Full News Report

5th October 2024

London told Cornwall cannot build houses quick enough

CORNWALL Council has told the new Labour government that it cannot double housing delivery immediately.

Supply chain issues are cited by the Conservative-controlled county authority as well as skills shortages and a lack of permanent, locally-based builders.

Hayley Jewels, the head of Development Management at the County Council, reveals in the Autumn 2024 Planning Newsletter that for every one house completed in Cornwall there are 1.1 under construction and nine permitted but still unbuilt.

As part of Cornwall’s response to the Government’s revised National Planning Policy Framework, which was published for consultation in July, Hayley Jewels says that, if unamended, the Government’s Standard Housing Methodology principle would become mandatory and would mean Cornwall having to deliver 61 per cent more homes each year – 4,545, up from 2,700 per year.

But those projections forced the Council’s portfolio holder for Planning and Housing, Oliver Monk, who represents Newquay Trenance ward, to write to the Government outlining Cornwall’s response: 

“We still have around 29,000 homes permitted but unbuilt,” said the missive.

“A higher target and an environment of not having an up-to-date local plan is likely to bring forward more pressure for development, but it will not necessarily deliver homes,” MPs were warned.

The response also reiterated that Cornwall was a low-wage economy and needed a range of affordable housing, including “low cost products that offer a staircase for our local population.”

The letter added: “We need an injection of investment from Government to deliver decent homes quicker and help us to get nearer to achieving the likely required delivery rate.”