Mixed tenure properties will only be available to people living in Cornwall
Cornwall Council has announced plans to build 4,000 new homes on around 400 acres of council-owned land.
The Homes Cornwall initiative will partner with local developers, including the local authority’s own development company, Treveth, to accelerate the delivery of affordable housing, including for social rent, alongside market sale and market rental properties.
Still in its early stages, the project aims to address the region’s housing emergency. Tim Dwelly, the council’s portfolio holder for economic regeneration, said this has been exacerbated by a period of private sector “collapse” when renters were “being forced to leave their homes”, which were then turned into holiday lets, second homes and Airbnbs around five years ago.
The new housing will only be available for people living in Cornwall, with the council citing its £12m rough annual spend on temporary accommodation and the 25,000 households on its housing register.
The Homes England-backed scheme will build on the approved 4,000-home Langarth Garden Village near Truro being delivered by Treveth over 20-25 years.
In response to anticipated criticism that the council is “concreting over Cornwall”, Dwelly said the schemes will use 0.001% of land in the region to provide up to 8,000 homes.
He said: “It’s only just under 4% of the land that the council itself owns, so from a scale point of view, it’s not concreting over Cornwall, it’s trying to find homes for people with kids who really need to be able to go to school locally and not be shipped off because they’re living in temporary accommodation.”
The council will begin looking for private sector development partners soon, with the potential to also partner with social landlords.
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