When people take on a social tenancy, many are handed an empty box and must find the money for carpets, furniture and essential appliances such as a cooker and fridge. These are necessities, but the cost of providing them can be overwhelming for those with very little. This month I hosted a Housing Summit in Truro with social housing providers from across Cornwall, advice services, charities and campaign groups to discuss how to tackle furniture poverty and reduce the costs people face when starting a new social tenancy. There are charities in Cornwall, such as Hidden Help and Acts 435, that help people experiencing furniture poverty, but this is not enough to fill the gaps. The Government has allocated £8.25 million to Cornwall Council through the Crisis and Resilience Fund in 2026–27 to support households facing financial hardship. I have written to Cornwall Council asking it to review the criteria for payments from this fund to ensure it covers people experiencing dire furniture poverty at the start of a tenancy. I will also keep pressing this issue in Parliament, including making the case for floor coverings to be recognised within the Decent Homes Standard.

From January, this Government will cap single bus fares at £2, making it more affordable to travel across Cornwall. I know there is more to do - particularly on transport for people at college and in training - but this cap will help and is a good first step. On 23 July, I held a Bus Summit in Falmouth for those whose apprenticeship, work experience, training or studies have been disrupted by a lack of transport. The system across the country in rural areas to travel to compulsory 16-19 education is expensive and difficult. It’s something colleges, local and national government need to work to fix. I will continue to do that and raise it at a national level.

Despite attracting millions of visitors with its beautiful beaches, restaurants, gardens and unique culture, Cornwall remains a place where many local people struggle with unaffordable housing, insecure and seasonal employment, limited access to healthcare, and expensive or unreliable transport. In a Westminster Hall debate on Coastal Communities: Isolation and Hidden Deprivation, I, alongside Cornwall’s other Labour MPs, argued that Cornwall’s beauty can often hide the hardship local families face. If we are serious about opportunity for all, and I know this Labour Government is, we need to address rural deprivation and see rural and coastal places for what they are, with their specific advantages and challenges. The Cornish MPs have worked hard with this Labour government to address Cornwall’s challenges and harness future opportunities. I welcome all the progress we’ve made so far through policies such as the £30 million Kernow Industrial Growth Fund to support key sectors, the bus franchising pilot to address rurality in the delivery of bus services, the uplift in SEND funding and local government funding for adult social care based on sparsity and rurality and other initiatives. But we each remain committed to calling for further support to accurately reflect what Cornwall needs to achieve its potential.

Great news: Falmouth Ambulance Station is set to save £70,000 in energy costs thanks to the state’s energy company GB Energy paying for solar panels for the roof of their station. GB Energy are also funding solar panels on Falmouth Hospital. This is a great way to save the NHS and schools money as well as to help the climate.

Earlier this year, a court ruling put at risk the hourly payments that help cover the costs volunteers incur when they drop everything to rescue people in trouble at sea. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency had planned to remove those payments from September. But after intervention by the Coastguard volunteers, who have been brilliant, MPs for coastal areas including myself, the Maritime Minister, Keir Mather, has stepped in and paused the change. Volunteers will continue to receive these payments beyond September, and the Minister is now working to find a long-term solution.

Those that know me will be aware of the campaigning that I have been doing on the possible link between military helicopters (particularly the Sea King) and rare cancers like multiple myeloma. I have been struggling for two years as an MP to get information from the MOD about how many serving personnel and veterans have contracted these cancers, and it has been challenging. Hence, I am pleased that this study has, finally, been set up. It will look in totality at how many people in the military have been impacted by cancer, in what particular groups and occupations, and investigate the links. We can finally work with those who may be impacted and are at higher risk. Credit to those in the MOD, the previous 2 Veterans Ministers Al Carns and Louise Sandher-Jones and current Minister Calvin Bailey for all their support in getting to this point. I want to hear from anyone who wants to get involved. Read more here: Study into long-term health of Armed Forces Community launched - GOV.UK

This month I held an online workshop with constituents navigating the personal independence payments system (PIP) to feed into the Timms Review. The experiences people shared made it clear that the system is not working. I’m very grateful to everyone who attended, and for the courage and articulacy they showed in recounting very difficult experiences. What they told me completely backs up the initial interim review findings that the process is fundamentally flawed and dehumanising, degrading and stressful. Feeding in these experiences will hopefully mean others in the future don’t have to go through the same thing. PIP is supposed to help people with the extra costs of living with a disability, from adaptive equipment to travel expenses, and to help them live independently and enable them to work. It is not meant to be their core income, but for many that is what it has become. Where people want to work and can do so, they should be supported into employment rather than facing unnecessary barriers. Alongside this review, the Pathways to Work Innovation Fund will develop new ways of helping disabled people move closer to, and into, work. This forms part of a wider £3.5 billion package of employment support. When both the Milburn Review into youth unemployment and Timms Review are complete, we will have a much clearer picture of the reforms needed.

In Parliament, I hosted a drop-in event for Citizens UK on this Government’s new Named Community Sponsorship programme. Brilliant volunteer organisations such as Falmouth and Penryn Welcome Refugees are already doing great work and have shown how this model can work nationally. It reflects the best of the Great British spirit, with communities coming together to welcome refugees and help them build their future. When people arrive through schemes such as these, they are supported by local communities rather than relying on asylum accommodation. Their accommodation isn’t state funded, but is private. This creates a controlled pathway for those genuinely in need, helps reduce the incentive for dangerous journeys organised by people-smuggling gangs and makes clear that there is a distinction between those who come through legal routes and those who enter the country illegally.

I recently attended Cornwall Council meeting to receive the Dowr Glan petition and talk about water regulation, ownership and South West Water. Thames Water has been teetering on the brink of special administrative receivership and being taken under government control for months now. As part of the membership of the Environment Food & Rural Affairs Committee, we interviewed them twice. Andy Burnham has talked about public control of water companies. Thames would be a great test case for that.

The Government has taken British Steel into public ownership to protect the future of steel production in the UK. The Bill to do this came into force on 16 July. Steel plays a really important role in the UK economy; it is used in critical infrastructure and national security. Including marine and renewables, which are so important for us in Cornwall. The steel industry supports around 33,000 jobs in the UK. This follows wider support for the UK steel sector, such as the UK Steel Strategy, published in March and backed by up to £2.5 billion of investment, as well as limiting tariff-free steel imports into the UK.

My priority is to make sure the people of Truro & Falmouth and the rest of Cornwall feel the benefit of this Labour government no matter who is leading it. Since 20 July, Andy Burnham has been our Prime Minister. He is the first Prime Minister to belong to the Labour and Co-operative Party and it’s good to see more Co-operative representation at the top. I have already started to work with Andy Burnham regarding Cornwall - what we need for our economy, our young people, our NHS, our transport links and much more besides. I have already met him 5 times and I will keep advocating for Truro & Falmouth constituency and push for what people here need for as long as I am in the position to do so. He understands the importance of pushing power and money out from Westminster to the regions and has shown that he is less concerned about the practical effects of this than the structures of those regional bodies. I think that bodes well.

I am concerned that Cornwall Council has turned nighttime street lighting off in some parts of Falmouth. The town has a busy nighttime economy, and I want everyone to feel safe getting home after midnight. I have asked Cornwall Council to reconsider their decision to turn off the lights unless the Town Council pays – because lighting provided by the local authority should fit the area. I have launched an online petition asking Cornwall Council to reconsider its decision to turn off or restrict residential route streetlighting at midnight.