Extreme Climate and Weather Events: National Resilience

Perran Moon Excerpts

Tuesday 10th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Jayne Kirkham]

I understand the hon. Member’s point, and I know that his constituency was the worst affected, with people losing their water as well as their power. I agree that we must learn the lessons from Goretti.

Utility teams worked around the clock with local authorities, engineers and emergency responders to restore essential services. National Grid brought in 1,350 staff from all across the country, and tree surgeons were deployed, but we saw failures in the systems designed to keep people safe. The storm was a wake-up call. It exposed vulnerabilities in our infrastructure and emergency planning that could affect anywhere in the UK as extreme weather becomes more frequent.

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend talks about this affecting anywhere in the UK. Does she agree that it is simply unacceptable that all six Cornish constituencies appear at the bottom of the rankings in terms of mobile connectivity, and that any plan to improve our resilience has to include a focus on telecommunications and our ability to get messages into our villages, some of which were completely cut off not just physically but in terms of communication as a result of Storm Goretti?

[Jayne Kirkham]

As my hon. Friend’s constituency is next to mine, he will know that we have exactly the same problems in Truro and Falmouth, and I will move on to that next.

I have had wash-up meetings across my constituency since the storm, and we have been talking to Ministers. I welcome the suggestion that Cornwall could serve as a pilot area for emergency storm resilience measures, some of which I will talk about now.