If you're from Cornwall, how do you personally feel about tourists and second home owners?

[Beerlovingwalker]

Genuinely curious really, as an outsider that loves Cornwall.

On the one hand, it must be nice to know that so many people love the beauty of your county and I'm sure it's nice to share it. However, it also must be difficult to adjust from living fairly quietly in the Autumn/winter months, to suddenly have to share your space with so many million tourists and second home owners in the summer.

Brixton

I read that as Buxton, and thought that it was more likely to be wealthy Mancunians buying there rather than Londoners.

If people working from home became a thing, then what would there be to stop Cornish people for applying for jobs in say Bristol or London and work from home most days?

As I mentioned earlier in this thread - everything on here just reinforces my view that we need much more affordable, social housing right across the country.

Re: Cornwall - I think the M5 should be extended down to Plymouth then across to St Austell and onto Newquay. There should also be investment in the railways to increase capacity and connectivity.

@Helspopje

It’s threads like these that mean I never press go on applications to come to work in Cornwall.

I’ve faced enough othering living in England for having a Scottish name/accent/using Scottish words that I simply can’t look at the prospect of being even more of an an outsider long term were we to move. My parents are originally English but have been in Scotland since the 70s and indyref brought out some horrific ill feeling towards ‘Westminster’ and ‘The English’. Clearly they don’t actually belong anywhere near as much as they thought they did.

Wonder if this ‘incomer’ dislike affects the ability to attract in ‘useful’ incomers like senior doctors from low number specialties etc.

It's not a dislike of 'incomers'; it's purely the economic situation. Until recently, Cornwall was the poorest county in Britain, now it's the second poorest, so it's not the same everywhere....not to the same degree, anyway.

Gawd no....no motorway please. I appreciate it eases the road jams but a motorway just ends in lanes...twisty, narrow lanes not up to coping with the outflow from a motorway. If you build motorways and dual carriageways across the county you’ll end up with something that isn’t Cornwall. Cornwall has its own language, a heritage of fishing and mining and is utterly beautiful.
People are very welcome to make a new life in Cornwall. Keep the schools and GPS open, keep the bus routes used. But don’t try and make it something it isn’t.

The same is true for Scotland, Wales, Lake District etc...all unique and would be damaged by people trying to create the conveniences they have in their cities and large towns.

@helspopje Wonder if this ‘incomer’ dislike affects the ability to attract in ‘useful’ incomers like senior doctors from low number specialties etc.

I think some people are deterred by lack of career progression and logistics of the county but in my experience there is absolutely no dislike of incomers who live and immerse themselves in the community

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Also, this is something of a delayed response, but following the whole 'Cornwallian' taradiddle suggestion, a PP also (apparently jocularly) suggested 'Icelanders' as a 'silly' word. Is this not the standard word (in English, at least) to describe people from Iceland? How else do we describe people from that country??

Did you maybe misread? Pretty sure person was suggesting iRelanders. But too lazy to go back and check.

I'm not Cornish-born @WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll but when people move into a community, send their children to school here, find or create work in the community, and contribute positively in other ways then that seems to be perceived as a good thing.

Communities need new blood to keep them alive.

HOWEVER... there is a recent trend of a lot of the new build estates that have been built inland specifically to provide more affordable home options being bought up by people who want to relocate from elsewhere in England. And that isn't going down too well at all.

Affordable homes being built but being bought up by non locals is happening elsewhere too. In semi-rural Oxfordshire, it's homes being bought up by Londoners priced out of the London market.

Yes @Peregrina, it is a national issue. But @WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll asked specifically what the opinion is in Cornish communities of people moving permanently to Cornwall, since enquiries are up 140% on property sales here since covid.

It seems that housing is a mess almost everywhere but that Cornwall has additional problems, (also shared with other second home areas) of poor public transport and lack of work.

I don't know about lack of work... the unemployment rate in Cornwall is lower than the GB average, and we also have a much higher level of self-employment here than the average. People seem to be able to find or create work here.

Public transport isn't so much the issue as geography. It's a long, thin, rural environment with a challenging landscape.

The pressing issue is demand. Demand for property in Cornwall is higher than anywhere else in Britain.

@OrangeSamphire

I don't know about lack of work... the unemployment rate in Cornwall is lower than the GB average, and we also have a much higher level of self-employment here than the average. People seem to be able to find or create work here.

Public transport isn't so much the issue as geography. It's a long, thin, rural environment with a challenging landscape.

The pressing issue is demand. Demand for property in Cornwall is higher than anywhere else in Britain.

We also often juggle a variety of jobs to make one income. My carpet fitter is also a fisherman for example. They take that to the nth degree on the isles of Scilly! I swear everyone there has 2 or 3 jobs!

Why not adopt an approach of making the county fit for purpose instead of keeping it as a quaint little jewel for people to holiday in? Investments in infrastructure (esp broadband), clamp down on second homes, careful diversification of the economy. No need to trash it or preserve it in aspic.

Yes @Porcupineintherough - you're probably right! Just that the experiece in the NW isn't all bad. But Cornwall has a much more diverse economy (and quite industrial) than Cumbria (although then ... there's the Cumbrian west coast ...).

The caveat would definitely have to be that the council houses couldn’t be sold-google tells me that it is just in Scotland that the rules have changed-no new builds to be sold off and generally no right to buy for new tenants. Not sure of the rules in England. I agree that the council housing right to buy scheme has not helped the housing market, particularly in tourist areas.

Last comment was the response to this comment from @the80sweregreat

“It was selling off council places that has led to a boom in house prices in general and made some people very rich over the years.
People wouldn't be as wealthy today if that hadn't happened and council places were left to be for those who couldn't afford to buy a privately owned build or new build as they were first intended. After three years people can buy them with a discount , then move on to another area for a profit.
It will never go back to those days as councils prefer not having too many tenants on their books I'm sure and there is too much money involved now as well as the buy to let landlords hoovering up places , plus any council tenants would moan that they can't have the same opportunities that others had to buy their homes. It was a terrible policy back then ( just my opinion ) but one we are stuck with now.
I'm sure where were a few advantages to this scheme, but it has also fueled the divide between the haves and the have nots in regards to property ownership and I'm sure it's the same in Cornwall as well.“

@Ifailed

There's certainly alot of hate for the Cornish on this thread

I don't see that. what I do read is some posters have put forward the idea that Cornwall's property market should be afforded a level of protection not available across the country. Others have insinuated that the people who live in Cornwall are different from the rest of England, hence a bit of 'whataboutery' as others have disputed this.

To get back to the common theme about banning the owning of 2nd homes, I note that all 5 of Cornwall's MPs are Tories, and the Tories are the largest group on Cornwall Council. It would seem the democratic majority of Cornwall vote for the party least-likely to pursue such a policy.

No one has suggested that other parts of the country shouldn't consider controls and disincentives targeted at additional properties. Some counties here in Wales have already abolished the discount once applied to council tax on second homes. Gwynedd is even going so far as to attempt to double council tax for them. They do have the benefit of being under a devolved administration though, I don't know how much power English councils have to change the rules.

Someone mentioned that the MPs representing Cornwall are all Conservative and that they might feel inclined to protect the interests of the second home owners. I'm not so sure. Second home owners are a small minority of people and therefore pretty insignificant in electoral terms. In order to be re-elected the Conservatives need to convince a majority of the population of the benefits of capitalism. How do they do this? Easiest way is to provide people with the opportunity to become capitalists themselves - through home ownership.

#Venus22 - so the cornish aversion to incomers is purely economic

@Peregrina

Brixton

I read that as Buxton, and thought that it was more likely to be wealthy Mancunians buying there rather than Londoners.

If people working from home became a thing, then what would there be to stop Cornish people for applying for jobs in say Bristol or London and work from home most days?

That sort of change from an environment where the skilled workers leave for work and those left are generally unskilled to one where the skilled workers may be able to work from home where they grew up would take at least a generation to achieve though.

Anyone voting Tory in Cornwall (of all places) is a total numpty

They literally couldn't give a fuck about poverty in this county

Agreed @LaurieFairyCake. We have the most appalling Tory MP in our seat. But sadly Lib Dems and Labour couldn't organise to put forward a single decent candidate between them in the last two general elections, so the incumbent Tory has sailed back in.

Said imcumbent Tory brings with them a large advertising and campaigning budget. But Labour and Lib Dems never invest in backing their candidates here in this part of Cornwall, even when they can raise decent candidates.

We'll see what happens at the locals tomorrow... we used to have a superb Lib Dem local councillor, but he lost to a Tory last time (god knows how) and said Tory has done the sum total of fuck all for the community since then. My vote is going to an excellent indie candidate this time.

@OrangeSamphire - did you get any info re election as I've had bugger all. Googled and found Council website list but literally no info on who or what they stand for. At this rate I will be voting blind!

@Thewinterofdiscontent

Surely the point is no one wants Cornwall to feel like Norfolk or London though . Not because it’s racist or xenophobic but because places having their individual character is better. Brixton, Brighton, Bristol shouldn’t all end up with nice areas full of wealthy ex Londoners and a second tier of locals who have “adapt”.

Anyone taking money out of London should only be allowed a second home up North. Bridge the north south divide and get some regeneration going using London house prices to do it ( you have them)

Why the hell would anyone assume Londoners pushing up property prices "up North" would "bridge the north south divide". It would just fuck up "Up North" like its fucked up Cornwall surely?

Our local Tory candidate doesn't even appear to have done any canvassing around here. I've seen the LibDem several times, and Labour have worked hard to make certain everyone knows her name.

Back in the early 1960s, there was talk of a south coast A road from Falmouth to Dover, but it's never been built. I was only small at the time, so don't remember much about it and why it didn't happen, but NIMBY objectors and government (local and national) inertia probably contributed.

Basically nothing @NursePye!

Except for an absolutely superb letter from the independent candidate. Hence he's getting my vote. No idea who else is even standing in our patch, it's really odd there's been so little campaigning isn't it?

Yes v strange. Not a peep so not sure whether to bother if I'm honest which would be a first for me