Western Morning News (Saturday)
Second homes are ‘hollowing out’ villages
THE Bishop of Truro has spoken out on the “devastating” effect second homes are having on communities in Cornwall, which he believes has led to a “serious crisis”.
The Right Reverend Philip Mounstephen told a housing debate at the General Synod that the sale of homes to people living outside the county was “hollowing out town and village centres, pushing local people to the edge of town”. He recognised that second-home owners contribute a lot but stressed that the “unregulated market” was causing serious problems in Cornwall, where he has been Bishop of Truro for almost three years.
There are now around 20,000 second homes in Cornwall, constituting about 15% of all housing stock. “It’s denying homes to local people, massively ramping up prices and producing a crisis in the rental sector,” said Bishop Philip.
He told the national meeting, chaired from Church House, Westminster, that there were 16,000 people looking for council housing in the county, around 3% of the population, but that there were only 43 properties available.
“A housing emergency is very likely to be declared by Cornwall Council,” he added. “As a church we have a voice and we have assets and we need to use both to address this very serious crisis,” he added.
Speaking to the Western Morning News after the meeting, Bishop Philip added: “I’m not an expert in housing policy, but it does seem to me that one of the problems we’ve got is a pretty unregulated market.
“To draw a comparison, if you go the Channel Islands there are two markets – a local market and an open market. Only Channel Islands residents can buy property on the local market. I don’t think you can begin to construct a similar system here but one of the reasons they do that, of course, is that normal people living normal lives, not oligarchs, would not be able to buy property on Jersey or Guernsey without it.
“In our case, there’s no differential, as far as I’m aware, between paying stamp duty on a second home or your own home [and] there’s no opportunity to increase council tax on second homes that I’m aware of.”
He added: “What bothers me in an unregulated market is that you get spiralling house prices, inflation, local people priced out of the market, hollowed out coastal communities – but not just coastal communities – and I think all of that is undermining healthy, balanced, vibrant local communities.”
Bishop Philip said he can see the difference at various locations in Cornwall. He added: “When you go to Devoran, for instance, it remarkably doesn’t seem to have many second homes. You walk around the village and you’re struck by the vibrant community, but go to Fowey or St Ives and a lot of coastal villages and they’re just hollowed out in the middle.
“The holiday homes bother me even more than the second homes – I know there are many second home owners who invest in the communities where they visit, but when you’ve got a string of holiday cottages that are owned by goodness knows who. All you’ve got is people coming in and out – there’s no continuity at all.”