FIRST HOMES NOT SECOND HOMES - South East Cornwall Labour Party

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KATE EWERT, Labour Councillor for the Rame Peninsula & St Germans division says,

We all know there is a massive problem with getting housing that people can afford on local wages in Cornwall. It was reported at one stage last year that there were 69 properties to let compared with 10,000 AirBnbs in Cornwall. It’s been caused by a perfect storm of second home ownership; people relocating to Cornwall now they can work from home; and Airbnb/holiday or student letting being more lucrative for landlords than renting to local people. That has meant people selling up at vastly inflated prices and housing becoming even more unaffordable.

Shockingly, £170 million of taxpayer funded Covid business grants went to second home/holiday let owners in Cornwall and £100 million of that left Cornwall altogether! People who register their second homes as a business if they are available to holiday let for a minimum period slip through a loophole where they pay no council tax or business rates.

We also suffer from a huge deficit in emergency housing. When people become

homeless because they’re evicted from their private rented accommodation so the owner can Airbnb it, or sell it at the top of the market, where do they go? Before the summer many were housed in hotels at great expense. The new Conservative Council, in desperation, are buying holiday parks and putting mobile units in council carparks.

So, we all know there’s a problem. We see it around us. Nurses and teachers get jobs in Cornwall but have to turn them down as they can’t afford anywhere to live. Hospitality and care workers can’t afford to live within commuting distance of where they work.

Although the problem has been particularly severe in Cornwall, other places are struggling too. That’s why South East Cornwall Labour Party have been working with Plymouth’s Labour MP, Luke Pollard, Jayne Kirkham, Leader of the Labour Group on Cornwall Counciland Leader of the Labour Group on Plymouth City Council, Tudor Evans, to build a campaign around this issue and get the debate heard in the House of Commons. Luke launched our ‘First Homes Not Second Homes’ manifesto at a housing debate in Westminster Hall.

The manifesto has five clear, simple asks:

• new powers from government for councils to progressively raise taxes on holiday lets and unused second homes, up to a quadrupling of council tax where homes are left empty for much of the year;

• a licensing regime for second homes, Airbnbs and holiday lets. Local Councils should have the powers to set this level to reflect local circumstances;

• a ‘Last Shop in the Village Fund’ – powers for local councils to introduce a Community Infrastructure Levy on holiday lets and Airbnbs, administered by local authorities, to support local shops, pharmacies, post offices, and pubs;

• commitment to build affordable homes and social housing across the south-west, with a priority for local people; and

• lock in the discount of new homes for future renters and buyers, to ensure affordable homes are not lost after the first family moves on.

We need solutions quickly in Cornwall in all areas of housing provision and we need the devolved powers to make change as they have already in Scotland and Wales. Emergency housing, social housing, our broken private rented sector and the hugely inflated cost of buying a house. It truly has become an emergency.

You can watch Luke Pollard’s speech launching the manifesto in Westminster here –