Dangerous delusions

Too many of these posts hanker after a return to post-WW2 rural life, without tourists and second home owners. This is dangerously delusional. The Council can pander to these populist views or provide realism and help enable a better economic environment.

This pre-lockdown Guardian article https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/04/levelling-up-britain-why-cornwall-needs-more-than-just-tourism

Covers the issues well. If Cornwall wants to diversify away from tourism, that so many posters on here seem to complain about, and it wants to foster a manufacturing base then It needs to improve its connectivity to the rest of the UK by upgrading the A30 to a motorway from Exeter all the way to Penzance and it needs to install a fast intercity rail line alongside it. Massive cost and massive disruption- Will the locals allow that even if the rest of the country subsidises it?

Otherwise it needs to use its fading broadband advantage by studying digital-friendly skill sets in its schools and colleges. Lockdown has shown us just how much can be achieved online/working remotely away from an office. As everywhere, educational attainment is the path to prosperity (though the fact that physical communications with the rest of the U.K. are so poor doesn’t help). Parents need to break the poverty cycle by providing discipline at home and support for teachers in school to get the best out of those in school. If a child is disruptive at school they lower their own attainment and those of their classmates. Poorly educated parents tend to block such school discipline and fail to provide it at home and so the cycle perpetuates. The economically deprived county needs to help itself break the cycle. Tough but possible.

Cornwall needs to foster the greener economy and greener tourism. One small but visible sign that this is not happening are the lack of electric charging points across council CarParks to encourage the use of electric vehicles - less noise, zero tailpipe emissions! I am sure many of the charging networks would love to partner with the council to do this at little or no cost to the council!

Second homes that are rented out provide for greater economic impact than those that are not but those that are not rented out pay council tax subsiding local residents because such second home owners use less local services. When second homes are rented out they bring much greater spending power to the local economy than the average local resident. However, many of these homes are registered as businesses and thus do not pay council tax and business turnover isn’t large enough to pay business rates to offset this. This needs to change. All homes should pay council tax or business rates of a similar level per household.

The council needs to stop giving a platform to the delusional who view outsiders as the problem and use its resources and powers to foster better integration with the national economy and maximising greener tourism making Cornwall a haven for such an industry that is the biggest segment of the local economy.