Newspaper column 26 July - Fair funding and tourism

Parliament has now risen for the Summer Recess and I am now looking forward to being able to spend the next few weeks working in Mid-Cornwall without having to travel to and from London. I will be out and about as much as possible, meeting as many of you as I can, as well as visiting local businesses and organisations to find out what matters to you on both local and national issues. If you would like me to meet you or visit your business or charity please get in touch.

In the last week of Parliament I was pleased to be elected as Chairman of two influential groups within Westminster, both of which work on issues of great importance to Mid-Cornwall.

The first of these is the Rural Fair Share Campaign group. This group of MPs from all parties supports an impartial, objective, needs-based approach to funding local public services.

I initially joined this campaign following my election in 2015 and since then have worked closely with the group to push the Government to give rural areas like Cornwall a fair deal in funding, where we have historically missed out.

The campaign aims to change the current set up for funding, which sees public services in rural areas receive up to 40% less than in urban areas, whether this is for our schools, local government or police.

The second group I have been elected Chairman of is the Visitor Economy All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG).

This group aims to actively support and promote the visitor economy by working with the Government to bring forward measures and incentives to support domestic and international in-bound tourism. The tourist industry is a major economic force in Mid-Cornwall, and hospitality and tourism is the fourth largest industry in the UK, employing 4.6 million people.  This APPG provides an opportunity for MPs from all parties to work with the tourism industry to make sure their voice is heard loud and clear. This will be especially important during the vital Brexit negotiations as we prepare to leave the EU.

The APPG has already launched a successful report into skills and apprenticeships in the tourist industry and following our recent inquiry into Coastal Communities, we will be making representations to Government. We will also be prioritising the impact of Brexit and the digital and sharing economy on tourism in coming months.

I am aware there are some big challenges ahead for both of these influential groups in Parliament. But I am up for the challenge and will aim to use my position as chairman to be a strong and effective voice for Cornwall.

As always, my team and I are here to serve the whole constituency and work hard to make a real difference to the lives of everyone needing support. If there is an issue you would like my assistance on then please contact me on either 01726 829379 or office@stevedouble.org.uk. Additionally, I hold regular, appointment only, advice surgeries across the constituency. Dates of these can be found at: www.stevedouble.org.uk/events

Newspaper column 19 July 2017 -

In Mid-Cornwall we are lucky enough to be surrounded by the sea. Not only does it set the stunning backdrop to our daily lives for those of us who live here, but it remains our biggest asset in drawing the thousands of tourists which are so vital to our local economy.

Since being elected Chairman of the Protect Our Waves All Party Parliamentary Group in 2015 I have come to truly understand the perils that our marine environment faces and the cold reality that the Government needs to take serious steps to stop the pollution of our seas.

Very prominent in this fight are the problems caused when plastic bottles end up in our seas. More than 13 billion single-use plastic bottles are sold in Britain each year (that is a staggering 35 million every day) and only 57 per cent of these are recycled, with the remainder sent to rubbish dumps or left as litter. Millions of them end up on beaches and in the sea where they will pollute our marine environment for decades to come.

This is fast becoming a crisis whereby we are rapidly reaching the point where there will actually be more plastic in our seas and oceans than there are fish. Plastic does not bio-degrade but in the marine environment it gets broken down into tiny particles that are then ingested by fish and then enter our food chain. It is clear that is this a serious issue and is not just a danger to our seas but to mankind. 

In the last Parliament I was pleased to work with Surfers Against Sewage to highlight these concerns and lobby Ministers about what the Government could do to take positive action. There is growing support for a plastic bottle return scheme to be introduced that would reward consumers for returning their single use plastic bottles.

Initially there was a great deal of resistance from both the soft drinks industry and the government to such a scheme. However, recently, Coca Cola, the biggest provider of drinks in plastic bottles put their support behind such a scheme. With this in mind I was delighted last week to see Lord Gardiner of Kimble, the environment minister, say,

“We are going to look at a number of measures to improve recycling. One of them is to have a full and proper look at the impacts and benefits of different types of deposit and reward-and-return schemes for drinks.”

That the Government is now willing to consider such a scheme is a very positive step forward. Since the Government’s announcement I have already spoken in Parliament, urging the Secretary of State for the Environment to publish more details of the plans being considered.

This is one of the biggest issues we will face in the years ahead, especially in Cornwall where the sea plays such a significant part in our lives. I look forward to continuing to make the case for a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and any other measures that will reduce the amount of plastic that ends up polluting our seas and beaches.

As always, my team and I are here to serve the whole constituency and work hard to make a real difference to the lives of everyone needing support. If there is an issue you would like my assistance on then please contact me on either 01726 829379 or office@stevedouble.org.uk. Additionally, I hold regular, appointment only, advice surgeries across the constituency. Dates of these can be found at: www.stevedouble.org.uk/events

Newspaper column 12 July - The end of EU funding?

Last week I was interested to read information released by the European Union that throws a new light on the funding we have received from them in Cornwall over the past twenty years.

I have been vocal in the past about the appropriateness of how this EU funding has been allocated and whether or not it has been effective due to poor targeting and a lack of results.

Under the new formula, the EU says that Cornwall would no longer receive any further funding from it, and indeed would never have qualified for any in previous years under this criteria.

Obviously with the UK soon due to leave the EU following the result of last year’s Referendum on our membership, the funding was due to stop anyway.

And while the EU may say that Cornwall is no longer one of the poorest areas of its union, Cornwall does still remain one of the poorest areas of the UK.

Regardless of what the EU thinks, it is clear that additional funding into Cornwall, if correctly targeted and without making potential applicants have to jump through too many hoops in order to access it, should make a positive impact here.

Once Brexit happens, we will be able to take back control and allocate the money we had been sending to the EU to funding streams and schemes that will be able to directly affect families and businesses that really need it. It won’t matter what unelected mandarins in Brussels think – members of our own Parliament will instead be able to use our own local knowledge to ensure funding is used effectively and efficiently where it will have the best possible outcome.

While the Government has already been investing more into Cornwall, correcting historic underfunding issues that we have endured under previous governments, including in transport infrastructure, schools and the NHS, there is still more to do to ensure that we in Cornwall get the best deal to put us on equal footing with the rest of the country.

I will certainly do all I can, along with my Cornish MP colleagues, to ensure the voice of Cornwall is heard loudly in Westminster and that when the EU funding stops we get a new replacement from the Government that is better targeted, fit for purpose and will accomplish what it sets out to achieve, helping those who need it the most.

As always, my team and I are here to serve the whole constituency and work hard to make a real difference to the lives of everyone needing support. If there is an issue you would like my assistance on then please contact me on either 01726 829379 or office@stevedouble.org.uk. Additionally, I hold regular, appointment only, advice surgeries across the constituency. Dates of these can be found at: www.stevedouble.org.uk/events

Newspaper column 5 July - The Queen's Speech

Last week in Parliament we saw the successful passing of the Queen’s Speech. The Queen's Speech is the first act of a new Government and presents a legislative programme of the laws which the Government wants to pass during the course of the next two years.

This year’s Queen’s Speech was particularly important as its main feature is the Great Repeal Bill, the process that will formally repeal the 1972 European Communities Act, which took Britain into the European Union and meant that European law took precedence over laws passed in the British Parliament. It will also end the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. Also under this Bill, all existing EU legislation will be copied across into domestic UK law to ensure a smooth transition on the day after Brexit. As such, this is one of the largest legislative projects ever undertaken in the UK and one that is crucial for the upcoming Brexit process.

Also in the Queen’s Speech there were a number of measures designed to grow the economy for the whole country. Throughout my time as MP for St Austell and Newquay I have been clear that building a stronger economy for Mid-Cornwall, with highly skilled, all year round jobs, is a real priority for me, as a strong economy allows investment in many of the infrastructure and other projects that we want and need.

In the Queens Speech, I saw a message of hope, a plan of action, and a clear commitment to deliver for the economies for the South West and for Cornwall specifically.

In particular the speech contains legislation that when introduced will ensure the United Kingdom remains a world leader in new industries, including electric cars and commercial satellites.

There seems little doubt that our roads will soon be occupied by an increasing number of electric vehicles. These will require batteries to power them on their way. The recent discovery of significant deposits of Lithium (one of the rarest metals on earth) in Cornwall – a vital component for all the batteries required for these new cars, spells good news for Cornwall and a potential great revival of not only mining the metal but also in becoming a centre for manufacturing of batteries, creating many new, skilled, well paid jobs in our communities.

Commercial Satellites, another key government prioritised industry, specifically mentioned again in the Queens Speech, tie in with the ongoing bid for Cornwall Airport Newquay to become the UK’s first commercial spaceport, one which I have championed since its inception.

These are exciting times for Cornwall and I will continue to do all I can to ensure that we continue to benefit from new and existing opportunities that are coming our way.

As always, my team and I are here to serve the whole constituency and work hard to make a real difference to the lives of everyone needing support. If there is an issue you would like my assistance on then please contact me on either 01726 829379 or office@stevedouble.org.uk. Additionally, I hold regular, appointment only, advice surgeries across the constituency. Dates of these can be found at: www.stevedouble.org.uk/events