The roll out of superfast broadband is not enough to support the Cornish economy

Cornwall needs high skilled, high paid jobs and superfast broadband is an excellent way to promote these but many residents and businesses in the Camborne and Redruth constituency are in rural areas and still do not have access to broadband even if they could afford it. Cornwall’s superfast broadband network has been supported by European funding but Cornwall will need to keep improving the infrastructure to maintain that economic benefit. We cannot afford to lose control of this round of European funding to a centralised London-based administration with bland England-wide economic schemes. UK governments have failed Cornwall for decades and have failed to address the massive economic inequalities between the regions and nations of the UK. A Cornish Assembly would build a sustainable economy which enables local firms to flourish and expand, adding value to natural resources within Cornwall, supporting high technology industries and research into new renewable energy production such as underground geothermal resources. Cornwall’s existing skilled engineering and technology firms need to be supported to expand and take on new apprentices. We must also support an economically viable farming sector by tough regulation of the big supermarkets and food cartels which have forced farm prices to uneconomic levels.