale of need is clear, but our remote geography, infrastructure limitations and construction skills shortages make conventional housing delivery extremely challenging.