This week Penzance and St Ives, along with Camborne and Truro received the first tranche of Town Deal cash from Government. The Town Deal initiative has brought together people to identify how money can be used to begin transforming the towns as we respond to different shopping habits and different needs for the key buildings and the infrastructure that features strongly area. It has been a lot of hard graft and a concerted effort by volunteers, elected representatives and council officers alike. We can now begin the work of bringing these projects into reality.
Too many readers will know the devastation caused by a brain tumour diagnosis. Too many families have lost loved ones and too many patients are left with a brain acquired injury that is lifelong. Improving this remains a concerted effort of all members of the All Party Parliamentary Brain Tumour Group which I chair and every year my office and I organise the Great Western Dog Walk. It takes place this Saturday (1st October) in aid of Brain Tumour Research and Brain Tumour Support. We meet at the beginning of Albert Pier on the Wharfside Carpark at 1pm and walk along the coast path towards Marazion. Dogs are not essential and there will be an opportunity to donate money as we walk! Just turn up!
Small businesses are critical to our way of life here in West Cornwall which is why I pressed for action at Liz Truss's first PMQs to help with rapidly increasing energy bills. I’m reassured, as are many business owners, that from next week, the Government has set a Supported Wholesale Price which is less than half the expected market price facing businesses this winter. This discount applies to UK businesses of all sizes, the voluntary sector like charities and the public sector including our schools and hospitals.
My view on the Government’s Plan for Growth is to give time to allow these measures to bed in. Support is available to all households in some form including the cap on the price of energy and the Chancellor’s statement reduces taxes for the households which are not on any sort of benefit and used to be described as Just About Managing. The plan addresses the fact that the tax burden on households has risen to the highest level for decades and it tackles a tax system that prioritised general taxation over economic growth. Cutting stamp duty on buildings to create new residential or business properties and for first time buyers is a positive move. Not hiking up corporation tax helps all limited companies. Cutting the tax thresholds helps millions of workers including our nurses, police officers and other public sector workers and it has always been a principal of the Conservative Party to ensure employee keep more of their own money. We just haven’t been very good at it in recent years. The new PM and her Chancellor have taken a significant judgment call and I’m confident that we will see it was the correct one in time.
