To ask whether anyone has relocated to Cornwall?

[Picklesandpies]

Posting here for traffic. We have just returned from another lovely week on the South coast of Cornwall. I have been going once or twice a year for my whole life (now 32 and taking our children too) and every time I've been in the last few years I've felt more and more that it's somewhere I'd like to live someday. We relocated to Hampshire about three years ago and, whilst I'm not dreadfully unhappy, I just feel there is more to life than where we are now. Dh commutes two hours every day into London, quite a bit of travel etc and the lifestyle here isn't very fulfilling. We love walking, beaches and generally being outdoors with beautiful scenery. Cornwall obviously offers this in spades.

My question is - we live in a £500K+ house where we are now but obviously this is only possible with London salary - but I'm wondering what people do for a living in Cornwall who have biggish houses and a more salubrious lifestyle? Are they all retired? Is it inherited money? Second homes?

We really would look at moving down and don't mind taking a step back on property ladder in order to improve our lifestyle but the jobs that pay a decent (but obviously not London level!) salary just don't seem to be about down there. I'm just confused as to how people can afford the big houses you see.

Have been on Rightmove on the way home and even looking at a much cheaper house, I can't see how we could do it!

I think St Ives recently banned 2nd home owners or non-locals from being able to buy up houses on some new developments...

Yes there is a discount if it's totally empty.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/06/st-ives-cornwall-backs-residents-only-home-ownership-plan-referendum

Loveka There is an exemption for a short while whilst the house is empty, (a month in Cornwall I think), then it is full CTax (have been paying for a year), then, if the house is still empty after two years, the CTax doubles.

Lots of people (not all) used to get out of it by saying it was a 'holiday let' though. I don't know if that's still possible or if the L.A. have got better at policing it.

I've lived in Cornwall since I was 13. DPs relocated here from Hants in search of the good life in the mid-80s after DF was made redundant. They struggled, both from a financial and a social point of view. When we moved here, people kept themselves to themselves, socialising revolved around the local WI or church, neither of which we my DPs cup of tea. I think we'd been here around 5 years before they had a dinner party! It just wasn't the kind of thing the locals in our small village did.

Fast forward to my adult life, and it's still been hard. Jobs are low-paid unless you are in a profession or have worked your way up in the local authority. DH and I have never been able to afford to buy our own home and although our little patch of the county is lovely , it is ridiculously expensive. I've only managed to increase my earning potential by going back to Uni in my 30s and getting a degree. Even then, my full time job doesn't get me £20k.

My own DC will move away. DD is in the south east at Uni and I doubt very much that she will return here to work once she graduates. There are grad jobs, but they are few and far between, and again pay is pretty poor. DS will be off next year and again, expects to work in another part of the country.

Yes, Cornwall is beautiful, but do think long and hard before making the leap OP. If you can come here with no mortgage, or only a small one at least, then even on Cornwall's lowish incomes you should be OK. Factor in possibly having to have two cars, unless you relocate to a town. Public transport is not great, particularly in rural areas. Good luck of you decide to take the plunge.

The book people are really good.

They have the complete set of beatrix potter for £29.99 plus 15% off sale at the moment.

Hope this helps :)

oops cross post

No, you don't get out of council tax if it's a holiday let. I have just paid 6 months council tax on a property that was being refurbished. It is a holiday let.

I'm just trying to clarify that it isn't the case that 2nd home owners don't pay council tax. They do!

Our holiday let is our job though. Or will be when we move!

Another thing, though it might be thinking too far ahead - the future is so uncertain!

But my parents live in SW Cornwall and only 1 of their 6 children lives there. And he's only there because of a health issue and when he has recovered intends to move. All 6 moved for economic reasons. The closest is a 6 hour drive away.

They rarely see their grandchildren because of these distances. It's also priorities - the one who sees them most isn't the closest physically, but the closest emotionally. Frankly they could live on my street and I'd not go round! But as they've got older and long car journeys are harder, and the grandchildren have got older so weekends are full of dance and football practice and parties, the visits even from the children that like them have tailed off.

I know my child could move to another continent. But... it's a consideration for me, deliberately choosing a location that could isolate me.

Yes, the loss of EU funding could really change things in Cornwall within the next 5-10 years or so.

I agree that Fowey is nice, although touristy and it's commutable to Plymouth. The secondary school is apparently quite nice too. I agree I would avoid Bodmin and I'd avoid living in village where my child might go to Liskeard School. If you're in SE Cornwall, the Plymouth grammar schools can be an option too, although they might have their own issues.

Wadebridge is nice, but I'm not so sure about jobs in the area, and traffic can be a nightmare at certain times of year.

I'm sure it's all changed Loveka. It's almost 20 years since I lived there!

Ellisandra - that's a really good point you made about potentially ending up hundreds of miles away from family. My dc have a really close bond with my parents so I'd be really sad to not have that with my future gc if I'm lucky enough to have some.

I live on the north coast in a village of around 600 people. It has so much going on in terms of social events - it seems people make their own entertainment if they are some distance from a town. We have been welcomed with open arms - I get the feeling that the Cornish accept and appreciate that without incomers who want to integrate, their villages would die out. I've lived all over England and Wales and can genuinely say this is the friendliest place I've settled, with the possible exception of Yorkshire - I'd put them on a par.

Shortly after we moved here my DH was diagnosed with cancer and he is receiving treatment in Plymouth (a little over an hour away). If we'd still been in the south east, he would have had to go to London for the specialist treatment - more than 2 hours away. Sometimes things work out for the best! And oh, is this a MUCH better place to be for the soul food needed for recovery.

Also the traffic...what traffic? Even in the summer it is probably about half of what we experienced all year in rural Kent.

I've found this thread very helpful.

We're planning to semi-retire to Cornwall in the next year or two. We will use the money from the sale of our house to buy a place with an annexe or outbuilding for holiday letting, that will give us a bit of an income on top of my (very small) occupational pension and, hopefully, do a bit of work on top of that, until I get my state pension in 4 years time.

I feel a bit guilty about the ethics of this, as I live in a Sussex town where local young people have been priced out of the housing market by DFL's (down from London's) who commute back up every day. I'm all too aware of the problems caused by people relocating from more affluent areas. I console myself with the thought that everyone who rents our holiday let will probably spend a good couple of hundred in the local economy for every week they're there.

Being oldies, schools and so on aren't an issue for us. We've discussed the possibility that we might be somewhat ostracised because of our emmet status, but we're pretty anti-social anyway. DP doesn't seem to have any concerns about being hundreds of miles away from his family and I only have a brother who I never see (he has MH problems and is a recluse).

We've worked out that we'll be spending more on petrol, water and energy (we want somewhere rural, so no mains gas) but that will be offset a little by lower council tax and less going out.

I just love the county, ever since I first went there as a child. We go down several times a year, including in the winter, and never tire of it. Our favoured areas are the Lizard and West Penwith. We like Roseland as well, but houses there seem to demand a premium.

Lakie You will get a rebate on the water bills, there is govt money given for that, a flat rate. I've seen petrol cheaper at Morrison's in Tavistock in the morning, than it is at Sainsbury's in Folkestone on the same day.

If you have oil, buy a big tank, mine is 2600 litres, and you should get a discount for buying over 2000 litres. You can also set up payment arrangements to pay monthly with the oil suppliers.

Lady What's wrong with Liskeard school? It used to be OK.

Cornwall is a nice place to live. Like anywhere really you have to sacrifice one thing if you prioritise another.

I grew up in Cornwall and still live here. Wages are pretty rubbish, if I did my job further up the country I would be on a lot more than I am currently. It has an aging population, a lot of retired relocate down here so a high percentage don't work.

My bug bear is the dreadful NIMBYism we have down here. People know things need to improve, we need better facilities, housing, education, transport but when improvements are proposed, locals will petition against it. This is my observation only but it's mainly old people who petition which pushes the younger generation out of county.

I don't think the Cornish ostracise or judge people who relocate here. It's so commonplace that it is the norm.

I would recommend living in Cornwall, it's a relatively cheap place to live bar water rates and house prices and is a fab place to bring up children.

I'm sorry, but it's pretty self serving to say that the villages would die out without wealthier incomers pushing up prices
You're not talking about some remote island off Shetland here.
The villages weren't full of empty houses 40 years ago when I was a child in Cornwall.
If there were no incomers and the prices were lower, then local people would live in the picturesque coastal villages and not the shitty housing estates of (places like) Redruth.

I'm not saying no-one should move in... but I do think you shouldn't try to pretend you're doing some kind of service in keeping a village alive!

Ask Andrew Ridgeley

That's really rather rude of you ellisandra. All I am doing is explaining what has been said to me by people who have lived in the village for years and in many cases generations. Only last week I was told that only a few years ago you couldn't sell a house round here at any price - no one wanted to do up a semi-ruined barn/cottage or whatever. And nowhere did I say I was "saving" any village...I'm just living in a place I have chosen. Like most of us do.

hi all, I was hoping people from the south west could help me.I keep hearing and reading about how unfriendly the cornish are towards outsiders.Going on my own experience,this just isnt the case.Briefly,i left the army in 2002 and moved to cornwall for two years.Im from birmingham and my accent down in cornwall sticks out like a sore thumb.i never had any trouble making friends down your neck of the woods and never had any trouble with anybody.No comments no nothing.my brother had the same experience in the 90"s.I lived in redruth,newquay for a short while and roche.Could anybody explain why i never felt un welcome,thanks.

Did it ten years ago. Hugely better quality of life. Great community. Great pubs. Love the sea. Most people on here going on about jobs. Looking for a job here is biggest most massive mistake incomers make! You need to look for INCOME! Lots of people here self employed and have several sources of income. A job or jobs can be part of that. For a while I had a winter job whilst running a cafe in the Sumner. So find income from property, maybe b and b. Work from home. Have a job or two. Works for me very well.

IMO, depends on how you presented yourself, north100. I expect you were quite down-to-earth, and didn't seem like a rich, second homeowner on first impressions. That's why my friends and I are unfriendly towards outsiders.

Sorry, am a few glasses of wine and a week's worth of holidaymakers in. Sick of them already.

I get the issue with the 2nd homeowners, but isn't Cornwall also dependant on holiday makers? In Cornwall at the moment and everywhere I turn its a gift shop, local gallery selling art by usually not very good artists and lots of local businesses aimed at holiday makers. Some towns in
Corwall are practically theme parks. We do try to leave money behind with the locals. Of course you can nevee be sure if the guy you booked the fishing trip with is really a local as per the Cornish definition

Thanks for your reply typicalyenglishmustard.well I certainly ain't rich or a second home owner.the people I met I still remember,great people.me and the Mrs are selling up and moving down sooner or later.im a lorry driver and there seems to be a bit of graft for drivers,thanks