Last week, I had the opportunity to launch construction of the new Arkell’s brewery pub at Tadpole Garden Village. The Strawberry Thief, as it will be known, will be a fantastic additional community asset for Tadpole Garden Village, and will be a great place for families and friends to meet and socialise together. This is a really exciting project and I look forward to seeing how it progresses.
It has been fantastic to see how Tadpole Garden Village has developed over the past few years, and the amazing sense of community it has. For example, the other week I visited the Tadpole Garden Village in Bloom allotments to see the new community greenhouse – another wonderful initiative being run by Tadpole Garden Village residents. Looking to the future, there are plans to install a cricket pitch by the village green – which will actually be overlooked by the new pub.
All eyes are on the UK this week, as we host the summit of G7 nations in Cornwall today, the first G7 summit since 2019.
As readers will be aware, the Group of Seven (G7) consists of seven of the world’s largest economies: the UK, Canada, the US, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. World leaders from these nations, and representatives of the EU, are heading to Cornwall for this year’s summit, with leaders such as President Joe Biden, Chancellor Angela Merkel and others in attendance.
The G7 is an opportunity for world leaders to meet face to face and discuss the major issues of the day. After the summit, the host nation publishes a document called a communique, which outlines the agreements that have been made during the summit.
We will use our G7 Presidency to lead the global fight against Covid-19, and to ensure that the world is better prepared for future health threats - so we are never caught out again. The G7 summit will see a pledge to distribute vaccines to inoculate the world by the end of next year. In fact, the UK has already committed over £500 million to the global COVAX initiative, which has seen the distribution of 1.3 billion doses of coronavirus vaccine to 127 developing countries this year. I am proud that we are one of the largest donors to this initiative.
This year’s focus will, of course, be on the Covid-19 pandemic and pandemic preparedness but will also include other topics, such as trade and climate change (which will also be the focus of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow in November).
Digital taxation will also be a topic for discussion. In fact, ahead of the summit, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has been working closely with our G7 partners and has recently agreed historic global tax reforms. These reforms will help create a fairer tax system which is fit for the digital age and will ensure that large global firms pay their fair share in the countries where they do business. This will help us work towards a global recovery that works for everyone.
I look forward to seeing what agreements are made during our leadership of the G7. As our Prime Minister said recently, this summit is an opportunity to express the values that unite us: openness, freedom, democracy and free trade.
