An argument often put forward by the developers is that Port Penlee will provide much needed housing for Penwith. Our contention is simple: virtually all the housing within Port Penlee would be bought by cash buyers ("emmets") coming from outside the county - 95% of it according to Jim McKenna, Chief Exectutive of Penwith District Council. Much of it would be used for second homes or buy-to-let holiday homes. Much of it would be bought up for investments (such as the ill-fated and contentious SIPPS retirement scheme). The prices of these houses would be well out of reach of our average local first time buyer anyway; they are expected to be in the £350k to £750k price range – quite possibly more.

As part of the deal struck with Penwith District Council, we are told that 25% of the total number of Port Penlee properties would be designated as ‘affordable housing’ – probably about 40 or 50 units and probably little more than shoe boxes. What they don’t say is where these ‘affordable homes’ would be located. It has been stated by both the Council and the developers that they could be located anywhere in Penwith. From that statement, we can be confident that they wouldn't be sited anywhere near the marina complex.

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Quite how ‘affordable’ these homes will be is also another matter. As rented properties, they could, and almost certainly would, be eventually purchased by the occupiers under the 'six-year rule' whereby they would then be permitted to enter the burgening housing market - whereupon their prices would rise putting them permanently out of reach of those who need them most.

Andrew George M.P.
(click image for further info)

"We really do NOT need more high-priced executive housing"

Reprinted from The Western Morning News, 2nd Dec. 2005:

THE £6BN COST OF SECOND HOMES

11:00 - 02 December 2005
Spending on second homes has tripled in just two years - to an astonishing £6 billion, new figures have revealed.

The news came as builders and mortgage lenders warned that the affordable housing crisis in the rural Westcountry is set to worsen. The number of homes for local people has continued to fall as more and more Westcountry properties are bought up as holiday and second homes.

Office for National Statistics figures show that spending on second homes rose to £6 billion last year - up from £2 billion two years previously.

Although the figures include buy-to-let properties and properties bought overseas, they will add to concerns about the impact of second homes on affordability in picturesque parts of the Westcountry. There is also continuing concern about the Government's plans to offer new tax breaks on the purchase of second homes.

In evidence yesterday to a Commons inquiry, both the Council of Mortgage Lenders and the Home Builders Federation criticised the planning regime for preventing the building of new homes for families desperate to get on to the housing ladder.

Their comments sparked a furious debate in the Westcountry last night, with Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George warning that a relaxation of planning laws would merely lead to the construction of more executive homes, which would do nothing to help such families.

Land prices would only fall when it was made clear to landowners and developers that they could not make huge "windfall" profits from commercial developments.

Mr George said: "It is no surprise to hear that builders and lenders want planning rules relaxed, as both groups have done incredibly well out of the housing boom. But the only way to achieve affordable housing is to have increasingly fettered permissions that restrict the opportunities for people to build executive homes.

"Only when it becomes clear that commercial developments will never be permitted will developing for the affordable market start to look more attractive to developers."

The lack of affordable housing is arguably the biggest problem now facing the Westcountry. Almost 42,000 people are on council waiting lists in Devon and Cornwall - a 60 per cent increase on the figure eight years ago.

Further concern emerged yesterday with the publication of figures showing that spending on second homes had trebled in the last two years.

In evidence to MPs the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), whose members account for 98 per cent of mortgage lending, was particularly critical of the so-called "rural exceptions policy" - a central part of the Government's strategy for tackling the housing problem in the countryside.

It allows councils to permit new homes on the edge of villages where they would not normally be allowed. Land prices are lower because commercial development is not an option, and councils can impose conditions on whom the homes are sold or let to.

But the CML said the conditions made the resultant homes so unmarketable that lenders were becoming reluctant to give mortgages on them - effectively pushing them out of the reach of those most in need of them.

But Mr George said it was vital to retain tight restrictions on homes built under the exceptions policy to prevent them being lost to the open market, where they could be snapped up as second homes.

The CML's comments come as a further blow to the Government's strategy. Last year, then Housing Minister Keith Hill said the revised policy would "get affordable homes to the people who need them most".

But figures released by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister suggest the policy is having a modest - and declining - impact. They show that the number of affordable homes "delivered" by the policy in rural areas has fallen from 694 in 2002 to just 262 last year.

Meanwhile the Home Builders Federation, whose members account for 80 per cent of new homes built in England and Wales, told MPs a "rigorous" review of planning laws was needed to release more land for housing.

It said the cost of land as a proportion of new house prices had more than doubled in the last decade, adding: "This reflects the constrained supply of land for housing through the planning system. It is vital that the planning system can ensure sufficient developable land is brought forward to satisfy the requirement for housing."

The federation also said councils should be forced to approve plans even where infrastructure, such as transport and public services, was not in place.

A lack of infrastructure should not be used as a "general excuse for not delivering housing numbers".

Reprinted from Country Life  go to original

Arabella Youens

August 3, 2005

... not just for summer. Arabella Youens visits the soon-to-be revitalised Cornish village

Newlyn has an unusual makeup—a village with two characters that co-exist harmoniously, it is at once the largest fishing port in England and Wales, and the centre of one of the most important artistic schools to have emerged on our shores. Perched on the most westerly English coast, a few miles in from Land's End, the village could have almost become blurred with Penzance, as the latter has sprawled along the coastline, were it not for Newlyn's stubbornly singular identity.

One of the few left of its breed, Newlyn is a proper working port where the air is sour with the tang of tar, fish and diesel. All sorts of fishing vessels can be seen in the bustling harbour. Some are rusty black monsters with buff trawl booms; others are long liners, as well as crabbers and small open boats used for hand-lining for mackerel in Mount's Bay. The scene is not postcard-perfect and that, combined with the industriousness of its people, has meant that visitors to this corner of the land have often overlooked the village.

This might be about to come to an end. At a time when its proud fishing industry is straining under the weight of increased fuel prices and EU bureaucracy, local forum leaders have taken some bold steps to buttress and protect Newlyn's future prosperity. One of these initiatives includes the development of a local quarry into a leisure marina—called Port Penlee—with shops, hotels, restaurants and all the paraphernalia that the yachting community might require. Geographically, Newlyn is perfect as a stop-off point for all sea-going craft, be they yachts or passenger liners, and this scheme might be the key to securing Newlyn a spot on the glamour maps of the lucrative yachting world. This, combined with a redevelopment of the harbour to introduce all the necessary 21st-century equipment and bring it in line with European ports, is seen to be the key to the long term future of the community.

The hope is, of course, that neither of these developments will interfere with the core soul of the village. Because Newlyn appeals to people who are looking for the atmosphere of a living, breathing fishing port, rather than the bejewelled, rarefied Portofino or Côte d'Azur.Artists, for example, came here in droves in the late 19th century to look for real fishermen and fishwives, as much as the Atlantic light, which, on a good day, glows with a peculiar intensity.

'It's very like crystal,' says Fiona Gray, director of Badcocks Art Gallery in Newlyn. 'When the sun sets on the rocks in the evenings, it turns the granite almost pink.'

The Newlyn painters were about as close as Britain came to Impressionism and were responsible for starting a plein-air movement, following the lead from France, where many of them trained. Their simple, large depictions, often of fishermen going about their everyday lives, coupled with their square brush technique, initially ruffled the feathers of the conservative Royal Academy, until Stanhope Forbes's A fish sale on a Cornish Beach attracted all-round praise.

This past has bequeathed Newlyn with more than its fair share of art galleries, and the interaction between artists and fishermen continues to this day. 'Badcocks is sandwiched between two fishermen's pubs on the harbour,' continues Miss Gray. 'In the evenings after we've closed, the gallery window tends to attract groups of amateur art critics and the fishermen have set up their own artists' club.'

Locals are extraordinarily proud of the 'realness' of their village. Whereas nearby Mousehole has a considerably more attractive harbour which draws a great many more visitors, born-and-bred Newlyners feel its tourism-heavy prosperity has forced Mousehole to surrender authenticity for tweeness. And Newlyn is anything but twee. Take the food—gastronomy here means a meal of organic cuisine at the Strand Café or a proper Cornish pasty from Aunty May's Pasty Co. 'The village is very rough and ready,' says Elizabeth Stevenson, director of the town's largest fishing merchants W. S. Stevenson & Son. 'There are no gastropubs, although some of our fish is bought for local restaurants in Penzance and elsewhere.

The fish is auctioned at the market six mornings a week but, however hearty the locals might sound, it is apparently perfectly acceptable to waive the option of rising at dawn to buy the freshest stock—most wait until the shops open on the harbour front.

Once a year, an auction takes place at a more sociable hour during the Fish Festival, which is normally held on the August bank holiday. Attractions at the festival include fishermens' male-voice choirs, local bands, boat trips, cookery displays and the chance to board the trawlers and meet the crews.

Perhaps another reason for Newlyn's energy and character is because it has not made a mark as a second-home market. 'There are people who come and buy holiday homes but nothing like as many as in Mousehole and St Ives, where 80% or 90% of properties sold are holiday properties,' explains Philip Wilkins, a local estate agent. 'Here, the shops are open year-round because it's a proper working port and most of the houses are occupied 365 days of the year. St Ives, in contrast, is dead in the winter.'

With the redevelopment plans of both the new marina at Port Penlee and the harbour at Newlyn, the village will no longer be limited to the trails of culture tourists and property prices are expected to rise as a result. But if all goes as the locals want it, you will still be able to soak up the genuine fishing-village ambience which so inspired Forbes and his cohorts.

Devon and Cornwall are the two most popular counties in England to buy a second home, according to a new report.

Government statistics show that almost 80,000 people have a holiday home in the two South West counties.

More than half a million English families now own a second home, and over half of those use their properties as weekend or holiday homes.

A recent report by a national bank said first-time buyers were being priced out of the market by second-home owners.

The Halifax said house prices had risen more in rural areas than in towns and cities in the past 10 years which made it more difficult to get onto the property ladder.

But the rise in the number of second homes has raised about £8m in extra council tax, some of which will help pay for new affordable housing.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/devon/4127832.stm

Published: 2005/08/06 17:17:30 GMT

Press Release from the CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) 24th November 2005:

HOW TO DEVELOP THE SOUTH WEST WITHOUT WRECKING IT

click here to go to original

'It would be crazy to deliberately accelerate the rate of built development in the South West when it is already the fastest growing of the English regions.'{1}

This is the view of the Campaign to Protect Rural England's{2} South West regional chairman Roger Martin, commenting at the close of the current consultation on the Regional Spatial Strategy{3} — a plan by the Regional Assembly to shape the South West's development for the next 15 years.

Consultation closes on Friday 26 November and CPRE will be making a strongly argued submission.

Mr Martin continued:

'We know from the recent heavy growth in light pollution (17% in 9 years) and loss of tranquillity (20% in 30 years){4} that the countryside environment — the South West's most precious asset — is already being damaged at an alarming rate.'

'Of course some in-migration is bound to continue. But very rapid population growth in the region (currently twice the national average) carries a heavy environmental cost. We should therefore aim to manage change, not fuel growth; concentrate on making good use of and improving the skills of local people; and ensure that change benefits rather than harms local communities and the environment.

'We warmly support well-designed development, in the right place, making the best possible use of precious land, to meet local needs — of young couples starting out, growing families needing more space, and old people needing less — not just crude demand.'

'Good design goes well with higher densities. The average density of new housing development in Cornwall, for instance, at 21 dwellings per hectare in 2002,5 is wastefully low.

'Obviously we recognise that Cornwall's needs are not the same as Plymouth's, or Bristol's; and we don't want to preserve the region, including its villages, in aspic.

'But we also don't want the suburbanisation of our villages and market towns, sprawling across green fields, and roads yet more clogged with ever more commuters, travelling ever further, producing ever more noise and pollution, consuming ever more energy, and water, and producing ever more waste. That is why we support good urban regeneration so strongly.'

Roger Martin concluded:

'We also know that all futures are uncertain, and nothing can go on growing forever; but the draft Strategy's "options" all assume indefinite high growth. We want them tested against slower rates. What would happen, for instance, to the economy, the number of second homes, transport, or food-production with oil at $100 a barrel and rising? We know it will happen one day; we just don't know when. Unlike most economists and politicians, we are not naïve, utopian, "indefinite growth" fantasists!'

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NEW AFFORDABLE HOUSING POLICY FAILS TO DELIVER
Reprinted from the Western Morning News
11:00 - 09 November 2005

A key policy in the Government's efforts to tackle the affordable housing crisis in the countryside is failing to make a significant impact on the problem, according to new figures released by John Prescott.

Last year ministers trumpeted their decision to retain the so-called "rural exceptions policy" in new planning guidance as a significant move in the battle to meet the demand for low cost housing in the countryside.

The then Housing Minister Keith Hill said the policy would "get affordable homes to the people who need them most".

The policy allows councils to give permission for new homes on the edge of villages where they would not normally be allowed. Land prices are lower because commercial development is not an option, and councils are able to impose conditions on who the homes are sold or let to.

But figures released by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister suggest the policy is having a modest - and declining - impact on what is generally seen as the biggest challenge facing rural communities.

The figures show that the number of affordable homes "delivered" by the policy in rural areas has fallen from 694 in 2002 to just 262 last year.

Ministers have urged councils to make more use of the policy. But Lib-Dem MP Andrew George said the Government was still sending "mixed messages" on housing, which encouraged landowners and developers to hang on in the hope of eventually reaping huge rewards from commercial developments, where land can be worth £1 million an acre.

Mr George, MP for St Ives, said: "So long as the Government continues to set unrealistically high targets for unfettered commercial development it is going to be impossible to get the exceptions sites moving at all. The windfall profits when permission for commercial developments is granted are so big that any landowner is going to hold out for the medium term in the hope that they will get it.

"We need to be going in the opposite direction and giving local authorities genuine power so that they can make it clear there will not be commercial development opportunities at any stage. Only then will developing for affordable housing start to look more attractive.

"The Government may want to get more exceptions sites used but they are completely undermining the policy with the other messages they are sending out."

Despite the problems, some Westcountry councils have welcomed the new emphasis on exceptions sites. Marshall Plummer, development control manager for North Cornwall District Council, said exceptions sites were a useful tool in the council's battle to tackle a chronic affordable housing shortage.

Mr Plummer said: "The exceptions policy does bring forward some developments that might not otherwise have happened. Because these are sites that would not normally be approved for housing there is a saving on land value which makes the development more affordable. It is part and parcel of our overall strategy."

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