Perran Moon

Cornwall’s social housing shortage is not only a major contributor to our severe housing crisis, but one of the greatest blockers of economic regeneration. In the Conservative years, the construction of new social housing in Cornwall plummeted—for example, in 2015-16, just six new homes were built for social rent across the entire duchy. Combine that with 14,000 second homes and nearly 24,000 Airbnb listings, which further reduce the overall housing stock, and it comes as no shock that our social housing waiting list stands at a staggering 25,000. That incurs vast costs for emergency and temporary accommodation. The size of that register will only grow in coming years unless urgent action is taken. In the light of our acute housing crisis, I warmly welcome measures in the Bill to protect our existing social housing stock, particularly the right to buy exemptions for new social homes and for those in designated rural areas. However, the scope of the Bill addresses just one element of Cornwall’s housing crisis. I welcomed the former Chancellor’s stamp duty increase for second homes from 3% to 5%, and I also welcomed the confirmation last week by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport that a new registration scheme for short-term lets will be live by March, but we must go further. To that end, I have three quick asks of the Government. First, I urge the Government to review Cornwall council’s £90 million housing revenue account debt associated with the 2012 self-financing settlement. Servicing that inherited debt settlement diverts key resources away from repairs to existing homes and delivering additional affordable housing. Secondly, the Government have already recognised the value of low-cost development finance through 0.1% loans to housing associations. Extending those opportunities to councils would unlock significant additional housing delivery. Thirdly, Cornwall must not be locked out of further powers and funding for social housing simply because we will not be joining a mayoral strategic authority. A strategic place partnership with Homes England would give us not only the framework to deliver social housing for Cornwall, but the funding, which so far has gone only to mayoral strategic authorities. Cornwall cannot build a stronger economy on a foundation of housing insecurity. The only sustainable answer is to increase our stock of genuinely affordable social homes and to do that at scale. To that end, I strongly welcome this Bill.