January 16, 2023 | press
The ambitions for the Great South West, the new economic powerhouse promoting the Cornwall, Isles of Scilly, Devon, Somerset and Dorset region, have been announced at a Parliamentary Reception at the House of Lords.
January 3, 2023 | blog news
The devolution deal just signed between Cornwall Council and the Government has fired the starting gun on Cornwall having a directly elected mayor by 2024.
January 3, 2023 | press news
A Cornish company pioneering the capture, storage and use of methane gas sourced from farm slurry has seen its groundbreaking technology incorporated into the world’s first liquid methane-powered tractor.
September 30, 2022 | blog
By the time you read this it may already be out of date. There’s such a surfeit of news it’s difficult to keep up, but I’ll try my best. So where are we as I write? High inflation, falling demand, energy crisis, higher borrowing costs, rollercoaster markets, plunging pound, bond buy-backs, a rebuke from the IMF, mortgage products pulled, Covid loans falling due. It’s difficult not to be gloomy.
September 30, 2022 | blog
There was good news for farmers over the summer with an announcement from Defra that is it making £2.6m available in the region to help them adapt to changes in the agricultural landscape due to Brexit, climate change and changing land use needs.
September 30, 2022 | news
Hall for Cornwall is celebrating the official opening of new spaces in its transformed building. The ‘Ope’ connects two popular Truro shopping streets via a walkway to the rear of the Cornwall Playhouse giving visitors a rare behind-the-scenes look at a working theatre. And elsewhere within Truro’s creative hub, new workspaces have been unveiled to support emerging artists and the creative industries through Hall for Cornwall’s Husa brand.
June 28, 2022 | blog
The Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) is a cornerstone of the Government’s ‘Levelling-Up’ agenda. The idea of levelling up is that people in all parts of the UK should have the same opportunities, regardless of where they live. The SPF is designed to replace EU funding that we could have expected to receive had we not Brexited in 2020. Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly have been allocated £132m over three years. This is the highest allocation outside of Greater London and reflects the needs of our economy.
August 1, 2022 | press news
Cornwall’s vital role in supplying minerals like lithium and tin to the UK’s economy has been highlighted in the Government’s first ever Critical Minerals Strategy. Published by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, it sets out how critical minerals will become increasingly important to bolstering energy security and UK industry.
June 9, 2022 | blog
Last week Vancouver-based Cornish Metals released its quarterly trading update confirming it had raised £40.5m towards reopening South Crofty tin mine and completed more than 10,000 metres of test drilling at United Downs. A day later Cornish Lithium announced its institutional shareholder TechMet was investing a further £9m (on top of £9m already invested) following the results of a hard rock study at Trelavour near St Dennis.
June 28, 2022 | press news
A £2m investment from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is paving the way for the first satellite launch from UK soil later this year. The LEP is supporting the construction of new facilities at Spaceport Cornwall at Newquay, where five satellite payloads are already confirmed for commercial launch with Virgin Orbit this September.
June 28, 2022 | blog
A few weeks ago saw the publication of a hard-hitting report, part-funded by the LEP, about the potential loss to the South West rural economy of £883m by 2027 due to changes in farm policy. The move away from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been driven by Brexit, resulting in the biggest shake-up in farm subsidies for over 50 years.
May 9, 2022 | news
New research published today (9th May) identifies £883 million is predicted to be lost from the rural economy up to 2027 across Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, Devon, Dorset and Somerset.
April 7, 2022 | blog
I believe the voice of business is vital to any devolution agenda, and it’s something that the Government has recognised. It has outlined how it wants to embed a strong, independent and diverse local business voice into local democratic institutions, says LEP Chair, Mark Duddridge.
April 7, 2022 | press
A multi-million pound dairy development project in North Cornwall is on course to be completed following a £3.17m investment from the LEP. The LEP’s grant from the Government’s Getting Building Fund is supporting the multi- million pound development of the world-class Saputo Dairy UK creamery in Davidstow.
April 7, 2022 | news
The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership is backing plans for Cornwall to achieve the most ambitious County Deal possible in negotiations with Government. Cornwall is among a first wave of areas that have been invited to bid for County Deal status and the LEP has endorsed Cornwall Council’s plan to bid for a ‘Tier 3’ deal
March 25, 2022 | news
Cornwall’s green growth agenda and commitment to a low carbon economy have helped push it to the top of this year’s ‘Good Growth Index’ of English regions.
March 19, 2022 | press news
Cornwall’s cultural ambitions remain undimmed despite today’s [19th March] announcement that it has not made the final round of the City of Culture 2025 competition. The Government has confirmed that Cornwall is not among the final four regions going forward to bid for the title, having made it onto a longlist of eight areas from an original list of 20 last year.
March 11, 2022 | news
The public sector can strengthen local supply chains and help local producers access them by being set targets and annually reporting where food, served in staff canteens for example, comes from. This would strengthen local supply chains and help local producers to access them.
February 22, 2022 | press news
Cornwall’s emerging technology metals industry is gearing up to provide critical supplies of lithium to a planned battery gigafactory in Somerset, in a move that would put the South West of England at the forefront of sustainable battery production in the UK.
February 22, 2022 | press news
Cornwall has submitted its ambitious bid to become the first rural area to win UK City of Culture 2025, saying it would be a huge boost for a region that urgently needs investment to close the gap with the rest of the UK.
February 22, 2022 | blog
City of Culture status would be an affirmation of everything that makes Cornwall special – and a vital part of levelling up our economy, says Mark Duddridge.
December 16, 2021 | press
Cornish tech company Headforwards has been named as the first business sponsor of Cornwall’s bid to become City of Culture 2025. The fast-growing software company, which has recently moved to its new FibreHub offices in Pool and employs 100 staff, will support a planned event in Westminster in January aimed at highlighting Cornwall’s bid to Government, officials and the creative sector.
December 8, 2021 | blog
So it’s official – we’re going to have to wait a little longer to find out how the Government intends to tackle regional inequalities across the UK. It was confirmed this week that the Levelling Up White Paper, which had been anticipated before the end of the year, will now be published in 2022.
December 3, 2021 | press news
A £6.3m STEM and Health Skills Centre in Bodmin that aims to transform the teaching of industry-relevant skills in Cornwall is on course to open in spring next year. The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and Health Skills Centre for North and East Cornwall is being built by Truro and Penwith College with support from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), which is meeting £3.78m of the costs through the Government’s Getting Building Fund (GBF).
November 30, 2021 | press news
The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has appointed four new directors to bring specialist knowledge to its Board.The new directors are being co-opted for a fixed-term of one year and have expertise in research and innovation, project development and funding, the visitor economy and sustainability, and small business.
November 29, 2021 | press news
A cross-party group of South West MPs is backing Cornwall’s bid to be City of Culture 2025, and are writing to Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries to record their support. The Great South West All Party Parliamentary Group, which is jointly chaired by South West Devon MP Sir Gary Streeter and Exeter Labour MP and former Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw, endorsed the bid at their November meeting.
November 12, 2021 | news
Ambitions to create thousands of green energy jobs in Cornwall and the South West by developing a floating wind industry have taken a huge step forward with confirmation from The Crown Estate that it is looking to unlock 4GW of energy from the Celtic Sea by 2035. That would be enough electricity for four million homes, making a major contribution to the UK’s net zero target.
November 8, 2021 | news
As talks continue at the COP26 Climate Change Conference, the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has set out how Cornwall can support national and global ambitions in the transition to a low carbon economy. A new prospectus and summary film, ‘How Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly is leading the green industrial revolution’, sets out how decarbonising the economy is both an environmental imperative and huge opportunity for the region.
November 8, 2021 | blog
Decarbonising our economy is both an environmental imperative and a huge opportunity for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. The move away from fossil fuels requires massive investment in new global industries, from floating offshore wind to electric vehicles and battery storage. Investment will lead to the creation of hundreds of thousands of skilled, well-paid jobs in the UK, benefitting the economy.
October 8, 2021 | press news
Cornwall’s bid to be the UK’s City of Culture 2025 has moved a step closer after being longlisted with seven other parts of the UK for the prestigious title.