Affordable homes to be built on council land

A new scheme to help alleviate the housing crisis by delivering thousands of affordable and market rented homes on council land has been announced.

Cornwall Council said the Homes Cornwall project would use local construction companies to build 4,000 new homes on 400 acres of council-owned land.

The properties will only be available for people living in Cornwall, and the council plans to ensure they cannot be sold as second homes or holiday lets.

Councillor Peter La Broy, the Independent cabinet member for housing, said the project was about solving the real problem of under-supply of housing in Cornwall and aimed to deliver housing for local people.

The scheme is being supported by the government's Homes England housing, land and regeneration agency and in addition to the already-announced and approved Langarth Garden Village near Truro, amounts to almost 8,000 homes on 800 acres.

Councillor Tim Dwelly, who helped initiate the project with La Broy, said: "What we've decided to do with this council is use our land, put it on the table and try to provide not only affordable social housing, which really matters, but also market rented housing that's secure for local people."

La Broy said they had "tried to find innovative ways of moving forward to try to solve the housing problem that we've got".

Cornwall Council has already earmarked 63 potential urban extensions or infill site options, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"When people say 'oh, concreting over Cornwall', that really isn't the case," Dwelly said.

"This programme is 0.001% of land in Cornwall which will be used to provide almost 8,000 homes.

"It's only just under 4% of the land that the council itself owns, so from a scale point of view, it's not concreting over Cornwall, it's trying to find homes for people with kids who really need to be able to go to school locally."

Social landlords, including housing associations, will also be involved in the Homes Cornwall scheme.

There are currently 25,000 households or individuals on the HomeChoice register waiting for a home, while 850 households are at risk of homelessness and are supported in temporary accommodation, which costs the council £12m per year.

Under the Labour Government's planning framework, Cornwall's new housing target is 4,400 homes per year, a 68% increase on its previous target.

The council has historically delivered 2,600 to 2,700 homes per year, with 2,232 homes in 2024-25.

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