Andrew George, MP for the West Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Constituency of St. Ives, has called on the Government to give Cornish communities the power to develop their own housing strategies to meet local need.

Speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons today Mr George asked:

“Cornwall has been satisfying the Government’s house building strategy by growing faster than almost anywhere else. In fact more than doubling its housing stock in the last forty years, and yet, the housing problems of local people have become dramatically worse over that time.”

“Rather than grinding on for another twenty years of a failed strategy, which has turned Cornwall into a developer’s paradise building unaffordable housing, cannot the Government give Cornwall the power to concentrate on meeting the now desperate need of local families?”

The Deputy Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon Harriet Harman MP, replied:

“Well, I think we want to make sure that his county of Cornwall does have not only the power, but the resources to make sure that there is more affordable housing for rent and for people to buy.”

“That’s why in the budget this year we announced nationally a further 400 million pounds to provide nine thousand more homes to rent or to buy, and in Building Britain’s Future which we announced last week, we put forward a further one and half billion pounds over the next two years so that we can have 20,000 energy efficient affordable homes for young families, some of which I’m sure will come to Cornwall.”

Commenting after the exchange Mr George said,

“The Deputy Prime Minister’s response was simply a regurgitation of the customary, complacent reply we always get.”

“By the time you dilute the figures for affordable homes across the country, Cornwall usually ends up with tiddly-squat.”

“The Government’s position defies the facts. They seem happy to let Cornwall carry on as a developer’s paradise mostly using our scarce resources to meet the aspirations of the better off rather than the desperate housing need of local families.”

“The Government needs a lesson in the reality of the way the Cornwall housing market works.”

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