Former Tin Mining Communities

HC Deb 28 January 2004 vol 417 cc135-42WH

6 pm

Ms Candy Atherton (Falmouth and Camborne) (Lab)

I am pleased to introduce this debate on the regeneration of former tin mining communities. I chose the title deliberately. There are often debates in the House on the regeneration of coalfields and, even more on specific funding packages for coalfields. In the coming months, we are expecting a report from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Housing, Planning and Local Government Committee on coalfield communities. It was when I and others in Cornwall heard about the investigation that we realised we were lagging behind other former mining areas in the country, the heart of which is the Camborne-PoolRedruth area in my constituency.

By way of a little history, I wish to remind hon. Members that, in its heyday, that area was a powerhouse of the industrial revolution. The steam that drove British economic might was developed by our most famous son, Richard Trevithick. The first gas lamp was lit in Redruth. It is no exaggeration to say that Cornwall was the genesis of the modern industrial age. The technology and brilliance of Cornish engineering were transferred to the coal mines and propelled this country into being the workshop of the world.

At its height, Cornwall boasted 2,000 mines and was a world leader. However, just as Cornwall led the world into the industrial revolution, it became one of the first victims of globalisation. Discoveries of tin and cheaper production costs in Malaysia led to a painful, protracted decline—not the shock closure of the coal mines. As a result, Cornwall was England's poorest county by the time I was elected in 1997. Low wages, low aspirations and high unemployment, much of it long term, were the economic climate. Only one mine remained and it, too, has now closed.

Of course, 1997 was when Cornwall's wider fortunes began to turn. The election of a Labour Government has seen unemployment cut by more than half in my constituency. That is one of the largest falls in the country. It is in low-income areas, such as Cornwall, where the national minimum wage, tax credits and extra support for families have attacked poverty and broken the cycle of economic and human depression. Again, thanks to the Government, Cornwall has received the boon of objective 1 funding and a raft of Government investment, which exceeds the meagre offerings of years gone by.

Now we look to the future with optimism and the belief that we can make Cornwall an economic powerhouse once more, focused on the area that I represent. However, we cannot afford to be satisfied with the work thus far. Cornwall remains a poor county. According to current estimates, if the funding formula remains the same we expect to be eligible for objective 1 funding for a second time. Wages still remain far below the national average.

Like former mining areas elsewhere, we have a large proportion of economically inactive people. Poor health, particularly among older males, reflects our mining tradition. The number of people with limiting long-term illness well exceeds the national average. A cluster of wards in my constituency falls into the 10 per cent. of the most deprived wards in the country. A study in 1998 that estimated gross household incomes showed that mean household incomes in Camborne North and Redruth North wards were the fourth and fifth lowest in the country.

We are, in effect, a post-industrial area that is in need of assistance. We may not have mined coal, but our need is as great as those areas—if not greater still. Unlike other parts of the country, we did not have the infrastructure or capacity in the private sector to step into the breach. We are peripheral, with transport links that are improving, but we cannot change geography. Other local industries, such as agriculture, tourism and fishing, have their own problems. Indeed, a report published last week by Oxfam showed that, on average, Cornish farmers receive £7,500 in European Union subsidies, while more prosperous farmers in other areas can add one, two or even three noughts to that figure.

I believe that our area should receive the same commitment from the Government and their agencies as other former mining communities throughout the United Kingdom. The industrial legacy is the same in my constituency as in other parts of the country affected by coal. The only difference is that we mined tin, not king coal.

Last year the Camborne-Pool-Redruth area became home to one of the Government's 12 new urban regeneration companies. Camborne-Pool-Redruth Regeneration brings together key local agencies and partners to support a focused, integrated regeneration strategy for the area. In real speak, the intention is to turn the area around and create a new future. The partnership brings together local authorities, the south west of England development agency, English Partnerships and the Government office for the south west alongside local business and education leaders.

By setting up CPR Urban Regeneration, the Government have recognised the distinct and urgent needs of this area of Cornwall. I should tell my right hon. Friend the Minister that I served on the shadow board of the company as vice-chair, and I am a current member of the board. We do, however, need some help. Our ability to attract private investment to the area to work with the local partnerships, schools and public agencies will be key.

Our mining heritage is a significant and a limiting factor. Hundreds of miles of mines stretch under land and sea. As someone put it to me recently, there is a perception that the whole area is full of holes. This is not helping us to attract the private sector, because there is concern about the costs hidden beneath the ground. A great deal of land is in need of remediation work, especially near the surface workings and near the oldest and largest shafts. Work has been done, but we have not tackled the problems below the surface.

There is also an associated risk of potential subsidence because of mine workings. A regular and desperate story in our local newspapers and in my surgeries is of householders waking up to discover that their garden has disappeared into a great hole. Recently Cusgarne school, also in my constituency, had to be abandoned for some months after a former mineshaft swallowed up the recreation ground. A significant additional cost for prospective home owners in my constituency is the mine survey, to see what may lurk beneath the surface. The problems underground are a daily and recurring issue. This concern affects businesses as much as householders. For businesses considering relocation to the area, there is a real concern about what lies beneath, and that once we start digging, who knows what we may find?

For that reason, I am keen to explore the drawing up of a comprehensive remediation strategy for the area. By making use of the expertise in the county, such as the Camborne school of mines, and the expertise and experience of others in the country, we could tackle this problem head-on. We know how former coalfields have re-used land, such as in the transformations at Glasshoughton, Grimethorpe and others. Can we not use their expertise and skills alongside the specialist knowledge of our own mineral industries to do something similar in the Camborne-Pool-Redruth area?

English Partnerships has already identified and bought key sites in the area for development on an ad hoc basis. As we know, it is advising the Government on a national brownfield strategy. However, Government policy for contaminated land, as distinct from merely brownfield sites, understandably focuses on the risk to human health and the environment, rather than land for development. I believe we must go further—we need a comprehensive strategy to tackle the problems in the ground, to make use of expertise and experiences elsewhere, to map the problem and to look to fund remedial work.

Tackling the problems in the ground will also tackle the perceptions in the air. We could say to the private sector,"We are a former mining area, we have had contaminated land, it was a problem, but this is what we are doing to tackle it. We have found those holes, we know what is beneath your factory or industrial site. Where there is land that must be treated, we will treat it. Now you can invest with us with confidence." That could be worth its weight in gold, let alone tin and copper. I would ask my right hon. Friend to consider funding an exemplary pilot project to stabilise the land, to be undertaken by the Urban Regeneration Company. In that way we can attract new businesses to the area.

We have had good news of late. CompAir UK, which was formerly the main manufacturing company in Camborne, closed just before Christmas after 200 years in the town. That was sad. However, we are pleased that two new manufacturing businesses—Quaife and OEM Fabrications—have moved on to the CompAir site and are creating new manufacturing jobs, using our skills and becoming part of the area's renaissance. Today we have been successful in securing a call centre for regional trading standards, thanks to the Department of Trade and Industry, which listened to our lobbying. That will bring a further 50-plus jobs to the area. I am delighted to say that instead of going to over-saturated Truro, they will come to the URC area. We are working on that. The day before that there was the announcement that Furniss, a food producer based in the URC area, had brought in the receivers and 150 jobs were under threat. We have a mixture of good news one day, and not such good news on others. There are real issues to tackle.

We hope that the new companies are the first of many to take advantage of the incentives that are available to do business in Cornwall. The Government have cut stamp duty and provided tax relief for companies cleaning up land. If we had the resources to build on those initiatives and deal with the land issue, we could overcome a significant barrier and create an environment that inspires confidence. Then the investment will follow.

There is a similar story with housing. I know that the Minister has looked carefully at the situation in Cornwall. As I have said in person, and in letters, we are lucky that there is land for new housing in the Camborne-Pool-Redruth area. The Minister is well aware of the political interests around affordable housing. Building on post-industrial land is considered less attractive than in other areas. We lack the capacity to create competition among suppliers to attract them to the Camborne-Pool-Redruth area; the profits to be gained from high-value executive homes in more prosperous towns are too great. Even though the developments in popular locations by the coast, or in over-developed Truro and Falmouth, may be controversial, enough of them get through to keep the builders happy. However, that does not solve the area's housing problem or get investment to the industrial heartland of the Camborne- Pool-Redruth area where it is most needed. There is a vicious cycle that we must break.

If we can find the right balance of incentives, we can offer the Government solutions. We do not just have questions—we have answers and solutions to long-standing issues of land, the environment, housing and prosperity in an area with some 50,000 people. There are many differences between west Cornwall and the UK's industrial heartlands, but we face many similar problems. However, there is one big difference: while those areas have benefited for many years from coalfields programmes and coalfield regeneration, our needs have been overlooked.

This Government have done more for Cornwall than any other Government. I say that on the record with every confidence. I hope that by accepting the case for the needs of the former mining community, we can go further still. I urge the Minister to consider making the former tin mining communities of Camborne-Pool-Redruth eligible for the funding and support packages that are provided under the coalfield regeneration schemes. We would not only benefit from the funding streams that are available, but tap into the wealth of experience that has been generated and ally that with local knowledge. Will the Minister fund a comprehensive study into the remediation of former tin mining communities?

It is wrong that Cornwall should fall behind other areas in the country, yet we have evidence that that is so. We shall hear this year about our bid for world heritage status. The engine houses and the industrial legacy are still there because the area was not regenerating. When other parts of the world were knocking down that legacy and rebuilding, our buildings remained on the skyline.

In other parts of the country, the Coal Authority has made great strides in cleaning up discharges from mines. The Camborne school of mines and the Environment Agency have done much in Cornwall, but it is estimated that at least 100 discharges will have to be cleaned up to meet EU water standards by 2015. It sounds a long way away, but the clock is ticking on the clean up of those discharges. We have yet to undertake even the survey to assess the work. I recently met the Minister for the Environment, and he is discussing how to address the problems of water discharges with colleagues at the Department of Trade and Industry.

There is a river in the CPR area of my constituency called the Red river, so-called because of the mine discharges. Surely, like the mines beneath the ground, it could and should be reinstated. Would it not be an obvious first win for everyone as we tackle the tin inheritance?

We are a long way away from the coalfields, but our need is as great and our potential as exciting. Will the Minister fund a comprehensive study into the remediation of the former tin mining communities to ensure that we have learned the lessons from the recent coalfields experience? It is a fair request; we should be treated like other mining communities, and our industrial legacy should be tackled.

6.16 pm

The Minister for Housing and Planning (Keith Hill)

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Ms Atherton) on securing the debate and applaud her assiduousness in bringing the needs of her constituents to the attention of the House.

Falmouth and Camborne may be geographically distant from London, but my hon. Friend ensures that it is never far from Ministers' thoughts. In a previous ministerial capacity I visited her in her constituency and, in my new capacity, I hope to visit again shortly.

I was pleased to hear my hon. Friend welcoming the number of initiatives and the level of funding being introduced to west Cornwall and, in particular, to the former tin mining communities of Camborne, Pool and Redruth. I was delighted to hear the good news about recent investments in the locality.

The south-west is a diverse region. Its high-quality built and natural environments have tempted many to locate there and its economic and employment levels have been high in recent years. However, the long-term decline in traditional industries such as tin mining and fishing, especially when combined with the peripherality and rurality of Cornwall's geography, has created pockets of deprivation. Communities have suffered from limited economic opportunities, low productivity, a low skills base and a lack of affordable housing.

The Government are determined to ensure that these areas are not overlooked, even if they do not conform to the idea of classic inner-city deprivation. The concept of sustainable communities—our drive towards creating places where people can, and want to, live and work— is as relevant to Camborne as it is to Manchester or London.

In order to achieve sustainable communities, certain conditions need to be in place. Communities need economic prosperity where businesses are located and growing in order to provide jobs for the local work force and they need a local work force who have been trained to have the right skills to do the jobs.

In addition, people need to be able to live in homes of a decent standard that they can afford, and they need to live in a pleasant and well-designed built environment that does not encroach on their green spaces. That is especially true in places such as Cornwall where the rural setting is such an important element of its attraction. Other infrastructure such as transport, hospitals and schools must also be in place for such communities to work.

The Government have consistently supported prosperity, growth and regeneration in Cornwall and we have undertaken a wide variety of initiatives, from match funding objective 1 projects through to grants from the neighbourhood renewal fund to help improve housing, raise school standards, reduce crime and improve health in deprived areas. The whole of Cornwall is eligible for regional selective assistance to companies, and it is also a health action zone. There is also an education action zone in the Camborne-Pool-Redruth area.

We all recognise the challenges of achieving economic prosperity against the background of the decline in traditional industry and the peripherality that I have already mentioned. That is why the south west of England development agency has identified Camborne-Pool-Redruth as one of only five priority areas of investment in the south-west. It has already provided about £10 million for projects in the area.

Early successes such as the Tolvaden energy park, which received a Building Research Establishment environmental award in 2002 and was the first development of its kind to receive that sort of recognition, have been followed by other projects such as the Treleigh industrial estate in Redruth. On brownfield land at Falmouth the development agency is helping to develop the Ponsharden—[Interruption.] I shall sit down at this point to be corrected on the pronunciation of these wonderful Cornwall names.

Ms Atherton

The Minister might care to know that they are Treleigh, Ponsharden and Tolvaden.

Keith Hill

I am delighted to be corrected. The Ponsharden site is now under construction and will provide marine-related work space and a park-and-float facility for the town. Of course, the jewel in the crown is the combined universities of Cornwall project, which has seen the investment of nearly £60 million of Government and European Union objective 1 programme funding and is expected to provide a step-change in developing the local economy through teaching and research facilities that link directly with the growth of specific business centres, such as marine and earth sciences, design and media. I am aware that the CUC is already forging ahead because a niece of mine happens to be studying media studies and is living in fabulous Falmouth.

I appreciate the case that my hon. Friend makes about the similarities between the decline of coal mining industries and that of the tin mining industries in west Cornwall. However, the coalfield programme was set up as a result of the coalfield taskforce. Its funding streams were ring-fenced specifically around coalfields, and have already been allocated to a large extent. Nevertheless, there may be lessons learned by the coalfield taskforce that are applicable to communities in Camborne, Pool and Redruth, and we shall endeavour to ensure that those lessons are appropriately disseminated to stakeholders in the former tin mining communities in west Cornwall.

We also need to look at the specific issues that face those communities and not try to import models for regeneration from elsewhere if they are not applicable to the conditions in a specific area. I am aware that my hon. Friend met my hon. Friend the Minister for the Environment recently. He undertook to investigate the implications of her suggestion that the Coal Authority might take on responsibility not only for abandoned coal mines, but for other sorts of abandoned mine. It will be for DEFRA to take that process forward. I would not want to pre-empt or second-guess the results of that investigation. However, I would like to say a little about land contamination later in my speech.

As I have said, a great deal of regeneration activity is taking place in the Camborne, Pool and Redruth area. In order for the changes to be sustainable, they have to be considered strategically alongside economic development and skills and training. Such regeneration also needs to be clear about its connectivity to other areas of economic activity in the region and how the businesses created in Camborne complement rather than compete with others in the south-west.

That is why regional development agencies were created; to be regional drivers of economic development and regeneration and to ensure that the extent and type of economic activity across the region works in balance and in a joined-up way. That approach is already working for Camborne, Pool and Redruth. The development agency, working with together with other key partners such as English Partnerships and local authorities, has been essential to the creation of the urban regeneration company CPR Regeneration and, as my hon. Friend stated, she sits on the board of that important body.

My hon. Friend mentioned the excellent work of that body in driving forward an ambitious £150 million investment programme. Around two thirds of this investment is expected to come from the private sector, with the remainder from the public sector over the next 10 years. It will be one of the largest urban renewal projects in the country, driving the regeneration of up to 150 hectares of land with the aim of creating more than 4,000 jobs and raising wages in the area by 15 per cent.

I take my hon. Friend's point about the nature of land contamination in former tin mining communities but I cannot undertake to fund a pilot project to stabilise land nor to fund a comprehensive study into remediation of former tin mining communities. However, I want to suggest a way forward. My hon. Friend will know that the purpose of an urban regeneration company is to work towards a co-ordinated approach to the problems and opportunities in its target areas. Although its principal focus is to engage the private sector in an agreed physical and economic regeneration strategy, hat strategy must be in the wider context of tackling the problems and identifying the opportunities of an area.

Thus, if the URC board, which consists of the regional development agency, English Partnerships, local authorities and others, considers that the work that my hon. Friend describes is a priority for the physical and economic regeneration of the area, it is open to the board to fund that activity. However, the bodies must be allowed to determine the priorities for themselves. It would not be appropriate for central Government to impose requirements upon them.

My hon. Friend also said that economic growth is likely to put pressure on an already problematic housing situation. The south-west suffers the particular problem of fast-rising house prices combined with low indigenous income. That creates serious problems in terms of affordable housing for key workers and others. There is only limited opportunity to build on brownfield land to control urban sprawl. The south-west also has a high proportion of homeless people, the third highest in England in 2001–02.

Under the sustainable communities plan, we set up regional housing boards to ensure the delivery of our housing policies in the region. The south west regional housing body is developing a regional housing strategy, which has already identified as its priorities the creation of more housing, particularly affordable housing; improvements in private sector housing occupied by vulnerable people; and the delivery of decent homes. I am delighted to report that, at £83 million, the housing settlement announced by the body last autumn in recognition of the south-west's special housing pressures represents a 30 per cent. increase over previous allocations.

I am aware that the URC regards housing for local people as one of the key challenges that it must tackle as part of its overall regeneration of that part of the county. I believe that, by working closely with the local authority, the regional housing body, the RDA, English Partnerships, the Government office, the Housing Corporation and other partners, the URC will be able to play an important role in bringing together the expertise and funding streams that will deliver sustainable housing solutions. I also agree that the role of the private sector is extremely important in securing appropriate levels of affordable housing in new developments.

Although the detail of agreements between planning authorities and developers must remain matters for local negotiation, the Government are anxious that the agreements should deliver as much new affordable housing as possible. That is why we are consulting on changes to planning guidance that propose that local planning authorities set targets for affordable housing and identify sites where it will be expected and in what proportion.

I hope that my hon. Friend will agree with me that this is an exciting time for west Cornwall. There are real opportunities, not merely for handling the impact of decline in traditional industries but for creating an economic renaissance in the area that will result in truly modern, dynamic, sustainable communities.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at twenty-eight minutes past Six o'clock.