Contribution
Meur ras, Mrs Barker; it is a pleasure to serve under your chairship. I thank my Cornish colleague, my hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (Perran Moon), for securing this important debate.
As my hon. Friends from Cornwall know and speak about so powerfully, Cornwall has a proud mining heritage and was a key part of Britain’s first industrial revolution. We now have an opportunity to revitalise that in a way that serves our future aspirations. It is fantastic that this Labour Government have recognised that through the Kernow industrial growth fund. Local projects, such as the Cornwall Resources Redmoor tungsten and tin project, can bring crucially needed investment to areas like Callington in my constituency, as well as opportunities throughout South East Cornwall. We need to make sure that the benefits of those are felt by my local community; that means local skills, apprenticeships and good-quality jobs.
I strongly believe that our young people should not feel that they have to leave the place they are from to get on in life and succeed. Tin and the mining opportunities of Cornwall are a significant factor in how we build their future hopes and aspirations. As my hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth mentioned, demand for tin is increasingly driven by electronics, AI and clean energy. South East Cornwall can contribute its natural resources and hard-working and talented people to those growing industries. I welcome the Minister’s thoughts on how the critical minerals strategy connects with the Government’s wider industrial strategy and skills agenda. I am sure that he remembers fondly his previous visit to South East Cornwall. I put on record my thanks for his visit and extend another invitation for him to join me in future.
We need to develop these resources responsibly. I am so proud that South East Cornwall is playing a role in securing that. Cornwall contains some of our country’s most important landscapes and ecosystems, and draws millions of tourists each year. We care about it and value it hugely, so we must ensure that environmental protection and restoration are built into mineral extraction from the outset. Being part of that heritage, we know how to do it well—areas that were doing it previously are supportive and have the expertise. We can lead the way domestically and internationally, and show how things are done without relying on imports.
There is a real economic opportunity. The Government’s own critical minerals strategy recognised the gap in our tin supply chain: extracted tin is currently exported for refining before refined tin is imported again. Given that today’s tin price is almost £15,000 higher than at this point last year, the strategic importance of this specific mineral is growing. Can we use this opportunity to close that gap while creating processing and manufacturing jobs in the UK, alongside the already established mining jobs, as my colleagues have mentioned?
This industry is of national importance, and it is strategically crucial for the country. That must be recognised as we look at this in more detail. We need to be strategic about Britain’s natural resources. We should learn from our experience with oil and gas, and think carefully about how we capture long-term value from the resources we have. I previously made the case for thinking differently about natural wealth and our natural resources, including the value of our data, and I see similar principles to apply here. These are national assets, but they are also local assets, and we can create long-term wealth if they are strategically managed for the public good, and as long as we are working with the incredibly important businesses that are doing such vital work in this area.
Will the Minister set out how the Government will ensure that that value created by the private sector from public wealth in critical minerals is captured through things such as skills, innovation, domestic supply chains and future economic growth? These are opportunities that the people of Callington, in other areas of South East Cornwall and from across Cornwall will value highly. Cornwall can help to power the industries of tomorrow while ensuring that benefits to the community are felt today and in the future. The opportunities are significant. South East Cornwall is ready to play its part, once again, in this national push towards good economic growth, and we look forward to working with the Minister to do so.