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For Dtc, And Others..st Ives Referendum: Second Homes Proposal Approved By Voters

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mikey4444 | 07:03 Fri 06th May 2016 | News
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-36204795

Historic and brave vote for St Ives.
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About time this was bought under control. Lets hope it spreads.
Need to prevent all second homes in some of these areas, new and existing buildings.
Sounds like an abuse of rights to me. If a building project isn;t approved the authorities can choose not to give permission anyway.

Not that I felt the need to read to the end of the article, but what is stopping the locals buying a home earmarked for a permanent resident and later selling it on as a second home anyway ? Besides there's nothing immoral in having multiple residencies. It's excess control by authorities over folks' lives.

Sort of thing we'd expect in dictatorial eastern European states in the past.
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I understand OG that planning permission will include a moratorium on re-selling at a later date, but I can't be sure. On the Gower near where I live, there are quite a lot of properties that have restrictive covenants attached to them ( I think thats the word ! ) that restrict their sale to anybody other than agricultural workers.

St Ives is a beautiful place and deservedly popular but its nearly all holiday- second homes now, with prices that most locals can't pay. There is also a dearth of places to rent at reasonable prices. And of course, there has been no new Council Housing built for many years.

Its a problem all over Cornwall, but its particularly acute in St Ives. This may not be a complete answer but its a start. Anyway, the Referendum was supported by over 80% of voters, so it would appear to be a very popular move.
Brave - my suspicion is that it could be legally challenged as it's not exactly freedom of trade, is it.

In fact, there are some good practices already in operation. Often planning permission for 'up-market' houses is only given if the developer builds x number of low-cost houses first (my local village has had this done recently and is just building the show-house for the new higher-value estate
My *** though is really that nothing down here is done to encourage housing in the city centres. A walk of Truro centre (or elsewhere) and just look up and one sees how much empty property there is, thousands of square feet that could be flats.

Look at Liverpool and Manchester who have done so much to encourage development within the old parts, new businesses like shops, bars, restaurants coming in - ok it's changing the profile of shopping but that's changing anyway with on-line.

Nothing is done here to encourage new business either - businesses get zapped with enormous rates from day one and no phasing in to encourage development. I would also advocate for rates constructed from say a base fee of 1/3rd of today's level plus a sales tax element.... FYI for two shops now empty, Perkins and A-Reed, the rates were 80k a year - Christ, that's nigh on 3 employees..... Obviously, such radical surgery is not a zero sum game - to pay for this, I would up the rates (with the sales taxes) on out-of-town shopping of which we have plenty... the funds also to be used to encourage shop development in certain areas to give uniqueness to Truro (a brand in effect), say in artisanal shops, Cornwall well known for its jewelery, ceramics, glass, pottery, woollen work and all the rest.....

In short, a major overhaul needed and St Ives could benefit from this, in addition to the 'if you build, you must construct low cost housing' policies.
If there is a shortage of affordable housing then that implies two things to me.

The council have not built enough council homes for those who can not afford local prices to rent.

The lack is probably due to local people happy to sell at a good price to those who want a second home; thus causing problems for fellow locals in the same area. As a group it is self inflicted, due to individuals who are merely getting the price that the market settles on.

IMO barring sales to certain groups is not the way to go.
I can`t see that it will make a huge amount of difference anyway. It`s good that something is being done but in my experience, second home owners don`t want new build properties on estates anyway. They want quaint houses in the middle of the town or village. There is still nothing to stop them snapping them up.
It s a good idea mikey. Parts of N. Wales ie Conwy, Betwys Y Coed, plus vast areas on Mon and on the Llyn Peninsular suffer from the same holiday home syndrome. But we know that the greedy wealthy will find a way to abuse any legislation.
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Togo...we seem to agree again ! That's twice in as many weeks...people will start to talk unless we are very careful !

The best answer to any area of Britain where locals, especially the young, can't afford to buy a home, is to build affordable homes for rent. Rents that are controlled and for homes that can't be sold off in the years to come for a greedy profit.

Council housing in other words, with no right-to-buy.

//Council housing in other words, with no right-to-buy//

Have a walk around most London council estates mikey. You won't find many young locals. You could best describe them as ghettoes!!
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Retro...that may be true but St Ives is in Cornwall and that is the area under discussion. I suspect Togo's examples of parts of North Wales is the same.

Ghettos yes, but for the rich.
We agree on the salient points mikey but not I'm afraid on the details. Affordable housing, yes, but I am certainly no supporter of Councils appropriating land to build their own personal human zoo fiefdoms. What Councils should be doing is forcing the owners of town centre 2 and 3 storey shops, to convert the upper empty and neglected rooms into affordable rental property for the young. Be honest the young prefer to live in the town centres, where transport links are concentrated, and venues to meet and socialise, and job oppurtunities are present without having to travel. There must be a Nationwide programme, encouraged by the Government to build homes specifically for the under 30s to purchase, with special help to accrue the initial capital required to allow such a first time purchase. I despair for our youngsters today, and fear that there will be a price to pay in the coming years for our collective disdain of their plight. Then we could think about housing for immigrants perhaps.
There is not a shortage of homes in the UK. There are too many people. Many of them have little chance of being able to afford to fund their own home - even a so-called "affordable" one. The current level of population growth in the UK cannot be sustained without a serious deleterious effect on the quality of life of those already here. In many countries excessive over-population will make “Climate Change” seem like a vicar’s tea party.

Of course “second homes” do not help. But people – particularly wealthy people who tend to be the buyers of second homes - will find a way to circumvent any rules that are introduced to prevent them pursuing their aims. Quite frankly to sell a property to someone and then dictate to whom they can sell it seems somewhat dictatorial.
Er, don't you keep visiting your holiday home in Cornwall, mikey?
As I was going to St. Ives I met a man with seven homes, Each home had seven sacks, each sack had seven cats, Each cat had seven kits: kits, cats, sacks and homes, How many were going to St. Ives?
Depends if the kits, cats, sacks and rats (or whatever) were going in the same direction as you !!!
Blooming thousands ! All off to get a cheap second home.
Or eighth of course.
It must be another lie.

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