THE government’s Budget this week was sadly a missed opportunity for North Cornwall.

Andy Burnham and his Chancellor, John Healey, failed to deliver several key areas of support that’d I have been campaigning for, including help for our local businesses, fuel duty relief for rural areas like ours, and extended funding for the Kernow Industrial Growth Fund.

Heating oil and LPG customers have also been left out in the cold yet again. This year prices have doubled, even tripled in some cases, and with almost 27,000 households off the mains gas grid here in North Cornwall, my constituents need urgent support as the cold sets in. I’ve raised this directly with the Prime Minister, and I’m calling for three months of VAT-free heating oil and a price cap, just like electricity.

There was some very good news for Cornwall, though. The government has finally confirmed our ‘Cornwall-only footprint’ devolution deal, meaning we will become a new strategic authority and keep decision-making right here in the Duchy, rather than being forced into a merger with Devon.

This was a very hard-fought campaign, and I’m proud all six of Cornwall’s MPs and Lib Dem Council Leader Leigh Frost came together across party lines to make it happen. The Chancellor also announced the bank surcharge will rise from 3% to 6%.

Last weekend I was out on the doorsteps in Bodmin, Camelford, Launceston and Tintagel, hearing residents’ priorities and views on the Budget. Heating oil came up time and time again. In Camelford, people raised congestion and speeding - and Cllr Mark Burnett will soon hold a town hall meeting on traffic calming options.

In Bodmin, lots of residents were pleased about our win against the housing developer Wainhomes (who tried to back out of £350k of community infrastructure funding), and I updated people on the stalled GP surgery, which I recently secured the Health Minister’s backing on.

In Tintagel, alongside Cllr David Garrigan, I heard concerns about flooding around The Butts, and at the community foodbank people told me how poor mobile signal, no regular winter buses and insecure seasonal work can all lead to loneliness. I’ll be following these up in Parliament soon.

I also asked the Transport Secretary a simple question this week: along with a number of other vital improvements, when will Cornwall’s trains get decent Wi-Fi? I called for £12 million from the government’s national Wi-Fi pot to put satellite and 5G on all of GWR’s Intercity Express trains, which would transform journeys across the South West. My ‘Kernow Connect’ proposals are a longer-term plan, which is why we need to upgrade the trains we have now, including electrifying the line.

I spoke up again for ‘Ryan’s Law’ in a debate in Parliament this week, on behalf of the Saltern family in Delabole. Mark, Helen and Leanne Saltern have campaigned tirelessly for several years for much-needed change in the justice system, after Ryan was hit and killed by a drunk driver. I am proud to support their campaign at any chance I get.

Lastly, thank you to everyone who came along to my recent ‘Brew with Ben’ event in St Columb Town Hall. We covered so many topics, including mental health support, dentistry, banking hubs, empty shops and sewage dumping, and these conversations always feed straight into my work both here and in Westminster.

As always, if you have any casework, questions or queries, please do drop me an email at [email protected].