NO PROGRESS ON SECOND HOMES

9.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 1st Aug 2007

Second home ownership still leaves thousands of Cornish houses empty for most of the year, while the number of people waiting for social housing has more than doubled in the last decade, according to research by Cornwall 's Liberal Democrat MPs.

Figures show that over 5% of all homes in Cornwall are registered as second homes, whereas across the South West 2% are, and nationally the proportion is only 1%. In a special Parliamentary debate last year Truro & St Austell MP Matthew Taylor presented Ministers with data demonstrating a 40% rise in second home ownership in Cornwall over just five years. The Cornish MPs' recent research shows that there has been no significant change, with over 13,000 Cornish residences still being used as second homes.

At the same time, the MPs' findings show that the number of households on the waiting list for social housing has exploded, and at more than 18,000 is over double what it was ten years ago.

Commenting, Mr Taylor said:

"It's not just rocketing house prices that are driving local people out of Cornwall, but also the fact that thousands and thousands of homes have been bought up by holiday-makers who may only visit the area a few weeks out of every year. For the rest of the time what would be perfectly good homes for people from Cornwall are left unoccupied, despite many young families having to move elsewhere to find somewhere to live.

"Cornwall's housing crisis is ludicrous - on the one hand there are all these properties sitting empty for months on end, and on the other the of number people in Cornwall on the waiting list for social housing has risen dramatically. The lack of homes for Cornish people is critical, and we need immediate Government action on new planning procedures to give local people a say over the number of second homes here, plus greater funding to build more affordable housing earmarked for local people."

Along with planning procedures to control second home ownership and more affordable housing, Cornwall 's MPs have been calling on Ministers to return powers over strategic house planning - currently held at regional level - to Cornwall .

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for St Austell and Newquay, Stephen Gilbert , added:

"Thanks to the Conservatives' 'Right to buy' scheme much of Cornwall 's housing stock was sold off and never replaced. A decade of Labour neglect has further depleted the supply of homes available for local people. Second home ownership has shot up in the absence of effective controls, and public money simply hasn't been used for the levels of affordable housing that are needed. The situation is now drastic, and the Government must not ignore it anymore. I will continue to campaign for a solution to Cornwall 's housing crisis - like other local people it is one of my top priorities."