Jayne Kirkham

I represent a constituency that covers a small city, a town and a large rural area. Much of that rural area is the Roseland peninsula, and it is coastal. When I was researching for my maiden speech, I found that David Penhaligon wrote about the challenges that threatened rural Cornwall 50 years ago, and it was notable that they were very similar to the ones that threaten Cornwall today: roads, pressure on services, hospitals, sewage, lack of housing, summer lets, and the lowest average wage in the country, which Cornwall had at the time. This Government are already acting on many of those challenges. Roads are being fixed, buses are better funded, and rural franchising is being piloted in Cornwall. Railways are being nationalised, and rail and bus fares are being frozen. The Government are putting in £39 billion for social housing, and we now have the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, meaning that tenants can no longer be evicted from their homes for them to be flipped into holiday lets. Stamp duty is being raised on second homes, and for holiday lets council tax is being doubled and registration is being introduced. The NHS is a big thing in Cornwall. This Government have created 5 million more appointments, and neighbourhood health is being prioritised. Services are being moved out of urban cities and into rural areas, and community health workers are going door to door. We are fixing our broken sewerage system, and we now have an increased minimum wage. In Cornwall, rural energy infrastructure will be a boon not a bind. The strategy for critical minerals and sustainable mining will fuel our economy and give us energy security, alongside tidal, geothermal and wind energy, which will power and support our rural way of life.