We have a housing crisis in Cornwall. Far too many hard working local people are priced out of the open market, not through any fault of their own but by house prices that are now 13 times the average annual wage.
The Government has given Cornwall Council the tools it needs to work out how many people need affordable housing in Cornwall, the freedom to decide how many houses should be built to meet that need, and the funding to deliver those new houses.
More information on Cornwall Council’s new freedom to set housing targets for the Duchy can be found here.
More information on the investment by the Coalition Government of funding sufficient to deliver 170,000 new affordable homes across the UK by 2015 can be found here.
My Private Members Bill, ‘Council Housing (Local Financing Pathfinders)’, received cross party support and was subsequently picked up by the Government and brought into law.
Cornwall Housing now owns all its housing meaning rents paid in Cornwall now stay in Cornwall. These reforms have enabled more homes to be built.
I am pressing Cornwall Council to use its new powers and the funding from the Government to agree a realistic number of new affordable houses for the Duchy and to then work with local people on delivering these houses in such a way that also protects our precious natural environment. I am working with Councillors in Truro and Kenwyn to pioneer this approach on the ground.
One area that I am particularly keen for Cornwall Council to explore further is the support now on offer from the Government for the conversion of empty properties into homes.
Ministers are working to prioritise the redevelopment of existing properties, getting more and more empty houses back into use as homes. Similar efforts are being made to convert disused offices and other commercial buildings into residential properties, enabling more and more people to live in town centres, reducing the need for out of town developments. Good progress is being made nationally, over the past two years over 38,000 empty properties have been brought back into use as homes.
