Autumn Statement

Nine months ago Cornwall’s MPs were thrown into combat with the government after the Budget bowled a few unexpected problems our way, such as VAT on pasties. It took a couple of months to sort things out but we got there. So I was a little bit apprehensive last week as George Osborne got to his feet to deliver his Autumn Statement which is a sort of mini-budget. However, despite having very limited room for manoeuvre, this year’s statement contained some very good news for Cornwall.

Firstly, the planned 3p rise in fuel duty will not just be postponed as before but scrapped altogether. This is vitally important for a county like Cornwall because we are at the end of the line and our businesses have to transport their goods hundreds of miles to market which is a major cost and because many people who work cannot rely on public transport and have no option but to use their car. Filling up the car with petrol is a major cost for many families and I have always argued that fuel tax is a regressive tax that hits remote areas unfairly and we should be aiming to get these costs down.

Secondly, it was decided to accelerate the increase in the new tax threshold meaning that those struggling to get by on low incomes will be taken out of tax altogether. Again, this is really important to places like Cornwall where thousands of families work hard but have to rely on low incomes. It can’t be right to tax people on one hand only to have to give them some money back in benefits on the other. It would be better by far if you didn’t take their money in the first place so that there was more of an incentive to take a job.

There was also some good news when it comes to investment in roads and infrastructure to try to get the economy moving. The lesson from past recessions is that governments should try, as far as is possible, to maintain investment in infrastructure because, it improves future competitiveness and provides immediate short term work in construction. Here in Cornwall, the government has finally come up with the money to start work on dualling the A30 at Temple which will remove a longstanding bottle neck which causes havoc in the summer months. This has been talked about for years and it is a real vote of confidence in Cornwall that this work will now begin.

Finally, there was some good news for businesses as the government increased “capital allowances” substantially to encourage businesses to invest any profits they make into new machinery which will increase their productivity as well as giving a much needed boost to manufacturing.

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.

Europe

There is now a lot riding on David Cameron’s much trailed “big speech” on the future of Britain’s relationship with the EU. It has been talked about since last summer. Number 10 would certainly not have wanted to have so much advance speculation about what it might say and, as expectation in the speech grows, they have been minded to delay the day, presumably fearful that they might disappoint. So, instead, speculation has become like a growing monster.

The first thing David Cameron needs to do is to untangle what negotiations can take place right now and in this parliament from those which must be postponed for another day and until after the next election. There are two major areas where the current coalition government (Lib Dems and all) will necessarily end up in a renegotiation with the EU. Firstly, the brinkmanship over delivering a real terms freeze to the EU budget which has been led by Britain is likely to continue well into the New Year. David Cameron must stand firm on this. We should not be making cuts in Britain only to give inflation busting budget increases to inept officials in the EU.

Secondly, the British government has already made clear that it will exercise a right it has under the Lisbon Treaty to opt back out of 130 EU directives that Gordon Brown signed up to relating to justice and home affairs but will then seek to pick and choose those it wants to cooperate with and those which will be vetoed for good. There is nervousness among some Liberal Democrats about some of these renegotiations but the Prime Minister must stand his ground and exercise the treaty right that Britain has to sort out the mess in some of these laws.

Then there is the longer term picture. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are, emotionally, poles apart when it comes to views about the EU and it is no good ignoring that central coalition dynamic. Many Conservatives, myself included, want to see a more fundamental renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with the EU with powers returned in many areas while we remain an enthusiastic and committed member of the single market. But, because of the dynamics of the coalition, this more fundamental renegotiation must be postponed. Ironically, the intervention of UKIP at the last General Election might have denied the country a Conservative majority thus undermining the cause they claim to believe in.

So David Cameron must start to set out what would be in the next Conservative manifesto. It is no longer enough to use slogans like “in Europe, not run by Europe.” We need to flesh out in more detail what a future renegotiation would look like and seek a mandate for that position at the next election. This could include taking powers back in areas such as social and employment policy, a looser relationship with the Common Agricultural Policy and Common Fisheries Policy and the return of responsibility for regional policy which could mean we have more to spend on regeneration in Cornwall. Such a new deal could also involve clipping the wings of wayward EU institutions like the European Court of Justice which currently has too much power and needs taking down a peg or two.

Some say such a fundamental renegotiation is impossible but they are wrong. There are growing calls within Germany and the EU Commission for a new Treaty in Europe which would totally re-order the European Union and accelerate political union among some members. No longer would this be something done by stealth, but political integration would become an overt aim in order to try to save the euro. But countries like Germany fully understand that it is impossible for Britain and possibly many others to follow, so there would be a fork in the road and Britain would need to be given new powers back in return for agreeing to such a new order. If Angela Merkel is re-elected at the end of next year, this agenda will rise rapidly during 2014 and Britain must get into in the driver’s seat now.

Any discussion about the EU always ends up slipping into the rut of whether or not we need a referendum. My own view is that this is a distraction which undermines the central aim of renegotiation but, at the end of the process, there is a case for having such a referendum on the outcome to draw a line under things and move on.

The Food Bank

As we begin the run up to Christmas, there are a number of vital charities in the Camborne, Redruth and Hayle area which are getting to work to help those less fortunate. Last weekend I visited a number of Christmas Fayres which aimed to raise much needed funds to support their good work, including Searchlight, the excellent youth group based in Redruth, and Camborne Church.

Visits to such groups always boosts my faith in human nature. The central dynamic is nearly always the same. It usually starts with the energy, determination and leadership of just one person. The energy and commitment they show becomes infectious and spreads so suddenly there is a small team of people who can make things happen. When others in the community see the good work being delivered, many others become inspired to get involved and the whole enterprise can snowball.

On Saturday I also visited the Food Bank project based at the Centenary Chapel on Wesley Street which has now been running for a number of years and is starting its preparations for Christmas. The driving force behind the project is Don Gardner but he has incredible support from volunteers both connected with churches in Camborne and outside. I was really heartened to hear of the excellent contribution being made by the Sixth Form at Camborne Science and International Academy. Students there have made it their charity this year and have already run projects to raise some £100 which they then used to buy fresh supplies for the Food Bank.

The concept is simple: members of the public and sometimes local businesses donate food to the charity and local agencies can issue vouchers for food to those families facing genuine financial crisis. As well as helping those facing problems all year round, they make a special effort at Christmas. Last year they put together 190 Christmas lunch hampers for families in the area and this year they are set to deliver 200. They have also branched out to take over the running of the Toy Library from the Council where families can choose from a selection of hundreds of toys which can be hired at a cost of just 20 pence per week. When thieves recently stole a cash box from the charity, Don Gardner was overwhelmed by the generosity of local people with many coming forward to contribute financially or to give toys that their own children had outgrown so that another child could benefit from them. This year they also plan to run another project to buy Christmas presents for children so that there are no “no-go areas” for Father Christmas this year.

If you would like to volunteer time or money to help the Food Bank this Christmas or have unwanted toys, bikes etc you could donate, please email donovan.gardner@sky.com or telephone 01209 714592.

Leveson

This week sees the long awaited publication of the report by Lord Leveson into the ethics and conduct of the press. The inquiry was set up after it was revealed that the News of the World had hacked the phone of the murdered schoolgirl, Milly Dowler, as well as the phones of servicemen killed in action which prompted public outrage. The inquiry was uncomfortable for both politicians and the press but it also represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to put things right and to place the newspaper industry on a firmer footing.

I believe passionately in a free press and think it has a vital role to play in a free society. But you can never have true liberty unless you also have accountability and the major weakness of the national press is that it harbours unaccountable power which has been abused and the end result is that the police have now had to get involved and make arrests of journalists. None of us should feel comfortable about that. It would be better by far to have a credible and independent regulator recognised in law so that we don’t have to have the police crawling through newsrooms in future.

The idea of replacing the current “self regulation” of the press with a new regulator backed by statute is anathema to some of the wealthy proprietors of the big national newspapers, but I have come to the view that the system would be far more independent and more stable if it had the benefit of recognition in the law. It would allow you to create real incentives for newspapers to take part in the system by creating exemptions from exemplary fines or by creating a more affordable system of arbitration so that newspaper editors didn’t live in fear of having to fight billionaires with deep pockets through the courts.

I spent several years as Press Secretary to David Cameron so saw the workings of our media up close. My experience led me to make my own submission to the Leveson Inquiry. In my evidence I said I thought that concerns about the impact of an independent regulator on free speech were hugely exaggerated. We already have a Broadcasting Act but some of the best investigative journalism in Britain is done by broadcasters on programmes like Watchdog and Panorama.

I also said that Lord Leveson’s inquiry could learn lessons from regional and local papers like the Western Morning News and the West Briton and Cornishman because, in all my experience, the editors of local newspapers have always approached the Editor’s Code far more conscientiously and diligently than the major national newspapers. This is partly because they are part of the community and feel a greater sense of responsibility. If national newspapers had behaved in the same way, the system might not be broken.

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.

Reining in the power of the supermarkets

On Monday, parliament debated the Bill being introduced which will establish the new Groceries Code Adjudicator to protect farmers and growers from sharp practices deployed by the big supermarkets. It is an important step forward supported by all parties and, as a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, I spoke in the debate.

It is an area where I have some direct experience because, long before entering politics, I spent ten years in the farming industry supplying strawberries and cauliflowers to the major supermarkets. In that time I saw first-hand some of the sharp practices used and the way that supermarkets would often abuse their dominant market position to treat suppliers unfairly. They would often insist on farmers buying other goods and services such as haulage from “approved” contractors who would invariably charge more than the market rate. Growers would be required to take part in cut price promotions in store. Often the cost of perished stock on the shelves would be clawed back from the supplier, in some cases with their own retail margin taken too. And if a buyer had made a mistake and placed an order for more than they actually needed, they would find any excuse to reject a consignment, throwing the cost back on the farmer. Things haven’t got much better. Last year I met a supplier to supermarkets who said that he was now required to show them his annual accounts so that they could work out how much harder they could drive him into the ground and I still come across examples of supermarkets making unfair demands on their suppliers.

The Groceries Supply Code of Practice was introduced a couple of years ago and set out some standards on how supermarkets should behave such as paying their suppliers on time, not making retrospective changes to pricing and no longer forcing suppliers to use certain third party contractors which restricts the functioning of a fair market. The new adjudicator will help to enforce that code properly. It will allow farmers to make anonymous complaints about supermarkets and it will be able to “name and shame” those who breach the code and order changes in the way buyers manage their relationship with suppliers.

There has been much debate about whether the adjudicator should have other sanctions at its disposal, such as the ability to levy fines against persistent offenders. The government is currently saying that the adjudicator will not initially have the power to fine but that this could be added at a later date if necessary. In my view, they might as well make this sanction available from day one because if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly.

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.

Remembrance Day

Last weekend I attended remembrance services in both Illogan and Camborne where there was a record turnout and standing room only in the church. All of the various cadet and scout groups were out in force. I have noticed the attendance from all of these fantastic youth groups grow significantly year after year and it really bodes well for the future.

Next year will see the phased reduction British troops on active combat in Afghanistan the handover to a British trained Afghan Army is acclerated and due be completed by 2014. If the experience in Iraq is anything to go by, peace and normality can follow such a withdrawal of troops provided the groundwork has been done. After more than a decade of conflict, ending the mission in Afghanistan will be a relief for all. As well as the rising number of those killed in action, there have been thousands wounded and tens of thousands who suffer from some form of post traumatic stress and find it difficult to return to normal life.

I went to Afghanistan in 2006 when I worked for David Cameron and saw first-hand the extraordinary professionalism of our armed forces. While there, David Cameron was introduced to a specialist sniper in the army who had just completed his first tour of duty. He can’t have been much more than twenty years old but was earnest beyond his years. His job was to protect patrols from ambush using a long range rifle, particularly in built up areas where Apache attack helicopters could not be used. Later that day we were told in a matter-of-fact, army way that this young man had something they described as “twenty six confirmed kills.” I always remember the phrase because it drove home to me the extraordinary burden we put on our young soldiers. It is not just the risk they take but the things we expect them to do in our name. The then Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan showed me a photo of a platoon of 19 year old soldiers who were on a Chinook helicopter back from their first night time combat mission. They had a haunted look in their eyes and he explained that some soldiers can put things away in their heads better than others but it is never easy.

A couple of weeks ago I visited Surf Action which is a charity that tries to help combat veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Some of their work involves bringing people with similar experiences together socially along with their partners. They organise wildlife walks and surfing lessons, using nature to reconnect people with life. Like some other charities, they also use a range of other psychotherapies and forms of sensory or hypnotherapy to help former soldiers recover from the events that this decade of war has exposed them to. The work of groups like this is vital.

Surf Action is based at Unit 5, Heartlands, Pool. www.surfaction.co.uk. Telephone 01209 613300.

Nurturing enterprise in the next generation

I have always believed that the key to getting the country moving again and creating new jobs is in doing all we can to encourage new business start-ups and to create an environment that allows the next generation of entrepreneurs to flourish. I remember a Cornish farmer once telling me, “you don’t have to be clever to be smart” and he was right. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs in Britain did not have a university education and did not enter a profession but they had an idea and a natural talent for making things happen coupled with the fortitude to keep going in the face of the inevitable setbacks.

It is why earlier this year I encouraged a number of schools from our area to enter a national competition to come up with a new business idea and design a new product and I was delighted that Hayle Community School took up the challenge. Last time I visited Hayle School I was struck by the emphasis that they placed on developing young enterprise which is something they have made a priority. Last year I tried some of the excellent “Currantly Cornish” ice cream recipe which was developed by students and was on sale in the town.

We had some excellent product ideas developed by Year 10 pupils ranging from sunglasses that change colour in the heat to novel camera bags, swimming goggle carriers, unusual bed and chair designs, a kangaroo style shoe rack, docking stations for remote controls, solar powered dog trackers, a medical history chip and a children’s drawing table.

The entry that we chose to go through to the national competition was the idea of having wireless headphones for ipad devices designed by Charlie Martin and Millie Jenkins with the runner up being a special training football which uses smart sensors to connect to computers and monitor performance which was designed by Jacob Nicholas, Connor Smith and Tom Pascoe.

The next couple of years will see the transformation of Hayle with the regeneration work already well underway on North Quay and work expected to begin on South Quay in the New Year. There is also an advanced plan to develop the potential of the harbour for the fishing industry on East Quay. I have consistently argued in favour of the scheme to regenerate Hayle because the town has been waiting for change all my lifetime.

There will be many new business opportunities created by these changes and some new businesses are already starting to open. I hope that by the time the current Year 10 students at Hayle leave school in a few years time, some of them will choose to develop their enterprising talents further and become their own boss.

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.

Cutting the EU budget

This week saw the thorny issue of EU spending stumble back on the agenda with the moment for negotiations over the future EU budget fast approaching but with EU member states getting further away from any kind of consensus.

It really shouldn’t be that difficult. Every EU country is having to make swingeing cuts to public spending in order to deal with the mountain of debt accumulated over the last decade and to tackle the economic crisis caused by the crackpot idea that is known as the euro. You might think that, since its own policies have contributed to the mess that Europe is in, the EU might have a bit of humility, that they might empathise with the pain being experienced by Europe’s people and might therefore recognise that they, too, must pull in their belt and show some restraint.

Not a bit if it. Instead, the European Commission opened discussions by suggesting a staggering seven percent increase in their budget. Two years ago, David Cameron put his foot down and led a group of EU leaders calling for a real terms cut or, at the very least, a freeze in the EU budget. He managed to get the support of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, the President of France and the Prime Ministers of Finland and Holland. Later, other countries joined in this principled position including Sweden.

However, then the horse trading started and some of the countries who initially supported Britain in controlling the EU budget started to go wobbly. The worst offender was Angela Merkel who has now abandoned her stance and has decided that caving in on the EU budget might gain her leverage over some of the poorer member states in other areas of policy. Such counterproductive horse trading is a major weakness in the EU which means it frequently makes serious mistakes because shady, backroom deals eclipse any intelligent or reasoned debate. That is why eventually, if it is to survive, the EU must be streamlined and modernised with many of its powers stripped away and returned to national governments.

The good news is that, in the short term, Britain has a veto over the EU budget and can put its foot down and block any new inflation busting increases. If this happens there is then automatically a real terms freeze in the budget followed by a painstaking process of agreeing individual items in the budget one line at a time. Once again, it looks like it will fall to Britain to show leadership and risk unpopularity with other leaders by knocking heads together in order to sort things out and deliver what is right for the people of both Britain and Europe. David Cameron has done it before and he should do it again.

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.

Time to reform the structure of Cornwall Council

It has been an eventful and, let’s face it, rather chaotic ten days at County Hall with the loss of Alec Robertson as Council Leader followed by a series of bizarre events which resulted in every political grouping voting for a leader from someone else's party.

Alec Robertson deserves credit for the hard work he has put in over the last three an years. It is easy to criticise, but leading a divided council without a majority is a thankless task and there have been achievements. Under the last Lib Dem regime, Cornwall Council was one of the worst performing councils in the country, in the bottom four percent, adult social care and social services were in special measures and borrowing was out of control. Now it is one of the most improved councils in the country, adult care and social services are improving rapidly and the finances are back on track with council tax frozen.

The jury is still out on the new council which has its work cut out to establish authority. After the divisive events of last week, there was a very strong case for a “unity” administration where all parties worked together over the next six months for the good of Cornwall. Extraordinarily, the Lib Dems rejected an offer to work with the new council leader they themselves elected which shows a real lack of maturity on their part.

Once the dust settles, it will be important to learn lessons and sort out the institutional weaknesses inherent in the way this unitary authority was set up. Firstly, the notion that, after a vote of no confidence, councillors must elect a new leader immediately is clearly bonkers and the procedural rules need to be overhauled to enable an interim leader to act as caretaker for a couple of weeks to allow time for a considered transition to someone new.

Secondly, the council is too large and finds it difficult to reach clear decisions, so we should consider cutting the number of councillors. At the same time, we need to strengthen local accountability by passing more control to parish and town councils.

Finally, we need to review the way the council is structured. The advantage of the current "cabinet" system is that it is easier to make decisions but too many councillors feel excluded. The alternative is a "committee system" where more councillors are involved but it is harder to make decisions. A third option would be to replace the office of the Chief Executive with a directly elected Mayor for Cornwall with a political staff to manage the council day to day. However, my own favoured model is that pioneered by Kent County Council who have adopted a cross between a cabinet and a committee system which gives them the best of both worlds.

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.

Police and Crime Commissioner Elections

This week nominations closed for candidates putting themselves forward for the election to decide who will become the first Police and Crime Commissioner for the Devon and Cornwall Police Force, and in just four weeks time, local people will have the opportunity to vote for the candidate they think is best placed to cut crime.

The powerful new, elected role will replace the largely invisible Police Authorities that went before. The old Police Authority was drawn from local councils but members of it were never in a position to genuinely hold the Chief Constable to account and hardly anyone could name the chairman of the Police Authority. That is about to change.

There are no less than ten candidates standing for the role in Devon and Cornwall which shows that, whatever the critics might say, enthusiasm for the idea is starting to pick up as election day nears. I have always argued that this is a brand new role and will be an election unlike normal general elections so we need a different sort of candidate to do the job well. I was involved a year ago in trying to encourage talented people with experience outside conventional politics to throw their hat in the ring and stand as the Conservative candidate and we found just the man for the job.

Tony Hogg was the Commanding Officer at RNAS Culdrose and has experience of managing a large budget of over £80 million and leading a military base with 3000 personnel. He saw active service in the Falklands conflict where he was a helicopter pilot and he captained a group of minesweeper ships during the first gulf war. In 1978, he was decorated for his role in an audacious rescue operation of a stricken trawler off the Cornish coast. Although he lives in Cornwall, he spent some of career based in Devonport and he trained at Dartmouth, so he understands Devon too. After leaving the Navy, he went on to become the Chief Executive of BF Adventure which provides outward bound courses to drill discipline and confidence into young teenagers who have had a hard start in life and who are at risk of being excluded from school.

Because he worked in the Navy at the most senior level, he understands the forces and knows how to lift morale within the team. I think this is incredibly important because the police force is going through many changes at present and we need clear leadership to boost morale. But his experience in the charity sector means that he also understands that to cut crime, we need early intervention to turn around the lives of young people. It is a winning combination which makes him ideal for the post.

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.

A lot done, a lot more to do II

I spent a couple of days this week at the Conservative conference in Birmingham. The government has been through a difficult period over the last six months with a string of things going wrong but conference is a good opportunity to draw a line under the past and get things back on track.

All governments suffer from the fact that bad news floats to the top while good news tends to sink without trace and it is easy to forget some of the things that have been achieved. This government has started to get the country’s finances back under control and the deficit has been cut by a quarter. The credibility that Britain has internationally means that mortgage rates are at record lows. Millions of people working hard on the lowest incomes have been taken out of tax altogether. There has been an overhaul of the benefits system so that work pays with intensive support introduced to help those who have lost their confidence get back in to a job.

Although there have been losses in public sector jobs, there have been almost a million jobs created by private enterprises in the last couple of years and unemployment has been falling over the last six months or so. There has also been a shake-up of government spending in Whitehall with around £8 billion slashed from budgets on wasteful things like management consultants and expensive advertising agencies. Finally, there is additional funding to help schools in some of the poorer areas give children the best possible start in life and schools have been given new freedoms and independence to allow head teachers to become captains of their own ship.

So, a lot has been achieved but there is undoubtedly more to do and the government has also made some mistakes. Any new policy will have unintended consequences and create unforeseen problems so one of the most important things that government must do is to refine and adjust its policies once they start to bed down. For instance, while the principle behind simplifying the benefits system is right, we need to monitor the detail carefully. I still see far too many examples where medical assessments have not been carried out correctly and where the wrong judgement has been reached. And I am concerned at proposals to prevent Housing Benefit being paid directly to landlords because, while well intentioned, it will only lead to rent arrears and ultimately mean that some people lose their home. So called, “u-turns” tend to be perceived as a sign of weakness in politics but no government should be too proud or too stubborn to admit when things don’t work as planned and therefore need to change.

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.

Chance to take stock...

As the political parties convene for their annual conferences, it is a good opportunity to take stock of what has been achieved as we reach the halfway stage of this parliament.

At the last election, I made economic regeneration my number one priority in the local area and in the last two years have made ensuring that our towns get the crucial investment they need my main focus. In Hayle I always argued that, if we were going to have another supermarket, we should put it right in the centre so that it brings life into the town rather than on the outskirts draining life away. Following the success in securing a government grant, work is already well underway on North Quay and we should now see work starting on South Quay next spring.

In Camborne I have always said that we should develop brownfield sites before greenfield sites and we need to attract new industries to create the jobs of the future. The new development at the former Holman site on Trevu road is a good example of what can be achieved when people put their minds to it with regeneration that restores and safeguards our heritage while creating new homes. The £25 million new road scheme between Camborne and Pool will unlock the economic potential of the derelict mining land at Tuckingmill creating new jobs and business opportunities and I am hopeful that we will now also see South Crofty mine reopened.

Finally, I have always said that Redruth is at the heart of Cornish heritage. A quarter of all the six million people around the world with Cornish ancestry can trace their roots back to Redruth. So I am delighted that the council has now made the decision to locate the new Cornwall Archive project on the old brewery site. This project will reinvigorate the town centre, become a catalyst of regeneration elsewhere and it is estimated it will bring an extra £1.4million of revenue to Redruth each year once established.

So, in the next two years, significant work should be underway in Camborne, Redruth and Hayle which will create jobs locally and I hope will start to transform the fortunes of this part of Cornwall but we must not be complacent and should use this fresh momentum to try to drive forward other changes. In Redruth, we should press for something to be done to other difficult sites such as the old Avers Garage site at the gateway to the town. In Camborne, we need to work to get one or two larger retailers to show interest in the town to make it more of a shopping destination and in Hayle, plans are already afoot to develop a new project around East Quay to develop and support the fishing industry there.

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.

Cornwall Council proposal will save jobs

I have always been pragmatic on the issue of privatisation. I don’t believe in the automatic assumption that the private sector is better at doing things than the public sector. I am a champion of small private enterprises and will always stand up for those with the courage to set up their own business. But if you look at very large multi-national corporations, you will frequently find more waste and inefficiency than in the public sector. Professions such as health and education are also stronger because of the fact that money is not the only motivating factor. A nurse or a teacher has a vocation for their profession, a desire to care for others or to pass on knowledge to the next generation and that creates a depth to the work they do.

It is with this pragmatic view that I have watched the unfolding debate about the new Strategic Partnership proposal being developed by Cornwall Council. What if it were possible to marry the energy and creative thinking of small private sector organisations with the values and skills of the public sector?

Contracting out the delivery of certain services to the private sector is hardly new. For decades councils have paid private contractors to deliver core tasks such as collecting the rubbish, repairing the roads, delivering domiciliary care to the elderly and operating day care centres. Is it such a major step to do something similar with other services such as advice lines, payroll services and social care? Hardly. The “Strategic Partnership” proposal is not even about outsourcing to a private contractor but instead to a joint venture company in which the Council would retain a major stake and with policy still controlled absolutely by the Council.

The proposals will help to join up the work of the NHS and Cornwall Council when it comes to delivering social care. A major problem in the past has been the fact that both organisations work in silos which means that there is duplication and lack of coordination. Some steps have already been made to improve this situation with the joint commissioning of some services and the new Strategic Partnership will take it to the next stage and also enable Cornwall to pioneer the development of “Telehealth” services which use modern technology to help people manage their care needs from home.

Finally, in an era where money is tight and budgets under pressure, Cornwall Council has a choice between creating jobs or losing jobs. The plans are projected to create 500 new jobs in Cornwall by providing new services in health. There are always risks to any venture which must be managed but doing nothing is not an option and the alternative would be cuts to jobs and front line services.

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.

Education...

You only get one education and we need to do everything we can to make sure that it is right for the individual child concerned. Over the last two years I have visited every secondary school and virtually every primary school in this area and I have seen some really good work going on and some really inspirational teachers.

I have always thought that a good education is the single most important thing that can increase social mobility and help the next generation to get on in life. We must constantly strive to strengthen primary education, bring greater rigour to both secondary education and the exams system and also support those who want to go on to university or take on an apprenticeship.

This week, Michael Gove announced changes to the exams system so that there will be a new “English Baccalaureate” to replace the old GCSE which will put greater emphasis on final exams and will create a new gold standard qualification at the age of 16. I think this is a positive move. There is evidence that the current emphasis on course work and modules gives children from middle class backgrounds an unfair advantage over other children and the growth of the internet means that it has become ever harder to ensure that course work done at home is genuine. If we are to compete with the best in the world then we need qualifications that are highly regarded throughout the world and this week represented a step forwards.

The government is also opening new schools, following the success of a similar policy in Sweden. Last week I visited the new St Michael’s Free School which has just opened in Camborne. This is a small, catholic school which is free and open to all children. In the old days, only wealthy parents with money could choose which school their child went to, but that is now changing. While it is likely that most children in the Camborne and Redruth area will continue to choose from the excellent, larger secondary schools in the area, for some, a small school like St Michael's will be the right option to nurture their talents and, in my view, we should not deny parents that choice.

Finally, we need to help young people who want to go to university or enter an apprenticeship. The government has created some 300,000 new apprenticeships where young people can learn a skill while earning an income. Meanwhile, Cornwall Council has announced a ground breaking new policy to introduce bursaries that will be made available to help young people from Cornwall attend university. Cornwall Council gets its fair share of criticism, but this is a really thoughtful policy aimed at helping the next generation get ahead and the Council deserves credit for bringing it forward.

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.

New developments

Last week I attended the opening of the new housing development at Trevu Road opposite the train station in Camborne. I think it is a great illustration of what can be achieved if people work together to overcome their differences and focus on what can be done rather than what can't be done. The development is a wonderful amalgamation of the old and the new, is unique and distinctive, a great place to live and the work has been done sensitively and celebrates the history of this old Holman’s site.

I have always been clear that I favour the development of brown field sites over green field sites in the Camborne, Redruth and Hayle area. We need to find ways of rejuvenating our towns and that means taking on difficult, derelict sites in the centre and finding a way to bring them back into use, not just leaving them to one side and going for the easy option of urban sprawl on the outskirts of towns. That’s why I got behind the harbour scheme in Hayle and the new road at Tuckingmill.

Next week, the Cornwall Council Cabinet will make its decision regarding the location of the new Cornwall Archive and Records Centre. This is an exciting project which will bring together all of Cornwall’s old records as well as some ancient manuscripts in one place. Redruth is the obvious location for the new Cornwall Archive and the Town Council has been working on some really creative proposals that would see the complete regeneration of the old brewery site in town.

Redruth is at the heart of the world wide Cornish diaspora which numbers some 8 million people. Of the people who emigrated from Cornwall in the late 19th century to take mining around the world, around a quarter came from Redruth alone. The town is already the county’s cultural heart and is home to initiatives like the Cornish Migration Project, the Cornwall Studies Library and Murdoch House so it makes sense to build on this.

However, last week, one advisory committee in County Hall suggested that the project should be based in St Austell apparently on the basis that the car park on which they propose to build it might be easier and involve less effort. We should not accept such complacency. The Cornish Archive will only happen if the project is able to attract the support of agencies like the Heritage Lottery Fund and EU regeneration funds and Redruth makes a far more powerful proposition than St Austell. We need a beautiful building that restores and celebrates our heritage, not a soulless building on some car park on the outskirts of St Austell. We need to be imaginative and ambitious for Cornwall, so let’s build it in Redruth.

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.

Free Parking

For the next two months, you can park for free in Camborne. It is part of a new deal that has been struck by shops and traders in Camborne who are really pulling together to boost the town’s prospects and it is an idea that I have long wanted to see piloted properly in Cornwall because, if it works, it could drive broader policy on car parks in Cornwall. It is great to see Camborne leading the way with such creative thinking.

Cornwall Council car parks are not taking part in the scheme at this stage but the privately owned Trevithick Road Car Park behind Argos is. So make sure you go to the right one! The free car park is really close to the town centre and you can park there at absolutely no cost for the first two hours at any time of the day. To access the car park, you just have to turn down Wellington Road opposite Camborne Church and then, at the end, turn up Trevithick Road to the rear of Argos (there are unfortunately barriers which prevent vehicle entrance from the front).

Traders in Camborne have created what is called a “Business Improvement District”. In effect, all of the shops group together and contribute to a central fund that they can use in any way they choose to promote fresh ideas to get people into town. Solutions range from better marketing to improving the townscape. So far, the Camborne BID team have introduced free car parking, run a series of children’s activities over the summer and persuaded the Co-op to decorate the exterior of their building by Camborne Church.

A couple of years ago, I organised a conference on town centre regeneration. I think it is really important that, as we push forward major regeneration projects like Heartlands in Pool, we also ensure that our town centres are not forgotten and that we do all we can to make them vibrant public places. Sometimes this can involve regeneration through building new, modern retail space in the heart of towns to bring in larger retail chains and increase the footfall which helps everyone. One of the best ideas I have heard for Camborne is that the bus station be moved nearer the train station and the current site used to create a new retail hub in the heart of the town.

But quite often, we need to think afresh about what our town centres are for. Where building modern retail space is less of an option, we need to look at other options to make them vibrant public spaces with restaurants, coffee shops and pubs. Full marks to Camborne’s shops for showing some initiative and if you have not shopped in town for a while, why not try it while you can park for free!

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.

Exam results...

The anxious wait that teenagers have to endure for their A Level and GCSE results is finally over and many young people locally have cause to celebrate. I was at Redruth School on the day their A Level results came in and they had achieved a 99.3 percent pass rate, with results that were significantly above both the national and the county average, with a couple of students on course for Oxford and Cambridge.

Redruth has made rapid progress in the last few years and is recognised by the Department for Education as one of the top 100 performing schools in the country based on sustained improvement in academic achievement. Camborne Science and International Academy also had another good year with all their students intending to go to university securing their places.

I have been really impressed by all of the secondary schools in this area. Hayle does good work on languages, Camborne has cut out a niche on international exchanges, Pool is consistently rated highly by Ofsted and Redruth has a strong sports department. There is a healthy but friendly competition that exists between all of our schools and they learn from one another. Three of the four schools have introduced new, smarter school uniforms in the last couple of years and all are doing more on science and languages, looking at international exchanges and trying new methods of intervention to support children falling behind. Most important of all, when you visit our schools, there is a real sense of pride and aspiration which is great to see.

There is also good work being done in primary schools. On a visit to Pool Academy last year with Michael Gove, we saw Year 8 pupils at Pool helping year 6 children from one of the local primaries learn to read. Quality primary education is vital because, unless you get the basics right by the time children start secondary school, they are in danger of falling behind and losing interest.

I think it is important to create a culture of excellence in the education system where schools are constantly striving to achieve more for all children, whether by stretching the most academic children so that they can go to university or giving additional support to help inspire those falling behind. The government has made a number of changes aimed at raising standards still further from making the inspection regime more demanding to creating a new “English Baccalaureate” to recognise schools who achieve good results in difficult subjects. Many schools have become independent academies and now control their own budget. Next term, there will be a new catholic school opening in Camborne under the “free schools” policy, giving local parents even more choice. You only get one education, so we must do all we can to make it a success.

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.

Getting back to work...

I have always been clear that economic regeneration is my number one priority locally. The towns of Camborne, Redruth and Hayle all made an astonishing contribution to the industrial revolution but in recent years, things have been harder, key industries went in to decline, there was a loss of confidence followed by the growth of welfare dependency which has trapped too many people in poverty.

Despite the gloom and doom that you hear in the news, when it comes to unemployment there have been some encouraging signs which might mean we have started to turn the corner. Unemployment has been falling for five months now, including here in Camborne and Redruth. For the first time we have started to see more young people between the ages of 16-24 finding jobs. This is important because youth unemployment started rising as long ago as 2005, even as the world economy was booming, and the longer people are out of work, the harder it is to start.

People sometimes say that there is high unemployment locally, but if you look at the facts we are actually about average and mid way down the table compared with other towns across the country. I am by no means complacent but we should not talk ourselves down. I would like to see more jobs and better paid jobs locally and I think there are a number of things that must be done. First we need to attract new industries and support the construction of new infrastructure that will unlock the potential of derelict land and create jobs.

Secondly we need to ensure that we have a skilled workforce to encourage employers to locate here and that is why I think the expansion of real apprenticeships has been so important so that young people can learn skills in a real working environment while also earning money.

Finally, we need really intensive support to help those who have been out of work for a long time, have lost their confidence and are trapped on benefits. Sometimes you see households where people have not worked for two or three generations and it is a really damaging cycle which leads to wasted human potential. In the long term, it does no favours to those condemned to a life on benefits.

Last week I met a new organisation which has recently started up in Cornwall which runs intensive courses to motivate people and raise their confidence and self esteem ready for work. They often encourage those attending the courses to do unpaid voluntary work initially and they are getting good results with the majority of those doing unpaid work trials being offered paid jobs afterwards. We need to cut through the defeatism and let it be known that Camborne, Redruth and Hayle are towns that get things done.

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.

The Olympics

Britain looks set to have its most successful Olympics ever, with athletes making history and, in some cases, winning events we have never won before. I spent last Saturday night with friends and watched what was undoubtedly the best night for British athletics in a lifetime, with Team GB collecting three gold medals in the space of just one hour. Mo Farah made history by being the first British man ever to win gold in the Olympic 10,000 metres, Greg Rutherford seemed to surprise himself with his extraordinary performance in the Long Jump and the determined performance by Jessica Ennis to win that final 800m metre event in her heptathlon and take overall victory was a priceless moment of the Games.

Cornish athletes have also played a big part in the success of Team GB with seven athletes in the team in all. It was great to see Helen Glover drive ahead to take Britain’s first gold of the Games and to watch the tenacious Ben Ainsley win the sailing for the fourth time, a remarkable achievement.

The pride across the country during these Olympic Games makes the riots which shamed some of Britain’s cities a year ago feel like a completely different era. Much has been said about the importance of a legacy from the Olympics but I hope that the most important legacy will be a whole new generation of young people inspired to take up sport and strive to do their best. In the space of just two weeks, we have seen the emergence of many new role models for young people and they come from all sorts of different backgrounds and reflect the diverse nature of Britain today. The great thing about sporting role models is that they are not just about celebrity for the sake of it, they are first and foremost about real achievement and excellence through hard work and dedication and their notoriety becomes incidental.

Earlier this summer, Cornwall held its second Schools Games where over three thousand young people from Cornish Schools took part in over 20 different sports and I presented the awards at the athletics contest at Carn Brea. It was like a mini version of the Olympics Games and I think it is a great way of raising the status of sport in our schools. I used to be a member of Cornwall Athletic Club when I was younger and running was my passion. I was not fast enough to make the Olympic Team but have fond memories of my time running for Cornwall and it is great to see Cornwall Athletic Club going strong today. At that time, the rivalry between Coe and Ovett boosted middle distance running for years. Let’s hope that these Olympic Games kick starts a golden era for British sport.

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.

Pengegon

Parliament has now broken up for the summer which is a good opportunity to catch up with work in Cornwall. During August, I hold public meetings around the constituency so that people have an opportunity to ask questions or discuss individual problems they might need help with and I also try to visit as many parish and town councils as possible.

This week one of the meetings I held was at Pengegon. I have followed the growing confidence in Pengegon in recent years with interest. It is a great example of how having a few people in a community willing to make that initial effort can spread really quickly and inspire the rest of the neighbourhood too. I am not pretending that all is rosy in the garden. Pengegon undoubtedly has its share of poverty and these are difficult times. At my meeting this week, concerns about youth unemployment loomed large. But there is also growing pride and commitment within this community and that really matters.

Pengegon is often named as being the most deprived area in Cornwall. I have always thought that politicians and councillors should be careful when talking in broad terms about “deprived communities” because there is a danger they sound patronising. Many of those who live in Pengegon will have overcome adversity in their lives that a desk bound official could not understand and they are often more grounded and more resilient people because of that.

Last year when council officials published figures which cast Pengegon in a negative light, there was something of a backlash. Local residents called in the West Briton and let it be known in no uncertain terms that they were tired of seeing their community talked down and they highlighted some of the good work being done by local residents. Quite right too.

There are now some sixty young people taking part in football training sessions; there is a basketball team; a few weeks ago 22 people from the estate attended a training session at Stithians lake to learn about course fishing which looks set to continue; there are support groups for young parents and next Thursday the whole community will hold its annual family Fun Day which was really well attended when I went last year. Most important of all, people have become more neighbourly and look out for one another. Crime and anti-social behaviour in the area has tumbled.

There is more to do and top of the list is accelerating the plan to build a long awaited, new community centre to pull all the good work together under one roof and we also need to bring new industries and better paid jobs to Camborne. But the progress at Pengegon is proof that where there is a will, there is a way.

George Eustice can be contacted at george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk or 1 Trevenson Street, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8JD or by telephone on 020 72197032.