Parents naturally do what they can to protect their children from harm but find it difficult to get reliable information. This is certainly my experience. This week I supported the launch of the Community Alcohol Partnership’s (CAP) research on access to alcohol by young people under 18 years old. Of young people that regular access alcohol 71% said they receive it from parents. This does not make for bad parenting as most parents have no idea what the official medical advice is. The work of CAP helps communities who are seeing high rates of alcohol consumption amongst young people and one way to do this is raise awareness of the Chief Medical Officers advice. Advice in the UK is that alcohol consumption is unsafe for children under 15 years. This will come as a surprise to many, but it is well worth parents researching the effects of alcohol on our young developing children so that they can feel informed in relation to alcohol and our children.
You may remember that the Government invited St Ives, Penzance, Truro and Camborne to pull together a town investment plan (TIP) to regenerate and revitalise our towns. St Ives and Penzance are obviously my concern, and I was pleased to support the TIPs we presented over a year ago. We are now charged with identifying how best to spend this money (over £40m across St Ives and Penzance) we are busy finalising what projects should be submitted to Government in July for final sign-off. This follows two years of graft and very detailed business cases, and my thanks go to all the board members especially the volunteers who have worked so hard at this!
I contributed to the Queen’s Speech debate on the issue of increased living costs this week. I highlighted the need for the Government to keep a close eye on hikes in the daily standing charge we all pay along with the energy we use. We can reduce energy consumption and in time the energy price will reduce but I suspect energy companies will not reduce standing charges quite so quickly if at all. If not, the Government must intervene. I also pressed the Government to supercharge food production in the UK with the same enthusiasm shown towards clean energy production. This will support security in our food supply and help to keep prices steady. But most of all I stressed the fact that rising housing costs put greatest pressure on household budgets and Government can move quickly to protect the supply of homes for permanent residents, support landlords and build good quality energy efficient homes for those we know badly need them.
Finally, around 25% of pensioners who could claim Pension Credit do not currently do so. Those who are eligible can receive an average of £3,300 in extra support with the cost of living and help toward housing costs and heating their home – and can access help with rent, council tax and housing benefits.
Pension Credit can be claimed online at www.gov.uk/pension-credit, but anyone who prefers can use the Freephone Pension Credit claim line on 0800 99 1234.
