I am lucky enough to live in Falmouth. My ex-husband and I got a mortgage on a house here 20 years ago when we had two salaries and had each sold the previous homes we had before we got together. I would never have been able to do so on my own. Now, despite my lack of DIY skills and its rather ramshackle appearance, this house has become a home where my small family has its roots. Our homes are extensions of ourselves. And everyone deserves the chance to turn a house into a home.
What I have come to realise during my time in politics—both on Cornwall Council and now as an MP—is how lucky I am to have somewhere to call home in the first place. So many people don’t have that. There are over 800 households in emergency or temporary accommodation in Cornwall. Conversely, there are people for whom a house, will always be an investment, whether as a pension pot or a business. Where some people see shelter, warmth and stability, others see financial security or profit.
Statistics from the council tax base tell us that there are approximately 13,000 second homes registered in Cornwall. That is nearly 5% of the total housing stock, and nearly five times higher than the average across England. In Cornwall, there has been a ‘First Homes Not Second Homes’ campaign for many years to restore the balance because of this issue.
And it’s not just about providing a roof over people’s heads. The taxpayer has lost about £20 million per year as a result of the loophole allowing second homes to be registered as holiday lets for business rates purposes. As short-term lets often fall under small business rates relief, they will pay neither council tax nor business rates. During Covid, approximately £170 million went to the owners of properties that were registered as businesses in pandemic business grants. Over £100 million of that went out of Cornwall.
This government is already making strides against this. The Renters’ Rights Bill will help ease the short-let scourge. During the second reading of the Bill I said that I could see many benefits for the people in Truro and Falmouth who rely upon the Private Rented Sector (PRS). At the census, 20% of households in Cornwall lived in private rental including almost 30% of households with children under 10. There has been a noticeable uptick in Section 21 evictions in recent years affecting families with young children.
A Section 21 notice, also known as a “no fault” eviction, initiates the end of a short hold tenancy without the landlord having to give a reason to the tenant. Section 21 eviction is traumatic enough. In coastal areas the trauma is exacerbated. Because of our geographical spread, many evicted families are placed in holiday parks, caravan sites, and hotels up to an hour and a half drive from their previous place of residence and with poor rural transport links this can often lead to families completely cut off from their jobs, schools and support networks. All because a landlord wants to cash in. Under the new legislation Section 21 evictions will be abolished.
We know that families are routinely—and suddenly—evicted from their rented homes by a Section 21 to feed the culture of landlords “flipping” to more lucrative short-term holiday lets. The Renters’ Rights Bill will put an end to this and give families the time to seek housing in the same areas, keeping kids in school and maintaining a vital support network.
This Bill is the most significant package of reforms to the PRS in over 40 years and it will deliver on Labour’s manifesto commitment to provide greater security and stability for more than 11 million private renters. Reform of the sector is long overdue and the Labour Government has achieved in four months what the Tories failed to do in four and a half years.
Unfortunately, the law, which should pass before the summer recess, will come too late for many families in Cornwall who have already lost their homes. That was why it was imperative that the Bill be passed, to provide future protection against discrimination for those in receipt of benefits or with children or who have a pet in their home, with the tenant able to challenge unfair decisions.
Cornwall has a history of seeking PRS reform. An inquiry into PRS by Cornwall Council’s economic growth and development overview and scrutiny committee was published in 2020 and recommended a number of measures: to extend licensing powers; data gathering on PRS for landlords and tenants; DBS checks; longer protected terms; and limited annual rent increases. However, in the wake of the covid pandemic and further local government cuts the measures were delayed and when the administration changed to a Conservative one they were too wary about upsetting landlords so none of the recommendations were enacted.
As a result the PRS has been decimated in Cornwall with many landlords selling up or “flipping”, including conversions to holiday homes. Prices have skyrocketed and many local people struggle to find homes. There are around 24,000 holiday let properties in Cornwall, which is up 30% on 2019. Cornwall is also the local authority with the largest supply of short-term lets outside London.
That is why I am so pleased and relieved that this Renters’ Rights Bill has been prioritised by this Government, and it will bring in many measures that were in that original Cornish report. These changes will really support the security of privately renting families in Truro and Falmouth and across Cornwall where we’ve had a sustained housing crisis for years now and buying or even renting a house has become out of reach for most people.
I was also pleased to see that this Government will be investing £39 billion over the next decade in a new Affordable Homes Plan. The biggest cash injection into social and affordable housing in a generation. I am determined that some of this will come to Cornwall so that we can build some of these places like Langarth Garden Village and Pydar in Truro, with infrastructure in place before homes are built, and decent housing that’s affordable for people who work locally. Angela Rayner wants a new generation of council housing to be her legacy, and I want to help that happen in Cornwall so that families have the stability that they crave to be able to get on in life.
Reform of culture, however, is much harder than the reform of law. In Britain, we all know that a man’s home is his castle. We also know that a man can do whatever he so wishes with his castle. The issue is that, as a country, and a county, we have taken that notion to the extreme with places such as St Ives and Port Isaac becoming ghost towns except in summer. We need to be much tougher and we need more protections in place.
In parliament, I’ve suggested a four-step toolkit of measures to the new Housing Minister. Firstly, we could enact the Registration Scheme for first time lets as set out in the Levelling Up Act. I know the Government are working on a database system to do this. We would then know how many there were and where, and could make fire and safety checks mandatory and give local authorities the power to grant or revoke registration and inspect the properties. It would be a similar scheme to the licensing of houses in multiple occupation (HMO), which currently only applies to homes registered for five or more people; it would seem sensible to increase the scope of HMO licensing as well to cover smaller properties.
Secondly, we want the business rates/council tax loophole closed. It should not be possible to pay no council tax or business rates on a property; it is just not fair.
Thirdly, Cornwall and many councils have already voted to double the council tax on empty second homes, and Cornwall has asked the Government if it can triple it. Given that the council was Conservative-run until last month, and that this decision was agreed on a cross-party unanimous basis, it shows how severe the problem has become in Cornwall. If we were to implement that, every time the council tax was doubled it would raise £20 million. However we do know that people are changing their behaviour to avoid this and so that figure is likely to decrease quite steeply on a year on year basis.
Finally, we could potentially create a planning use class for short-term or holiday lets, so that homeowners need to actively apply for permission for the change from “lived in” to “holidayed in”—changing the default that the Conservatives suggested.
These are measures we could see in the toolkit, which could be given to local authorities who could decide how much or little to do, depending on how big or small a problem it was in their area. The toolkit could form part of any devolution package.
Time has shown that the rebalancing of our housing market isn’t something that is going to happen on its own. We need the tools to do it. In only a year Labour have shown that they care about housing and the rental sector in a way that previous governments simply didn’t. We’re only beginning. The fight back to restore balance to second homes and short-term holiday-lets has begun.
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