As Matthew Taylor he was the Liberal Democrat MP for Truro and St Austell for more than 20 years, succeeding the late David Penhaligon at a by-election in 1987.

He left the House of Commons in 2010.

Now aged 62, Lord Taylor has become rather better known as a property developer.  His lists his ownership of a planning consultantcy among his financial interests.

He chaired the board for the Carclaze “garden village” housing estate – previously known as a “St Austell eco town” before, in 2015/2016, becoming heavily involved in securing planning permission for what was supposed to be a “community farm and village” at Higher Newham, Truro.  The site was sold in 2018 and the huge housing estate is now under construction.

In recent years Lord Taylor has been linked to the botched attempt by Cornwall Council to privatise Newquay Airport and sell it to a property developer.  He continues to advise Sutton Harbour Holdings, as that company tries to build houses on the site of Plymouth Airport.

Lord Taylor has spoken in Parliament only twice this year.  In the past two years, 50% of his 10 contributions have been on housing issues.

The NHS Partnership Trust owns nearly all of Cornwall’s community health facilities.  Cornwall Reports has since 2017 been chronicling various attempts to declare local facilities as “surplus to requirements” so that land and buildings can be sold to developers.

Various Freedom of Information question-and-answers have revealed the long list of assets which have been considered, with one official NHS document even assigning a target cash value to be realised of £11.6 million (in 2019.)

Community hospitals at Launceston, Bude and Newquay have all in recent years felt under threat, closed temporarily due to staffing shortages.

Lord Taylor’s first outing as chair of the Partnership NHS Trust will be in January.  He succeeds Margaret Schwarz, who leaves having served the maximum term for non-executive board members.

Lord Taylor said “As a lifelong Cornish resident and passionate advocate of the National Health Service, I feel privileged to be asked to take on this role.