CORNWALL'S ECONOMIC REGENERATION

Early day motion 804, tabled 5 February 2002 by Lord Taylor of Goss Moor (Liberal Democrat). Signed by 7 members.

That this House notes that under Labour, Cornwall's gross domestic product is now only 65 per cent. of the average for the European Union; further notes that this situation is deteriorating over time, having already fallen to just 71 per cent. of the European average under the Conservatives by 1996; believes that European Objective One funding cannot be expected to improve sufficiently Cornwall's circumstances whilst the funding formulae for local government, schools, police and other local services introduced by the Conservatives in the 1980s, and unreformed by Labour, continues to give Cornwall less than the national average and leaves the county falling further behind year by year, with the result that Government taxes now take out of Cornwall ú300 million more than it spends in the county, despite Cornwall's poverty; and calls for the immediate change of the funding formulae to redress these inequalities, give Cornwall a fair deal at last, and to ensure that Cornish incomes and services start to catch up with the rest of the country.

Signatures by party: Liberal Democrat 5, Labour 1, Plaid Cymru 1.