Access to affordable housing is not getting any easier and part of the responsibility lies with Cornwall Council. I raised this in a debate in Parliament this week to highlight the high (and in my view largely unnecessary) charges demanded of small builders as a result of Cornwall Council’s policies. These can exceed £1,200 in Cornwall Council legal fees just for the privilege of building an affordable home, over £300 for market valuation fees (to demonstrate that it is an affordable home) and the Community Infrastructure Levy introduced by Labour in 2010 and now demanded by Cornwall Council which can amount to hundreds of pounds per square metre of each home built. All these on top of the normal fees paid for securing the planning approval in the first place. Another example of council policy that discourages housing provision is the decision to charge property owners additional council tax as they bring the property back into use. Empty properties are now rightly liable for an additional council tax charge but Cornwall Council has decided that no exemptions or relief should be made for people who purchase a property to refurbish it! I am working with Council officers who have agreed to review this decision!
On Tuesday the Business Minister stated in response to a question from me that ‘the proposed system to manage access to foreign labour does include enough flexibility to ensure small businesses will be able to recruit the people they need’. This will be encouraging for business owners I have met with since the Home Secretary launched her immigration policy. The reality is (and this is especially the case for business owners I met with on Scilly last week) the local available workforce to take these jobs if foreign workers are excluded does not exist! I have long argued that local young people and others looking to change jobs or return to work could find rewarding and relatively well-paid employment fulfilling some of the posts currently taken by foreign labour. The proposed immigration policy is intended to kick in on January 1st it will take many years to build up the local workforce to fill the gap. I will continue to work with the Government to ensure the immigration policy enables local small businesses to secure the workforce they need.
We all know that something must change regarding the lack of access to NHS dental care. Half of the adult population in Cornwall and 40% of children have not seen an NHS dentist in the last year! This is extremely concerning and I am in dialogue with NHS England (who commission dentistry) to resolve this health inequality in Cornwall. There is a solution but it needs pressure from Government and the commitment of Peninsula Dental Training School, NHS England and local NHS providers to make it happen. I am collating real life experiences of people in my constituency to show how lack of dental care is affecting people and I need your help. Your experience will help to demonstrate how acute the problem is. If you have been affected or have a story or experience that you are happy to share, please get in contact by emailing me at [email protected]
