Cornwall Council is providing more affordable homes for local people by buying eleven new homes at Wain Homes developments in Liskeard, St Austell and Probus.
The open market homes have been acquired using a combination of a grant from Homes England and council funding and will be let to local families in housing need at an affordable rent.
“Cornwall has a housing crisis “said Olly Monk, Cornwall Council’s portfolio holder for housing and planning. “We know that local people could be waiting for years to find adequate, affordable housing in their local areas.
“Our top priority is to provide homes for local residents and this initiative means we can provide much needed new homes in areas where there is high demand.”
“By buying homes on the open market and then making them available to local people for affordable rent, we can make sure that families can remain in the areas they currently live and work, and where their children go to school”.
All the new build homes - a mix of one, two and three-bedroom properties - are well insulated, helping to keep energy bills down, and will provide families in need with high quality, secure accommodation.
The council is continuing to work with Wain Homes and is due to purchase further homes at the developments in Liskeard and St Austell in the coming weeks. These will also be available for rent to local families.
“Housing that is affordable is an important issue across Cornwall, and Liskeard is no exception” said Cllr Nick Craker, the local member for Liskeard.
“Unfortunately, I am regularly contacted by local residents who have lived in Liskeard all their lives but are either inadequately housed or effectively homeless. It’s great to see the Council being so proactive and working with local communities to address this crisis.
“This is really great news for Liskeard and I will continue to work with the Council and others to ensure that local people in housing need have access to high quality affordable housing and can remain in their local communities”.
Councillor Michael Bunney, the local member for St Mewan and Grampound, which includes the Higher Trewhiddle development near St Austell, said he was contacted every single week by local families who were desperate for somewhere to live.
“I am really pleased that Cornwall Council has purchased some of these houses at Higher Trewhiddle and are making them available for local people at an affordable rent and I would like to see even more of this happening in the future”.
“Many of the people who contact me are in insecure private rented accommodation, temporary accommodation or are worried they are going to be evicted soon and to have three bedroom homes for these families to live in where they can feel secure as a permanent residence is life changing.“
Councillor Karen Glasson, the local member for Probus and St Erme, said
“I have spent many years working in advice and guidance and housing is always a huge issue for people. Since being elected as Cornwall Councillor I have regularly been contacted by residents looking for housing, particularly since the increase in rental costs across Cornwall.
“I am pleased that Cornwall Council has purchased some of the new homes in Probus to rent affordably to local families giving them a secure forever home. There is so much positive work being done by Cornwall Council to provide more affordable homes for local residents and I look forward to seeing more homes being made available."
The acquisition of the homes in Liskeard, Higher Trewhiddle and Probus follows the purchase of 67 new homes at Hay Common in Launceston, 130 homes at the West Carclaze development and 55 homes at Trecerus Farm in Padstow, all of which will be available for either social rent or shared ownership.
Good progress has been made on delivering a new generation of council housing in Cornwall, since we made the decision to start delivering homes directly again in 2018. Over 250 homes for social rent, affordable rent or shared ownership have been delivered and have 250 homes being built for us at the moment.
Tackling current 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
- Build significantly more Council houses for local people to rent or buy
- Buy existing homes to use as social housing
- 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.
“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.” said Olly Monk. “This project is a fantastic example of how we can meet local housing needs in a sustainable way”
“I would like to thank everyone involved that has helped make this project a success including our partners at Wain Homes and the communities in Liskeard, St Austell and Probus that have welcomed our intervention in their local areas.
“We want to deliver many more homes like these and are continuing to work with partners across the housing market to achieve this”.
