‘Heat map’ shows at a glance the pressures on West housing
THERE can be no more striking an image of second home ownership in the Westcountry than the ‘heat map’ on Page 5 of today’s Western Morning News.
The map has been produced by Cornwall Council and illustrates the proportion of second homes and holiday lets in the various parishes in the county. As the colours darken, so the percentage rises, from the pale spine of the peninsula to pink and red coastal areas and deep maroon around popular holiday hotspots.
The high number of second homes in various towns and villages has always been known, but the map brings things sharply into focus, showing at a glance where the greatest concentrations are to be found.
The areas with the greatest number are the St Minver Lowlands and Highlands, lying as they do close to Polzeath Beach and not far from Padstow and Rock. Padstow and neighbouring St Merryn also rank high on the chart, with St Just near Penzance and Gerrans on the Roseland Peninsula among the other areas where second homes proliferate. In these parishes second homes and holiday lets make up almost, or more than, half the housing stock.
The map was provided as part of a new plan which has been drawn up, setting out how the council wants to tackle the current housing crisis.
Council records show that there are around 13,500 second homes registered on the council tax database and that an additional 12,000 properties are registered as holiday lets, which represents 8% of Cornwall’s total housing stock.
It all adds to the difficulties for those trying to find a place to live. Homes that might have once been available to rent are being used as short stay holiday lets – increasingly so as landlords take advantage of the staycation boom – or have been snapped up by those who have fallen for the county and can afford a second home. Visit a Cornish harbour village in peak season and you are guaranteed to spot holidaymakers walking the shopping streets and stopping to take a peek at properties in the windows of estate agents.
The shift in working practices over the last year as a result of pandemic lockdowns means more are able to work remotely from home and are making life changes, replacing city commutes with country living.
On top of that, house price rises show no signs of slowing – particularly in the South West – putting even the first rung on the property ladder further out of reach for far too many. And house building programmes have a long way to go to catch up with demand. As Jon Lloyd-Owen, Cornwall Council’s service director for housing, says, in the hotspot areas “we see very high house prices and rents which are unaffordable for local people. It is those areas where we are seeing housing markets stressed and acute problems with affordability.”
Everyone will have their own view on the best way to tackle the issue, and how much control Government should exert. Cornwall Council is calling for holiday lets and second homes to require planning permission. Their heat map makes a powerful case when it comes to illustrating the scale of the problem.