As I have said previously, my return to the backbenches at the end of last year has allowed me to once again speak up in Parliamentary debates on behalf of St Austell and Newquay, something which you are unable to do when you hold a position in Government. This is one of the things I most enjoy about working in Parliament.
Last week, I had another opportunity to do just that as I
held an Adjournment Debate on the funding of public services for Cornwall. An
Adjournment Debate is a debate held at the end of business in the main chamber
of Parliament. It gives an MP the chance to raise a subject of their choice and
get a response from the relevant Government Minister.
In the debate I made the argument that due to a number of
factors including our geography, rural nature and seasonal pressures, that the
funding we receive for our public services, particularly our health service,
education, local government and the police needs to change to reflect the true
cost of delivering those services in Cornwall.
Firstly on Geography, Cornwall’s position as a narrow
peninsula with only one neighbour in Devon impacts the delivery of services.
Counties in the middle of England are surrounded by other local authorities,
police forces, fire services and health services that they can share resources
with. If there is a particular challenge in one area, they can draw on services
from the surrounding counties to help it with that specific incident. We do not
have that in Cornwall. In most of Cornwall, we have to provide our own
resilience because there is no one else nearby to come and help.
Moving on to our rural nature, it is no secret that the
delivery and administration of rural services costs more. Nearly half of all
people who live in Cornwall live in communities of fewer than 3,000. That
rurality and sparsity presents real challenges for delivering services because
of the additional travelling that has to take place. Our police and fire
engines have to travel further to reach those communities, school travel is a very
big challenge, as well as for those working as in-home carers.
I also spoke about the impact of seasonal pressures, with
around 5 million people a year coming to Cornwall on holiday, and putting
massive additional pressure on our NHS, ambulance service and police in doing
so.
The Government has made moves to help with these issues,
introducing the rural services delivery grant, for example, and promising a
review on police funding, but more needs to be done and this is something I
will keep the pressure on the Government to come through with.
Of course in Parliament, there is much more that goes on than
just the debates, and in the past week alone, on this matter, I have also met
with the Minister for Local Government to discuss the provisional local government
finance settlement for 2024 to 2025 and its implications for Cornwall Council,
as well as writing to the Chancellor and Prime Minister in support of further
changes ahead of the Spring Budget.
The Government already recognises Cornwall in a number of
ways as being special and having particular challenges, and this now needs to
be reflected in the way our public services are funded. We need the true cost
of delivering those services in Cornwall to be reflected in the amount of money
we receive. I hope that following my debate, the Minister will reflect on the
points I made and continue the conversations with myself and my Cornish MP
colleagues, to ensure that Cornwall gets the funding it needs, so that the
people of Cornwall can get the public services we deserve.
As ever, if I can be of assistance on any matter, my office
is available for any constituents needing help, advice or guidance – tel: 01726
829379 or email: office@stevedouble.org.uk
