Newspaper column 27 December 2023 - Annual Update pt2

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and was able to take some time to reflect and celebrate on this special day.   

 As we reflect, I want to take this opportunity to look back at the year we have had as the end of 2023 approaches and provide you with a brief summary of my work as your Member of Parliament through the year.   

 While much has been happening nationally, there has also been lots going on in the constituency. I have continued to focus on infrastructure projects, which keep moving forward.   

The St Austell to A30 link road is well under way and on course to open in 2025. We have also seen great progress being made with the Mid-Cornwall Metro, which will upgrade the Newquay branch line and provide direct trains to Falmouth, after Cornwall Council agreed to accept the £50million in funding from the Government for its delivery.  

The project, which aims to create a coast to coast through-service connecting Newquay, Par, St Austell, Truro, Penryn and Falmouth will reduce journey times and ease road congestion for people living along the route.  

As you will know, I have supported this scheme since its inception, and believe it will not only transform rail travel between Newquay and Falmouth, but benefit all of the communities with stops along the way and opening up regular services to the main line and beyond.  

Having access to regular rail services will also open up new opportunities for education, training and employment for everyone living along this route and will be particularly welcomed in the clay country. I now look forward to continuing to work with all involved in this project to ensure it remains on track to benefit all the communities it will serve.  

Progress is also being made to redevelop and upgrade St Austell College. This is something I have also supported from the start as the upgrading of further education facilities at the St Austell campus will ensure students receive a high-quality education, wherever they live, and enable them to gain the skills they need to secure the jobs and help the economy.  

I am also working to see significant investment in our local NHS services and hope to be able to share more information about this in the new year.   

One of the main concerns raised with me this year was the proposed closure of the ticket office at St Austell railway station. That is why I was pleased to see the government listen to residents’ concerns, which I shared, and confirm that the ticket office would not be closing.  

I will always stand up and represent the views of the people of Mid-Cornwall and this decision would have been devastating for not only staff but travellers, particularly those who are elderly, vulnerable or disabled. That is why I was pleased to play my part in ensuring that the town got to keep its ticket office.   

One issue that a lot of people have also contacted me on this year is around the works that are being done on Whipsiderry Beach and the cliffs above it near Newquay. 

I have been aware of concerns around development on this site since 2016. While the developer has legal permission to carry out the work, now that it has started I have raised the various concerns that have been brought to me about how it is being carried out with Cornwall Council to ensure it is within the permission granted.  

I remain in contact with Cornwall Council and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and continue to monitor the situation on this site.

I have also continued to seek to address a number of the longstanding issues that impact on our constituency.

Housing remains one of the biggest and most difficult problems that constituents raise with me. That is why I continue to highlight concerns to Ministers and am pleased to have been able to secure government support for a number of measures that will enable Cornwall Council to better manage our housing stock, including managing the number of holiday lets and charging double council tax on second homes.   

I have also worked to support our local farmers and fishermen, meeting with them regularly to ensure I am informed of their concerns to represent them in meetings with Ministers. I have been working recently especially to ensure the government provide more support to our local fishermen who will affected by the cut in quota for pollock. 

I also want to say a huge thank you to my team who support me to assist constituents with a wide range of issues. This year my team and I have received and replied to nearly 18,000 emails, dealt with more than 8,000 individual pieces of casework on behalf of local residents and businesses, ranging from housing and benefit enquiries to visa applications and NHS matters.  

I now look forward to continuing to serve our constituency and Cornwall through 2023 and beyond and would like to wish you a Happy New Year.   

My office is now closed and will reopen at 10am on January 2. However, you can still contact me by emailing steve.double.mp@parliament.uk or calling 01726 829379 and leaving a message. I will get back to anyone requiring urgent help.  

 

Newspaper column 20 December 2023 - Looking back at 2023

This week I have been working in the constituency as parliament has now risen for the Christmas Recess, and I was not required there this week, so I have been making the most of this time by meeting with constituents and businesses.

I have also had the pleasure of being invited to attend festive events taking place in the constituency. A particular highlight so far has to be St Dennis Band’s Christmas concert, which was good fun and certainly got us in the Christmas spirit. A brilliant evening was had by all, so well done to everyone involved. 

I am now looking forward to taking some time off with my family later this week for Christmas and hope you will also be able to enjoy the festive season with your friends and family and celebrate this special day. 

However, I am aware that there will be many people who will be working over the Christmas period and so would just like to take this opportunity to thank all those in our NHS and care sectors, those who work in retail and hospitality, our local police and other emergency services and our armed forces who keep us, and others, safe all over the world, all year round. Thank you for all you do and when you do get the chance to celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a good one. 

I appreciate that this year has been a challenging one for constituents and also in Parliament and for the government as we seek to tackle the many difficult issues we, as a country, face.

In January the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, promised to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut NHS waiting lists, and stop the boats. I am pleased to see that the government is making good progress with these priorities.

Inflation is down by more than 50 per cent, we continue to see record levels of employment, the NHS waiting list has dropped and the numbers of illegal immigrants coming via small boats across the channel is down by a third. 

One of the issues that constituents continue to raise with me is the challenges the NHS faces here in Cornwall and huge pressures and demand on our services. 

I have continued to raise these concerns with Ministers and the government has made record funding available for the NHS to improve elective, urgent and emergency, and primary care performance to pre-pandemic levels.

However, we know we must also have the workforce in place to give people the treatment and care they need. That is why I am pleased to see the government has delivered the additional 50,000 nurses promised in 2019 and we have more doctors than ever to deliver extra appointments, speed up diagnoses and tackle the COVID-19 backlog. 

But while the government has been making progress to cut waiting times, we cannot forget the significant impact the NHS strikes have had on patients, NHS staff and efforts to cut waiting lists. This has seen over one million postponed appointments and procedures and is something the government is currently looking to address. 

We also reached our commitment to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers and we now have a record number in Devon and Cornwall Police.

On a more personal note, this year also saw my resignation from government. Over the summer recess I decided that I was going to be leaving government at the time of the next reshuffle and last month resigned from my role as lord commissioner of the Treasury in the government’s whips office. 

I have now returned to the back benches where I have spoken out on a range of issues which affect the constituency, including missed GP appointments, housing in tourist destinations such as Mevagissey and Fowey, and levelling-up.

I plan to continue to represent the people of Mid-Cornwall, who have always been my priority, into next year. 

For now, I would like to take the opportunity to wish all readers a very Merry Christmas. 

My office will be closed from 12:30pm on December 22 and reopen at 10am on January 2. However, you can still contact me by emailing: steve.double.mp@parliament.uk or calling 01726 829379 and leaving a message. I will get back to anyone requiring urgent help.

Newspaper column 13 December 2023 - Immigration changes

 

Last week saw developments in the Government’s approach to handling both legal and illegal immigration.

Looking at the measures on illegal immigration first, the Government has introduced a new Parliamentary Bill to conclusively deem Rwanda a safe country, stopping lawyers and illegal immigrants from abusing the system, as they have been able to under current law, and allowing the Government to fulfil its manifesto commitment on taking definitive action on stopping the boats.

This Bill will be voted on later this week, after the deadline for submitting this column, but I can confirm I will be supporting the Government and voting in favour of the Bill.

There will be some who say the measures do not go far enough, but in response I would say that the measures proposed need to be workable and need to be able to be voted through Parliament to become law. Alternative stronger measures, that some would like to see, are unlikely to achieve this as there would be many more who would vote against a stronger bill.

The bill is the toughest immigration legislation ever introduced to Parliament. It includes provisions to disapply relevant sections of the Human Rights Act, unambiguously exclude the courts from challenging the fact that Rwanda is safe, and confirm that ministers alone can decide whether to comply with blocking orders from Strasbourg, like the one that grounded the first Rwanda flight in 2022.

The legislation is a part of the plan that delivers on the Prime Minister’s priority to stop the boats and ensure that people know that if they come to the UK illegally, they will not be able to stay.

Once the bill receives Royal Assent, it will pave the way for the UK to begin next steps in processing people for relocation and starting removal flights to Rwanda. The government intends to fast-track the emergency legislation through Parliament as soon as possible.

Turning to changes to legal migration, last week the Home Secretary announced a plan to deliver the biggest ever reduction in net legal migration.

The measures will end the high numbers of dependants coming to the UK, increase the minimum salaries that overseas workers and British or settled people sponsoring family members must earn, and tackle exploitation across the immigration system.

The major part of this will see the tightening of the Health and Care Worker visa, which has seen a significant number of visas granted to care workers and their dependants, by preventing overseas care workers from bringing their dependants to the UK.

In the year ending September 2023, 101,000 Health and Care Worker visas were issued to care workers and senior care workers, with an estimated 120,000 visas granted to associated dependants, the majority of whom are estimated don’t work, but still make use of public services. In addition, care providers in England will now only be able to sponsor migrant workers if they are undertaking activities regulated by the Care Quality Commission. From next spring, the government will also increase the earning threshold for overseas workers by nearly 50% from its current position of £26,200 to £38,700.

In Parliament last week I welcomed this, and questioned the Home Secretary about it. I have seen through my work as MP when I have to assist those people who have been affected that the current system has seen a number of bogus care companies charging people tens of thousands of pounds to come to this country, only to find that there is no job. These people are then effectively stranded here with no job, accommodation or recourse to public funds. I urged the Home Secretary to look at bringing these measures forward as soon as possible so that we can end this practise, which is effectively people trafficking under any other name.

With the end of the year now approaching I hope that as we move into 2024, we will be able to see these big changes implemented and have a positive impact on the issues they are trying to address.

As ever, my office is available for any constituents needing help, advice or guidance. Please do get in touch if I can help – tel. 01726 829379, email – office@stevedouble.org.uk

Newspaper column 6 December 2023 - My debate on housing in tourist destinations

One of the things I have been looking forward to since I returned to the backbenches in Parliament is being able to apply for a lead debates on issues important to our constituency. Last week I was pleased to secure and lead a debate in Parliament on housing provision in tourist destinations.

Housing issues in general are one of things raised most often to me by local people, and these issues are particularly keenly felt in tourist areas, such as Newquay, Fowey and Mevagissey, predominantly coastal communities that are particularly attractive places to live in and visit.

In the debate I made it clear that while tourism and hospitality are vital parts of our economy in Mid-Cornwall, both for those who work in tourism and hospitality businesses, and also those who supply them, there has to be a balance to this, and in recent years in some communities this has tipped too far in favour of second homes and short term holiday let accommodation, meaning local people who would otherwise live and work in these towns and villages all year round are finding it increasingly difficult to do so.

In the debate I highlighted examples of this, instances of local businesses and public services—ranging from hotels to our schools and hospitals—being unable to recruit key staff, with the lack of available housing given as the main reason why they cannot recruit or why people cannot move to start work.

I also highlighted the percentage of second homes and holiday lets in these communities, in comparison, to the significant numbers of people we currently have on the housing register in Cornwall, and the numbers of short-term holiday let accommodation listings on Airbnb and the like (18,989) compared to long term rent listings on Rightmove (895).

With that being said, the Government has taken more steps to address the situation than any other Government, and I highlighted some of these in my debate.  The Government has closed the business rate loophole, which allowed second homeowners to claim that their properties were holiday lets and therefore qualify for small business rate relief, paying neither council tax nor business rates and contributing nothing to local services.

The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, which became law earlier this year makes provision for local authorities like Cornwall Council to charge double council tax on second homes. People who own second homes and do not rent them out to local people should rightly pay more to make up for the fact that those properties have been removed from primary occupancy. That was the right thing to do, and the Government did it. Cornwall Council is keen to apply the provision as soon as possible because it will bring in an anticipated extra £20 million income a year, which can go back into the provision of services for taxpayers in our Duchy.  

It will also allow Cornwall Council the power to compile a full register of holiday lets for the first time, which will give them a full and accurate picture of exactly how many properties in the communities they serve are being used as holiday lets. Knowing how many holiday lets there are is the first step towards being able to better manage their number in our communities

The Government have consulted on giving powers to local councils to require a change of planning permission when homes are taken out of residential use and converted to holiday lets. If planning permission was granted to build a house to be somebody’s home and the new owner wishes to change its use to a holiday let, which is essentially a business use, a change of use should be required. We insist on that for all sorts of other businesses, and I believe the same should apply to holiday lets.

These measures will improve the situation significantly. In the debate I asked that the Minister ensure that these consultations are replied to as soon as possible, to allow local authorities to register of holiday lets and the planning change of use requirements to be implemented.

We need to work together to ensure that it improves as soon as possible and I will continue working in Parliament and in Cornwall to make this happen.

As ever, my office is available for any constituents needing help, advice or guidance. Please do get in touch if I can help – tel. 01726 829379, email – office@stevedouble.org.uk