"No more second homes until every Cornish person has a first one" - CORNWALL HOUSING CRISIS ACTION NOW - DEMO IN TRURO Saturday 21 August – Truro, Lemon Quay, 12pm

"No more second homes until every Cornish person has a first one"

There are now discussions regarding plans to blockade Cornwall Council in Truro and indeed, routes into Cornwall if this problem is not addressed. It is within our power to do these things and there is little to stop us. We just cannot stand by and watch the Cornish people erased from history and excluded from their homeland to be housed in blue huts and on reservations. Out of control tourism has not been the goose which lays the golden egg. It is one of the root causes on this crisis and the promises made about it since the 1960s have utterly failed Cornwall and made the situation worse economically and environmentally. In Brittany, our Celtic brothers and sister are attacking the premises used by estate agents. We want to stay peaceful.

And so on behalf of Cornwall's increasing number of principled housing campaigners, we are pleased to bring you this announcement on behalf of the organiser who may be contacted via the Facebook page at the base of this communication......

CORNWALL HOUSING CRISIS ACTION NOW - DEMO IN TRURO

Saturday 21 August – Truro, Lemon Quay, 12pm

Cornwall’s housing crisis has reached a tipping point.

In 2020, the median annual salary in Cornwall was £27,223, whilst the median house price was £236,000 – meaning people need more than 9 times their salary in order to purchase a home.

And even then, this median includes Cornwall’s top earners – most of us do not even make the median salary, many are in precarious employment of around £18k-20k, making the goal of being able to rent or buy a home near impossible.

Cornwall has replaced London as the number one place people are looking up on Rightmove – and approximately a fifth of new residents in Cornwall originate from London, massively driving up rental and mortgage prices even further. 44% of house buyers in Cornwall in 2021 came from outside of Cornwall.

In June 2021, Cornwall had more than 10,290 active AirBnB listings across the county, whilst there were only 69 rental properties available on Rightmove. As of 31 July 2021, that number has dropped to 41.

For example, in Newquay as of 31st July 2021, there are 4 properties available to rent on Rightmove. The lowest costing one of these is £925pcm, and the highest £1,200pcm.

There are over 16,000 people looking for council housing in Cornwall, and the average wait time to find a home is 9 months.

This comes after it had already been revealed dozens upon dozens of former council homes are being illegally let as student accommodation and AirBnBs for the sake of profit, keeping these properties extremely high in rent and inaccessible to the people who need them.

£133 million of Cornwall’s Covid-Aid was given out to second home/holiday let owners since the first lockdown, and around half of the people who received this money are registered at addresses outside of Cornwall.

We cannot live like this any longer, and we won’t accept growing mass homelessness of people in Cornwall and ever-expanding house prices becoming an accepted part of life. We demand action, we demand change, we demand dignity.

We are not just bartenders, ice-cream servers, and lifeguards, we are people who deserve to be able to rent and buy where we live.

This is a protest to demand immediate, emergency action from our MPs and Westminster to tackle this crisis.

We deserve affordable housing and rental properties. Cornwall is not a playground, it is not just a tourist-hot-spot and nice place to live by the beach if you have the cash for it – it’s our home, it’s our culture, our family, friends, livelihoods – and we can’t even afford to live here.

No more second homes. No more exorbitant rents. No more holiday lets over council homes. Enough is enough.

Cornwall Council building cabins is not enough, and does absolutely nothing to address the roots and growing catastrophe of this crisis.

Come to the protest, show your support, and you can share your story or someone else’s in living through and experiencing this housing crisis.

This protest demands:

- That George Eustice, Scott Mann, Sheryll Murray, Steve Double, Derek Thomas and Cherilyn Mackrory, commit to sending a public joint letter to Parliament, demanding immediate and material action to end the housing crisis.

- That all six of Cornwall’s MPs commit to participating in a community-led Housing Crisis Action Plan Group.

- That Linda Taylor and the newly formed Conservative Cornwall Council agree to the demands of this petition, signed by 44,581 people as of 31st July 2021, to:

- Levy a higher, more stringent tax on second homes which recognises the threat they pose to local communities.

- Close the loophole which allows them to be classed as 'businesses' allowing them to tap into locally allocated funds and in some cases avoid paying council tax altogether.

- Work quickly towards outlining firm strategies to cap local rents in keeping with local incomes so that local families are not left homeless.

- Use the funds accrued from taxing second homes properly into building FIRST and ONLY affordable homes for local families.

Petiton link: https://www.change.org/p/cornwall-is-facing-a-homelessness-crisis-help-us-to-put-pressure-on-linda-taylor-and-the-new-cornwall-council-to-cap-local-rents-raise-tax-on-second-homes-save-cornwall-s-precious-coastal-communities?fbclid=IwAR1NSijkBorGJ1OdV0B4pvcBf7HftNYxnjHTbRJEYePBm98DtMRYxPwv0XU

Things must change.

Join us on 21st August in Lemon Quay to demand substantive, material action to be taken to end the housing crisis. Share your story. Stand together.

**covid restrictions have been fully lifted, but PPE/masks/hand sanitizer is still encouraged and please respect the choice of others if they continue to social distance/wear PPE etc.**

Link to Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1940891866062597/?ref=newsfeed