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IAN COCKERILL
CORNWALL TOPS ‘GOOD GROWTH INDEX’
STRATEGIC BOARD CHANGES
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.
Mineral exploration company Cornish Lithium has announced a number of changes to its board of directors. Ian Cockerill, a mining industry veteran, has been appointed independent non-executive chairman, while Janet Blas has been named as an independent non-executive director. Additionally, Varshan Gokool, the company’s chief financial officer, has joined the board as an executive director. Following Cockerill’s appointment, former chairman, Derek Linfield, will transition to a non-executive director role and former nonexecutive director, Louise Wrathall, will step down from the board to concentrate on her other business interests. Jeremy Wrathall, CEO and founder of Cornish Lithium, said: “I would like to thank Derek and Louise for their major contributions to the company’s development over the past five years, and look forward to Derek’s continued involvement as a nonexecutive director. “We are also excited to welcome Ian and Janet to Cornish Lithium. I am delighted that the company is able to attract an independent non-executive chairman and independent non-executive director of such calibre and experience.”
4 | BUSINESS CORNWALL
The annual survey from PwC and think tank Demos, ranks regions and cities across England according to a range of ‘good growth’ indicators. These looks beyond just economic performance and focus on what members of the public believe are important in terms of wellbeing. This includes access to jobs, income, health, skills, work-life balance, housing, transport and the environment. The Index says this year there has been a marked shift in public preferences, with greater weight being placed on issues such as work-life balance, income distribution and the environment. It also says the pandemic has exacerbated already deeprooted inequalities in society. Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly rank #1 out of 38 Local Economic Partnership (LEP) areas in England for ‘good growth’. The report singles out Cornwall for “playing to its strengths as a region rich in natural resources”, and points to geothermal energy, technology metals like lithium and planned satellite launches from Newquay as examples of how Cornwall is helping to “power growth nationally”. It says that the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly LEP and Cornwall Council “have made very deliberate decisions around the type of growth they want to pursue”,
GLENN CAPLIN-GREY
CORNWALL
while “maintaining that regions and rural populations can also be engines for growth, not just urban cities”. The LEP continues to invest in a range of new sectors in Cornwall including a lithium extraction plant currently under construction at United Downs, significant investment in Spaceport Cornwall and support for the development of a floating offshore wind industry in the region. But the report also points to the challenges facing a rural economy, saying: “Behind the picturesque postcards and reports of soaring house prices, Cornish communities are grappling with inequalities that strike at the heart of the nation’s levelling up agenda, such as low wages and a housing supply crisis.” Glenn Caplin-Grey, chief executive of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly LEP, welcomed the report, saying: “The Good Growth Index shows how the pandemic has triggered a widespread shift in public priorities and highlights how people want to be more connected to their communities and to live in greener, fairer places. “That’s a great opportunity for Cornwall, but also brings its own pressures. As Government works through the detail of its Levelling Up agenda it needs to recognise the huge potential we have to contribute to national growth while securing a fair economic recovery for one and all.”
