Please bear with me during these early months. I’m receiving hundreds of communications each day from multiple sources. But have no office (in London, nor the constituency) nor staff. I must wind-down my day job with care, and I’ve other responsibilities; including as an executor for my mother who died during the election campaign. I’m aware many people who have contacted me have urgent and distressing needs and I will address these as soon as I’m able to. Please accept my apologies for my inevitable failings till matters are sorted.

I had been looking forward to give my second maiden speech to the House of Commons last week. We were debating The King’s Speech – in particular the new government’s proposed planning and housing reforms.

The government’s intention is laudable - to strive to meet desperate unmet housing need, and to provide more secure, better quality and more affordable accommodation. However, I’m not convinced they’re going the right way about it.

During my nine-year “sabbatical” from Westminster it’s been my privilege to work with the remarkable local housing charity, Cornwall Community Land Trust. Learning lessons, which I’m keen to share, before Ministers implement change.

The first is that housebuilding is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Property developers and land-value speculators will be rubbing their hands when the government says it will “take the brakes off” the planning system. It would be better if the government set targets for to “meet housing need”, rather than put high-volume property developers in the driving seat.

Cornwall’s example demonstrates that setting very high housing targets doesn’t work. Cornwall is one of the fastest growing places in the UK – almost trebling our housing stock since 1960. Yet, the housing problems of locals have got worse. The new government should take note. It is not how much you build, but what you build, where you build it, and how you ensure it meets local need, and in perpetuity.

A second point is that government should ensure housing justice. Through closing tax loopholes which favour holiday home property investors to the detriment of locals in need of affordable homes. Over £500-million of taxpayers’ money has been granted to holiday homeowners in Cornwall alone in the last decade; three times the amount invested in first homes for locals.

My second maiden speech was ready. However, Conservative deputy speaker, MP Sir Chris Chope, decided otherwise. He selected nine backbench speakers from his Conservative party and zero Liberal Democrats! There are 121 Conservative MPs - 72 Liberal Democrats. Fair representation would mean a ratio of three Conservatives to every two Liberal Democrats. Not 9:0!

Was it incompetence or just being flagrantly partisan? Either way, I’ve made clear my opinion that he is not fit to hold the authority of such office. He may be retiring imminently, but that’s no excuse not to make an example of him. I’ll let you know how that goes…

Andrew George

Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives