A partnership between Cornwall Council and respected regional developer Poltair Homes, will see a new housing scheme in Padstow provide 55 affordable homes for households with a local connection.
The scheme at Trecerus Farm in Padstow will deliver mainly two, three and four-bedroom bungalows and houses, plus 4 one-bedroom flats, with the first 21 homes due to be handed over this summer.
Cornwall Council is using funding from its Housing Revenue Account ‘council housing’ programme, to deliver all 55 homes as affordable housing. Twenty four bungalows and houses, together with the four flats will be for social rent, and 27 family-sized houses will be for shared ownership. Shared ownership enables eligible buyers (normally first-time buyers) to purchase a home with a small mortgage, and rental top-up.
Olly Monk, Cornwall Council cabinet member for housing and planning said:
“There is a clear need for affordable housing in Padstow. By partnering with Poltair to provide all these homes we are ensuring that they are available to local people who need them.
“Providing shared ownership homes means we are also helping people to take a first step on the housing ladder, in an area where house prices are very high.
“Our top priority is to provide homes for local residents and this development has enabled us to work with a great developer to provide 55 much needed new homes in an area where there is high demand.”
All the homes will be energy efficient with each provided with a low carbon air source heat pump and the electrical infrastructure to allow occupants to install their own electric car charging points in the future.
Local Cornwall councillor Stephen Rushworth is looking forward to seeing the first local residents moving into their new homes. He said:
“I am delighted to see the scheme progressing so well.
“There is a real shortage of affordable housing in Padstow, with many young people unable to find somewhere to live and growing families struggling to remain in the town. This scheme is in a good, sustainable location, people can walk to the local school and to the shops. It is so important that we’re providing homes like this for our community.”
Ron Ley MBE FRICS chief executive of Poltair Homes, said:
“We, as Poltair have been delivering new homes at Trecerus Farm since 2010. This is an important new neighbourhood extension to Padstow, which we envisaged would become integrated into the community. Good design has been important to us, but a key part of our vision has been to help local people live in the town.
“Once the current 55 homes are handed over to Cornwall Council, we will have been responsible for creating 139 affordable homes at Trecerus Farm. We are proud of the contribution we are making to the town and grateful for the collaborative support from the Town Council.”
Trecerus Farm is one of a number of strategic housing acquisitions made by the Council following the lifting of HRA (Housing Revenue Account) borrowing restrictions by the Government.
Sam Irving, head of housing delivery and regeneration at Cornwall Council said:
“We’ve made good progress on delivering a new generation of council housing in Cornwall, since we made the decision to start delivering homes directly again.
“We’ve already delivered over 250 homes for social rent, affordable rent or shared ownership and have 250 homes being built for us at the moment.
“We’ve also secured planning consent for a total of 135 homes across a number of sites and are working to identify contractors that can build these out for us in the coming months. Looking forward, we’ve identified a medium-term pipeline of nearly 700 further homes and are working hard to secure the remaining homes we need to deliver the full programme of 1,700 by March 2028.”
Following its first large acquisition of 67 homes for social rent or shared ownership at Hay Common in Launceston, the Council has gone on to secure similar success here at Trecerus Farm, and at the West Carclaze Garden Village near St Austell where it has bought 130 homes for social or affordable rent, or shared ownership.
Tackling housing pressures is a top priority for the Council.
As well as delivering schemes such as this, the authority is also working hard to:
- Provide modular homes to provide temporary and emergency accommodation so local people can be housed without worrying about being asked to leave at a moment’s notice. The first SoloHaus micro homes scheme was completed on Council-owned land at Old County Hall in Truro at the end of last year. Further sites are being provided in Pool, Penryn, Newquay and Penzance. The next stage will also include developing family-sized modular homes, with work already under way to secure suppliers.
- The Council also worked with Harbour Housing and the owners of the former Escape surf lodge in Newquay to secure all year-round use of the building for the next two years to provide accommodation for local people who would otherwise be homeless or sleeping on the streets
- Build significantly more Council houses for local people to rent or buy. In 2021 the Council completed its first “own build” housing scheme in a generation with 16 new homes provided in Veryan. All the homes have been provided for social rent to people with a local connection to the area. Work is now taking place to deliver further “own build” schemes, including at St Agnes, where 11 new social rented bungalows for older people are being built in the grounds of an existing sheltered housing scheme at White’s Close in the village; and in Callington where 15 new affordable homes for local people are being built at Urban Terrace.
- Refurbish redundant Cornwall Council owned properties to provide homes for local people in urgent housing need –work on converting a Council owned house in Trevose Avenue in Newquay to provide five new self-contained flats for people who had been homeless or living in temporary or emergency accommodation was completed last year. Tenants are now living in the properties. A further project to transform a former office building in Chough House in Truro into a purpose designed ‘Somewhere Safe to Stay Hub’ for 9 people is also underway, with an exciting and ambitious project to refurbish and convert the interior of the historic Loggans Mill building in Hayle to provide sixteen affordable rented homes for local people given the go ahead by the west planning committee earlier this year. This groundbreaking scheme will provide eight one bedroom and eight two-bedroom flats to meet local affordable housing need
- Buy existing homes to use as social housing – the Council has bought over 20 one-bedroom properties on the open market which are being refurbished to provide high quality 'move on' accommodation for single people from Cornwall who are currently in temporary or emergency accommodation and who would otherwise be homeless
- Support the provision of affordable homes by housing associations for local people to rent or buy
- Ensure sites deliver affordable housing through the planning process
- Unlock the potential for town centres to be regenerated to provide more housing
- Support community-led organisations that want to deliver their own homes
- Offer loans to bring empty homes back into use
- Enable communities to stop new builds being snapped up by would be second homeowners.
Olly Monk said:
"Cornwall needs more homes – both to rent and to buy – and we want to provide a range of homes to improve choice for local residents and to meet their housing needs.
“This project is a fantastic example of how we can meet local housing needs in a sustainable way and in partnership with the private sector and I would like to thank everyone involved at the Council and Poltair that has helped make this project a success.
“We want to deliver many more homes like these and are continuing to work with partners across the housing market to achieve this.”
