Housing and earnings – Charlotte’s candidate column (week 4)

For people in Cornwall, the gap between local earnings and house prices is one of the biggest in the UK.

Cornwall Council has an important role to play here.

Most people buy their home and Labour supports that. We helped people keep their homes during the recession. We will keep mortgage rates low. First time buyers pay no stamp duty on properties below £250,000.

House prices make owning your home a dream that is beyond the reach of too many young families on local wages. That is why Labour is investing in more shared equity homes which people part-buy and part-rent.

We are reforming housing finance so that Cornwall Council can build more social homes to rent; I am glad the Council decided to build new council homes.

Too often, Cornwall Council defeats itself, and local people pay the price. As Cornwall’s fourth largest landowner, they could make more land available for new homes. Instead the Council marketed the former Richard Lander school for retail development, and dropped the draft local plan requirement that fifty per cent of new housing must be affordable.

The solution is also to make Cornwall’s economy more sustainable, with local jobs paying UK average wages.

A shorter version of this article appeared in the Falmouth Packet.