I am increasingly frustrated with the planning process in Cornwall because of top-down diktats from central government.
The housing target for Cornwall was 2,625 new residential units per annum as set out in the Local Plan but, at the end of 2024, the UK Government imposed a new annual target of 4,421. This means that the unitary authority is unable to “demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing sites” against the new requirement and it has been deemed, by those in authority, that certain local housing policies should no longer carry weight. Housing may therefore be allowed in certain locations that, 12 months ago, would have been protected from development except in exceptional circumstances.
The changes also undermine Neighbourhood Development Plans (NDPs) produced by local parishes. Instructions from Westminster make it clear that weight may still be given to NDP housing policies if the Plan is (i) less than five years old and (ii) contains policies and allocations to meet identified housing requirements. Council officers have decided that the housing policies in most NDPs are therefore out-of-date. I am presently in discussion with the policy team about the NDP for my home parish of St Enoder.
I chaired the working group which produced this NDP, which went through referendum in July 2021. Some 200 housing units had been built between 2010 and 2018, while the Plan had a “target” for a further 150 housing units for the period 2018-2030. By April 2025, 134 housing units had been completed – 90% of the old target – and there are also extant consents for 329 more housing units.
Given all this, it will be a democratic outrage if the Plan is considered worthless in terms of housing policy – making local planning even more of a free-for-all!
Ministers in the Government also keep making statements about delivering more affordable housing but the implications of their higher housing target undermines this. In rural areas, a large number of “affordable housing led” schemes have been consented over the years. Often on the edges of villages, they were only allowed as a majority of the homes would be for local-needs. The present situation now means that such sites may be used for open-market properties, with fewer or no affordable homes at all.
This is all such a nonsense and I hope that Cornwall’s Labour MPs will be able to persuade their leaders to reverse their top-down policies which are not good for Cornwall.
Article published in the Cornish Guardian (23rd July 2025) and the West Briton (24th July 2025).