Steve Double, Member of Parliament for St Austell has met with new Housing and Planning Minister, Marcus Jones, to make the case for further action to address the housing crisis in Cornwall. Along with other MPs from Cornwall and Devon the meeting at the Department for Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities earlier this week was called to ensure the new Minister understood the current challenges and listen to the case for reforms to the planning system.
Commenting, Steve said:
“With a new Minister in place I, along with MP colleagues from Cornwall and Devon, wanted to take this opportunity to ensure he was aware of the current housing situation in Cornwall. The Government’s new Planning and Regeneration Bill is currently proceeding through Parliament and provides an opportunity to take steps to ensure more housing is available to local people in the future.”
“The availability and affordability of housing for local people continues to be one of the top issues that is raised with me by residents of St Austell and Newquay. I was keen to feed this back to the new Minister so he understands the particular pressures we face, as well as proposals for what we need to do to improve the situation.”
“Among other things the Government is currently running a consultation on a register for short term holiday accommodation, which will help us understand the scale of this problem and take appropriate steps to alleviate it. This information could then form the basis for further reforms to the planning system such as requiring change of use planning permission to convert to a holiday let.”
“I was pleased the Minister listened to our concerns and look forward to working with him in the future. There are no quick and easy answers for the current housing issues we are facing but we do need to take steps to ensure we are never in this situation again. I will continue to do all I can to work with my Cornish MP colleagues, Cornwall Council and the Government to implement sensible and practical steps to ensure local people can access the housing they need.”