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.

@Macncheeseballs

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

Yes, it is; you seem to think otherwise?

Why should students pay council taxes?
They have student loans that barely covers anything and can't get the part time jobs now because of covid as well as mountains of debts.
We had to help our son through Uni and help him with rent, if they had to pay council tax then nobody will bother to go to Uni at all apart from the rich children!
I know that living in a student town must be hard at times but they also bring money to the local economy and the buy to let landlords don't mind them either.

I agree that students shouldn't have to pay council tax. Whoever is driving up prices for residents, it isn't the students.

I don't think you can class students with other second-home-owners, as they do legitimately live across two places - not just mainly in one but popping over to the other for two weeks a year.

In fact, such a ruling would actually disadvantage students from Cornwall, as their university options within commuting distance from their homes are far fewer than somebody in a big city/conurbation, should they wish to stay living at home.

I know it’s not what the thread is about but my partner is Asian and has also experienced low level racism in Cornwall (and Devon). I wouldn’t have noticed it because I’m white but it does happen. It’s one of the reasons we wouldn’t move there, also it would be unfair on my teens to move them out of Bristol to somewhere with less opportunities just because it’s pretty.

Second home ownership is unethical wherever it is, personally I love a bit of camping/glamping when I visit!

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

I agree that students shouldn't have to pay council tax. Whoever is driving up prices for residents, it isn't the students.

I don't think you can class students with other second-home-owners, as they do legitimately live across two places - not just mainly in one but popping over to the other for two weeks a year.

In fact, such a ruling would actually disadvantage students from Cornwall, as their university options within commuting distance from their homes are far fewer than somebody in a big city/conurbation, should they wish to stay living at home.

Poor students shouldn't have to pay the landlord's usually charge high rents

Remember this with the poll tax

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll, appreciate your point that everything is interconnected. Locally, regionally, nationally, internationally... and that of course tourism is part of that.

However you asked in relation to my personal income:
But might you not be reliant on tourism indirectly?

And I can say categorically not, no. In fact, most of our clients aren't even in the SW. They are multinationals with bases elsewhere.

@JudyGemstone

I know it’s not what the thread is about but my partner is Asian and has also experienced low level racism in Cornwall (and Devon). I wouldn’t have noticed it because I’m white but it does happen. It’s one of the reasons we wouldn’t move there, also it would be unfair on my teens to move them out of Bristol to somewhere with less opportunities just because it’s pretty.

Second home ownership is unethical wherever it is, personally I love a bit of camping/glamping when I visit!

@JudyGemstone whilst I’m sorry this happened, it isn’t right to suggest that racism is happening only here and not elsewhere. I’ve known racism against family in London, Lincoln and Essex and I was abused in Liverpool. It’s ridiculous to suggest you wouldn’t move out of one county, which will have racists in, to another county which will sadly also have racists in. There are racists all over the U.K., please don’t suggest that Cornwall in the only place it happens, that is grossly unfair.

@Aloethere

The truth is, lots of people can't afford to buy where they grew up. That's true over vast swathes of the SE , not just in tourist areas.

It's one thing though if people are actually living in the homes, using the local shops and services etc it is a whole other kettle of fish when you have ghost villages that are empty for 9 months of the year. It isn't the same thing at all. I am not from the UK but have the same thing where I grew up, swathes of empty houses for most of the year, schools closing, local shops closing, it kills areas. It isn't the same thing as being priced out of a city.

Do you know anything about London? For years now super rich investors from outside the UK have been buying up many of the most expensive properties in central London. They see seen as an investment and sit empty most of the time.

There are so many downright incorrect assumptions on this thread that it’s impossible to actually have a discussion.

People being priced out of a central london postcode doesn’t kill the area in the same way though. As it’s part of a living breathing city, not a disconnected rural community (though i know it may kill individual people’s dreams - super rich from abroad have been displacing London’s old money into zone 2 and 3 for years, and this knocks on into the prospects for lower income households who can’t then afford anywhere in a London postcode...)

But the London dynamic is not what this thread is about. It’s a separate, interesting topic though. Especially as London’s population has recently fallen by nearly 10%.

People being priced out of a central london postcode doesn’t kill the area in the same way though.

Exactly. You don't see schools closing, pubs closing, post offices closing ...

#Venus22, I absolutely do think otherwise, how many years do people have to live there before the 'locals' stop calling them emmets, or is that based on economics?

@Macncheeseballs

#Venus22, I absolutely do think otherwise, how many years do people have to live there before the 'locals' stop calling them emmets, or is that based on economics?

I'm 'local'. Born here, and moved back 12 years ago after decades living elsewhere. I would never use the term 'emmet'. I find it offensive and cringe when I hear or see it. I remember my mum, born elsewhere, used to shudder when she saw it on bumper stickers as we were growing up. And she's not exactly the most inclusive person I know!

I'm 'local'. Born here, and moved back 12 years ago after decades living elsewhere. I would never use the term 'emmet'. I find it offensive and cringe when I hear or see it.
I remember my mum, born elsewhere, used to shudder when she saw it on bumper stickers as we were growing up. And she's not exactly the most inclusive person I know!

That’s really good to hear. I also hate the term. It’s horrible.
I’ve been watching Cornwall with Simon Reeve -
‘Tourism is worth billions to the economy of Cornwall and supports tens of thousands of jobs. The closures (lockdown) hit especially hard here, Cornwall so depends on tourism. There were warnings that a quarter of tourism businesses face ruin along with thousands of jobs, livelihoods and the economy of the County’

Well, as Grant Shapps has just told people today about how many countries are on ' green ' ( not many ) I think that many more will go on holiday to the West Country again this year!
It lll be good for the economy this summer I'm sure. I hope things pick up
This year.
At least there is more hope for this than the tour companies that deal with foreign holidays :( another really bad year for them is looming. )

2020 was a tough year for tourism no doubt but I think the next few years will be bumper and make up for it. And most businesses were well supported with Covid grants. Shame many second home owners were too! I don't begrudge people sept I g hard hearted cash as they wish but please don't t take the
p!ss!!

Thomasina2021

Tourists fine

Think second home-owning should be banned tbh“

Everywhere or just Cornwall?

ShrekandDonkey

DH and I are both Cornish, born and bred. Lived all our lives in a town known for being extremely deprived and went to the same state school etc. DH even went to uni here. We have decent careers and our income is pretty good (70k+). We are not alone in this, many of our friends are the same. It pisses me off when people automatically think everybody here is backward and unable to have a decent life! “

Interesting perception. We’re Cornish but have, for work, to live in the NW for the foreseeable.
Most people I talk to are astonished to be told that there are serious pockets of poverty in the county and that some kids, on Camborne and Redruth estates for example, have never seen the sea (for anyone not familiar with the geography, they’re about 3 miles from their nearest beach, if that).
Most people I talk with here think that everyone in Cornwall lives like Rick Stein or Dawn French.

I came to Cornwall aged 6 and have lived here for 42 of my 64 years. The first 12 years I was at school, then I went off to university, and then to London and NYC, back to London and at 34 I returned to Cornwall, where we have lived in the same village since 1990. In the 1960s my mum loathed Cornwall; she hated the parochialism. I loved it as a child, and it still defines a beautiful landscape for me. Waves, wind, sea, coast and light... I am comfortable in Cornwall in a way that I shall never be anywhere other than a very large city where the scale tips from super personal to completely impersonal. I enjoy the anonymity of city life and all the trappings, like theatres and bars and restaurants. I don't like the idea of a small town with lots of relations keeping a close watch. I loved city life in my late teens 20s and 30s. And if DH was not opposed to the idea, I think I'd like it for my later years too. But probablty not London, even if I could afford to return.

How do we feel about non Cornish people buying a property than is for sale as a holiday let only?
So not a 2nd home as it is not allowed to be rented from January through Easter? Not depriving any locals of owning their own place but would this be frowned upon??

Are you referring to the planning conditions placed upon static caravans that they cannot be used as full-time residences? They are very much not the issue (even if I think they're an eyesore). The problem rests in viable housing stock being lost to uses other than full-time residential.

No there is a beachside apartment for sale but it specifically says only for holiday lets although l am guessing whoever buys it can stay it in too but not between 7th Jan to 1st April which l have never seen before. I suppose it would bring tourism and money to the area.

Agreed they are an eyesore lol!

'Grew up in Cornwall, live South Devon (came here to work). Second home owners are selfish scum'
Out of interest, what do you think of the local who sold the property to them for top dollar?

@Forgothowmuchlhatehomeschoolin

No there is a beachside apartment for sale but it specifically says only for holiday lets although l am guessing whoever buys it can stay it in too but not between 7th Jan to 1st April which l have never seen before. I suppose it would bring tourism and money to the area. Agreed they are an eyesore lol!

Is this a new beachside apartment? If so it could have planning conditions attached saying it can only be a holiday let. I don't understand why this happens or the rationale, but it's a thing. We bought a farmhouse (to live in full time) with planning permission to convert a barn, and the barn had permission for holiday let not full time accommodation. We didn't question at the time because it was the project we wanted. But if and when we sell we will set about getting this changed (if we can)

@Stolengoat

'Grew up in Cornwall, live South Devon (came here to work). Second home owners are selfish scum' Out of interest, what do you think of the local who sold the property to them for top dollar?

I was thinking this yesterday whilst watching the Cornwall documentary on IPlayer.

Individual ‘locals’ or local firms will have profited by selling houses, selling land for houses, building houses etc.
There are some huge houses along the coast used as second homes. Who sold the land and agreed planning permission? Who built the houses and sold them at extortionate prices? Who is profiting from this?

@Heatingsystemwoes I think there are some farmers who have totally lucked out on the land stakes. Those with land circling towns, and those with land on the coast. The local private school is full of the offspring of people who have cashed in - they call themselves farmers but they have definitely morphed. Most farmers of course haven't been so lucky and make a fairly restricted living as far as I can make out.