Steve Gilbert MP

MP Stephen Gilbert has welcomed government funding which will give Cornwall Council over £5million pounds over the next two years from the New Homes Bonus, a multi-billion pound programme which rewards communities for accepting more house building in their areas. It includes an extra reward for building new, affordable homes and for getting long-term empty homes back into use.

Stephen Gilbert, the Member of Parliament for St Austell & Newquay, went back to school this week to visit pupils from his former secondary school, Fowey Community College, to answer their questions after a recent visit to Westminster.

Stephen Gilbert, who was a pupil at Fowey from 1988 to 1993, met with the schools "Amber Club" to discuss what they had thought about a recent trip to London to visit the Houses of Parliament.

St Austell & Newquay MP Stephen Gilbert has called for more action to help homeless people in Cornwall today when closing the "Friends of St Austell Homeless" conference at St Augustine's Church in St Austell.

The local MP, who is also Chair of Parliament's All Party Housing Group, said:

"The test of a decent society is how it treats the most vulnerable people within it. Homelessness can and does affect people from all walks of life and we are all just a few steps away from finding ourselves with no option but sleeping on the street through no fault of our own. The loss of a job, the end of a relationship and domestic violence are all key causes of homelessness and rough sleeping."

St Austell & Newquay MP, Steve Gilbert, is taking part in the second annual Parliamentary live music competition, Rock the House, and invites under-18s, solo artists, bands and live music venues in the St Austell & Newquay constituency to write and nominate themselves.

The competition was founded in support of the UK live music sector to raise the profile of intellectual property rights issues and counts rock legends Alice Cooper and Deep Purple's Ian Gillan as Patrons.

Stephen Gilbert MP has backed an application to build a skate park in the village of St Dennis.

Commenting, Stephen said:

"When I met a bunch of young people on my travelling surgery in 2009, before being an MP, they said that one of the things they would like to see in St Dennis was a skate-park and now, three years on, there's a design, the funding in place, and an application that's been submitted to Cornwall Council. Many people, led by the Parish Council and Groundworks, have worked together on this project.

First and second year A-level politics students from Cornwall College's St Austell campus quizzed the local MP, Stephen Gilbert, on a wide range of local, national and international issues when he visited them on Friday.

The MP, who had himself studied A-Level politics at St Austell College in the early 1990s, was questioned on topics that ranged from the Government's plans to cut the deficit to the potential for conflict with Iran over that countries nuclear program. He attended the college after being invited by the students themselves who wanted to hear a first-hand account of life inside Westminster.

The Cornwall "Young Onset Parkinson's Group" have started a new initiative aimed at increasing the public awareness and to raise funds for those suffering with Parkinson's disease. The latest initiative is a quiz about famous people who have lived with the illness. It is being sold for just £1 and the winner will receive a £25 Argos voucher.

Cornwall's Liberal Democrat MPs have called on the Government to act quickly to ensure local water customers receive the much needed help with their water bills as soon as possible.

The Water Bills Relief Fund, worth £35million annually, was announced by the Coalition Government in November and will provide a yearly rebate of £50 for all households in the South West Water area. Primary legislation will have to be passed by Parliament before bills can be cut in 2013.

Stephen Gilbert, MP for St Austell & Newquay, has welcomed today's news that EDF gas prices are to fall by 5% from 7th February.

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Energy has called for the remaining five large energy suppliers to follow suit and give consumers some respite this winter.

Stephen Gilbert, the Liberal Democrat MP for mid-Cornwall, today introduced a Parliamentary '10 Minute Rule Bill' which would introduce a 'fit and proper person' test for the owners of Park Home sites.

Park Homes are bungalow style properties often housing elderly or retired residents on sites of up to several hundred similar properties. There are over 700 park homes in Stephen's St Austell & Newquay Constituency and an estimated 250,000 people live in the homes nationwide.