Newspaper column 27 July 2022 - a busy last week in Parliament before Summer Recess

 

Parliament has now risen for the summer which means I will be spending more time in our constituency, getting out and about trying to meet as many people and businesses as possible in the next few weeks, as well as spending time with my family.

Although Parliament has now risen, last week was a busy one. First up I met with the new Housing and Planning Minister, Marcus Jones, to make the case for further action to address the housing crisis in Cornwall.

The meeting, held at the Department for Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities, was an opportunity to ensure the new Minister understands the current challenges facing us here in Mid Cornwall and listens to the case for reforms to the planning system.

Housing, especially its availability and affordability for local people, continues to be one of the top issues that is raised with me by residents in the constituency, so I was keen to feed this back to the new Minister. It is important he is aware of the particular pressures we face, as well as proposals for what we need to do to improve the situation.

The Government’s new Planning and Regeneration Bill is currently passing through Parliament and provides an opportunity to take steps to ensure more housing is available to local people in the future.

In the meantime, the Government is running a consultation on the impact of short-term holiday lets on communities in tourism hotspots like Cornwall to help us understand the scale of this problem and take appropriate steps to alleviate it, such as introducing a register for short term holiday accommodation or further reforms to the planning system such as requiring change of use planning permission to convert to a holiday let.

However, it is important to remember that there are no quick and easy answers for the current housing issues we are facing, but we do need to take steps to ensure we are never in this situation again and I was pleased that the Minister listened to my concerns.

I will continue to do all I can to work with my Cornish MP colleagues, Cornwall Council and the Government to implement sensible and practical steps to ensure local people can access the housing they need.

Last week I also had the opportunity to visit St Austell Jobcentre and see the fantastic work that the staff are doing to support local people back into employment. This followed a very interesting and positive visit to Newquay Jobcentre a couple of weeks ago. 

This tied in with the recently released employment figures for St Austell and Newquay, which are excellent and really demonstrate how the hard work of the DWP staff in St Austell and Newquay Jobcentres is making a difference.

The figures for Universal Credit published by the Office of National Statistics show that in June 2022 there were 1,895 actual claimants in St Austell and Newquay constituency, which was 3.0% of the population aged 16-64. The equivalent UK claimant rate was 3.7%. There were 250 claimants aged 18-24, which was 3.5% of the population aged 18-24. The equivalent UK claimant rate was 4.3%.

 

Over the past year the number of claimants has fallen by 1,340 in our constituency, and the numbers of people in St Austell and Newquay claiming Universal Credit are also lower now than in March 2020 before the pandemic.

 

This is good news and thanks to all at the Department for Work and Pensions who work hard supporting people back into employment. It was also great to meet with some employers to talk about the innovative ways in which they are working with St Austell Jobcentre to get new staff.

I want to end this week’s column by talking about one of the highlights over the past year, which has been the return of local schools from Cornwall to Parliament. It’s always a pleasure to meet with pupils and last week I met with children from Penrice Academy in St Austell and spoke to them. Tours and visits haven’t been able to take place for a number of years due to covid, so it is great to be able to welcome them back.

Anyone who would like to book a tour of Parliament can do so via the website here: www.parliament.uk/visiting/ or contact my office and we will try to arrange it for you.

If I can be of any further assistance, my office is available for any constituents needing help, advice or guidance – tel. 01726 829379, email – office@stevedouble.org.uk

Column 13 July 2022 - My new Ministerial role

 

It was former Prime Minister Harold Wilson who coined the phrase “a week is a long time in politics”. Throughout my seven years as an MP there have been numerous periods when that phrase was relevant, but none more so than this past week.

As I am sure readers will be aware, I have been a supporter of Boris Johnson throughout the turbulent past few months, still believing he was the best person to lead our country through our current challenges. This was not a blind faith, but a view formed from seeing him deliver for our country time and again in recent times.

It was therefore incredibly difficult and indeed sad for me to come to the conclusion last week that he could no longer continue to govern our country and should, in the best interests of the county and the Conservative party, resign from office.

The events at the start of last week sadly showed that despite attempts to change the way his office in Downing Street operated, little change had taken place. We quickly and decisively reached a tipping point among MPs whereby many who had previously supported him withdrew their support with many resigning from the government ministerial roles.

As a member of the whip’s office, I was of course caught up at the heart of the turmoil. I know some locally, including local journalists and media outlets, questioned why I did not comment sooner in the week on the events taking place and publicly express my views. The explanation for this is simply due to the role I had. At times such as the past week the whip’s office play a vital role in ensuring Parliament continues to be able to function. Many people do not fully appreciate the amount of work that goes on to ensure Parliament is able to function smoothly. There is a great deal of management, organisation and administration that must take place to ensure not only the House of Commons chamber, but also the many committees that take place every day, happen without a hitch. A great deal of this work is carried out by the whips.

With so many ministers resigning, it was a full-time job to keep on top of what was happening and ensuring Parliament, and our democracy, continued to function. At a time like this, whatever our personal views, it is not appropriate or particularly helpful for whips to be giving a running commentary to the media or posting on social media. Another part of our role is to feed back to the Chief Whip the views and concerns of MPs. In order to be able to do this objectively, it is important that we are not clouding the conservations we have with our own views.

That is not to say I did not make my own views clear to the Chief Whip, I certainly did. Once I did put finger to keyboard, in the very early hours of Thursday morning, once it seemed likely that the Prime Minister would be stepping down, I was able to clarify my own thoughts and draft a statement. The statement I drafted reflected my feeling at that time. I was exhausted, mentally, emotionally and physically. The prospect of having to form a new interim government and the upheaval and effort it would need felt very heavy at that time. The last thing I wanted was the prospect of having to learn a new role in government, potentially a new department and working with new people. So I did include in that statement a line which said I would be happy to remain in the whips office but would not be accepting any new role in the government. It was a true reflection of my thoughts and feelings at that time – I meant it. As long as the uncertainty and lack of clarity over the Prime Minister’s leadership remained, I was not prepared to be in any other role.

However, 36 hours later when I had returned home to Cornwall, managed a reasonably good night’s sleep in my own bed and been able to get the events of the week into more perspective, I felt much better and much more positive about the clear path that has been set out towards an orderly transition of leadership in the autumn, as well as the formation of a new government to cover this interim period to provide stability and ensure essential government business would continue. Therefore, when the Prime Minister did call me on Friday afternoon and invited me to become a minister in the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), I was willing to consider it. I did not say yes immediately, but having carefully considered the offer and given the clear change in circumstances the Prime Minister’s resignation statement brought, I decided it was the right thing for me to do to support the functioning of government in these unprecedented times and accepted this new position. Another important reason that guided my thinking is that DEFRA covers many key areas that are particularly relevant to Cornwall such as agriculture, fishing, coastal and rural matters including things like sewage and of course environmental policy.

I know that there will be those who will criticise me for ‘changing my mind’. I did. However, it was Winston Churchill who once said, ‘those who never change their minds never change anything’.

The important thing for our country right now, whilst we go through this process of electing a new leader of the Conservative Party who will be our next Prime Minister, is to ensure this time is as smooth as possible. This means government ministerial roles need to be filled by those who are willing to serve in this way. I have no idea how long this new role will last but I am willing to carry it out to the best of my ability for as short or long as required to play my part to help our country through this time.

Newspaper column 6 July 2022 - Tax cuts, holiday lets and the cost of living

Today we have seen the biggest single tax cut in a decade thanks to this Government increasing the National Insurance threshold overnight from £9,880 to £12,570.

This will not only save 30 million workers up to £330 a year, but also lift 2.2 million people out of paying any National Insurance or income tax on their earnings at all. 

I am so pleased to see this week’s tax cut – worth £6 billion – as it is likely to make so many people in the constituency better off and shows that this Government is committed to supporting people through difficult times.

Speaking of tough times, this week we will also see some of the measures promised by this Government to relieve some of the pressures that households across the constituency are facing in the midst of the cost of living crisis take effect.

In May the Government announced help for households across the country with £37 billion of financial support.

This included a council tax rebate, cut in fuel duty, a minimum of £400 for every household to help with energy bills and at least £1,200 for the eight million most vulnerable ­households.

From next Thursday (July 14), eight million of the lowest income households, including pensioners on pension credit, will see the first part of the £650 cost of living payment as part of the support measures automatically hit their bank accounts, continuing until the end of the month.

The second payment will be made in the autumn and all those who live in the UK and are in receipt of Universal Credit, Jobseekers Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and Pension Credit are eligible.

I know that the cost of living crisis is a huge concern and worry to so many people and am pleased to see that the Government has listened to concerns and is wasting no time in getting this further support for households out to those who need it the most. This Government has a track record of listening to constituents’ concerns and taking decisive action to address them if it can.

This brings me to another issue that the Government is currently considering and one I been working for some time as part of my ongoing efforts to address the current housing situation in Cornwall amid the pressure the rise in short-term holiday let accommodation is placing on housing that is needed for local people.

Last week the Government launched a 12-week review to help understand the impact short-term holiday lets are having on housing in communities in tourism hotspots, like Cornwall.

This comes following the rise in use of rental booking websites and apps, with large increase in the number of properties listed on platforms such as Airbnb in recent years, especially in high tourist areas.

I am pleased that the Government is taking positive action to ensure short-term holiday accommodation and local communities can both work together.

However, it’s important to stress that short-term holiday lets play a very important part in supporting our local economy, so this is not a ban. This review will give us a clearer understanding of how we can support those local communities in holiday hotspots as well as the tourism industry.

All views on the impact of short-term holiday accommodation will help the Government determine how to protect much-loved communities and the thriving holiday industry.

I would urge anyone who has been affected by short-term holiday lets to take part in this call for evidence so that the Government can get a clear picture of the impact they are having on our communities here in mid-Cornwall.

It is reassuring to see that the Government has listened to the concerns I have raised on behalf on constituents and is taking action to address the housing crisis we are facing. This is in addition to the Government measures which have already been announced to give local communities greater ability to manage the impact that second homes can have in some locations.

These measures include closing tax loopholes, introducing higher stamp duty and permitting councils to apply higher council tax on second homes.

The call for evidence will run for 12 weeks until 11.45pm on September 21 and rest assured that I will be responding to the survey after listening to feedback from across the constituency.

More information on the call for evidence is available here: Developing a tourist accommodation registration scheme in England - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

If I can help you on this matter or another, please do get in touch with my office – tel. 01726 829379, email – office@stevedouble.org.uk