NEW year, the same three constituency pledges, and now two new national policy pushes to get our small towns and rural communities thriving.

My work on jobs continues with the Clay Country Roadshow to introduce the Kernow Industrial Growth Fund. I’ll also be rolling up my sleeves to deliver real, local, community-led social housing projects. More on this will come in the weeks ahead.

But, of course, my work to help revitalise St Austell town centre must now become the central focus. Whilst there are many local dimensions to this, high streets across the country are suffering. And whilst the Budget did well to shape a more progressive system overall — shifting the burden from the smallest businesses onto warehouse-style outlets and capping potential rises due to the tapering off of pandemic era relief and depressed valuations — I know that the hospitality sector has been left wanting more as it faces the risk of rising costs being baked in for years ahead. As I’ve said time and time again: we must recognise our high streets as public goods necessary for thriving communities, and recognise the fundamental role hospitality plays in this.

That’s why I’ll be working closely this year with MPs whose communities need their cafés, pubs, and restaurants thriving to give a boost to their towns.

After all, we’ve seen what can be achieved when backbenchers band together.

For British farming, I’m immensely relieved that the pleas of MPs from the Labour Rural Research Group were heard over Christmas, with changes to the inheritance tax regime. But this is just the beginning, as there is much to be getting on with to ensure we support Cornish farmers. It’s one thing to have the biggest ever farming budget on paper; it’s quite another to administer it well, in a way that works for farmers and the environment, and gives longer term visibility for business planning, rather than the short-term windows we’ve seen previously.

So, I’m looking forward to making sure Cornish farmers’ voices are heard on the future of Sustainable Farming Initiatives ahead of their refresh later this spring. Beyond this, the recent Batters Review highlighted the immense challenges to profitability in the sector, which is why I’ll be mounting my own campaigns to push for its recommendations to be taken seriously and to help ensure our high welfare British farmers are playing on an even field and being rewarded for quality produce.

There are many barriers in the way, and my constituents know this — as some of the most common campaign emails I receive are around food labelling and animal welfare. But transparency is key, as is a truly level playing field against our increasingly imported food. Procurement standards are a great start — and our Labour Government is committed to ensuring 50 per cent British produce in the public sector. Changing our food culture is quite another thing, but key to unlocking that is giving consumers the power they need to make the right choice.