MPs and Councils will work with officials to step-up affordable housing delivery, following a meeting with Housing Minister today 

Attached a photo taken at the meeting: L-R Ben Maguire, Noah Law, Andrew George, Matthew Pennycook, Anna Gelderd, Phil Mason (Cornwall Council), Nicola Stinson (Council of the Isles of Scilly). Not in the picture are Jayne Kirkham MP and Perran Moon MP, both of whom were on House of Commons business, but who contributed to the MPs representations to the Minister. 

Cornish MPs and officers of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Councils will work closely with government officials to establish a programme for the delivery of much-needed affordable homes before the end of the present parliament. That was the outcome from a meeting held this morning with Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook MP, in the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government. 

The meeting was secured earlier this year when Andrew George MP challenged the Prime Minister to put right a system his government inherited from the Conservatives. Mr George explained how distorted the system had become, pointing out that “over £500 million of taxpayers’ money has been handed to holiday-home owners in Cornwall in the last decade, while the housing crisis for local families has reached its worst state in living memory.” 

The meeting took place on the morning new regulations came into force which permits Councils on Scilly and Cornwall to levy double council tax on second homes. However, the meeting agreed that this and other measures are not sufficient to address housing inequalities. 

MPs are calling for further planning powers to limit the rise in second and holiday home ownership, to close tax loopholes which allow holiday lets to avoid paying council tax or business rates at all, and to roll out a holiday let registration scheme, using Cornwall and Scilly as a pilot scheme. 

MPs will follow up this meeting by working with officials to scope how new systems will operate. 

MPs and Council officials offered to work with Mr Pennycook’s officials to increase delivery of the thousands of shovel-ready homes with planning permission, and to up the rate of affordable homes delivery. Last week’s government announcement of an additional £2bn investment in the sector will assist. But many projects need additional support to stimulate delivery. MPs and Councils now seek to build a programme of home delivery with the Government’s primary social and affordable homes delivery agency, Homes England. 

MPs invited the Minister to visit Cornwall and Scilly later this year and to review progress before the end of the calendar year. 

Andrew George who called for and arranged the meeting, said, “We are all pushing in the same direction. Cornwall and Scilly are in the middle of the worst housing crisis in living memory. The need to address housing and investment injustices inherited from the previous government is urgent. That’s why I was encouraged the Minister agreed to work with us to ensure that Cornwall and Scilly can control second and holiday homes and to make sure they pay a fair contribution to the public purse, and so we have the funds to deliver an accelerated programme of social rent and affordable homes for locals. 

“Today (1st April), the government finally implemented the policy of doubling council tax on second homes. Though this has been a hard-won policy change that I’ve campaigned on for years, our delegation is keen to deliver the homes desperately needed. This isn’t the politics of envy. It’s simply the politics of social justice. 

“Turning around this crisis is a mammoth task, but it’s vitally important we do all we can to help the tens of thousands of local families whose lives are blighted by the serious unfairness of the system.”