Inequality in Devon and Cornwall

[GraceJonesBiggestFan]

So there have been a lot of threads about moving to the South West recently. Many including people who have moved down and criticised the local people for being insular or lacking aspiration. Many also including comments from people like me who are offended at the suggestion and have tried to explain why local people might feel incredibly upset at the awful inequality in Devon and Cornwall, and frustrated with the lack of empathy shown by people who’ve moved down with a ton of money.

So I thought I’d break it down on a new thread, so it’s not something personal against individual posters seeking advice.

The TLDR is this www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-61241981

My family have lived within the same 2 villages for over 500 years. In that time they were all collectively employed by the local landowner (Clinton Devon Estates, in various iterations over the years). They all worked as farm labourers, domestic service, blacksmiths etc. They never owned property because a) they would never have earned enough and b) they had housing provided as part of their remuneration. It was hard work, but to be fair to Lord and Lady Clinton they gave jobs for life and when for example my Grandad retired, he was able to continue living in his family house for a peppercorn rent.

My grandparents were both very sharp, but both worked from the age of 12/14 to put food on the table. So no opportunities for betterment. My Dad is very clever, but there was no way his parents could afford the additional tuition for his 11 plus, so he left school at 14 to work as a labourer. My sisters and I were all recognised by our primary school teachers as being more than capable of going to the local grammar, but the bus there was £60 a term and the uniform £120. There was absolutely no way my parents could afford this. I spent much of my childhood growing up in a caravan in a field, but still achieved 11 As and A*s at GCSE (back then this was incredibly unusual).

The kids in my class who went to the grammar school and then went on to university were entirely the children of parents who had moved down from the South East. Their parents sold houses in London, bought what seemed like a mansion in Devon. They paid for their children to have additional tuition to pass the entrance exams, paid for them to do music, sports and language lessons. Supported them financially to go to university and do unpaid internships.

I don’t begrudge them this at all. If I had the means, I would do the same for my daughter.

But I hope it in some way explains why it’s not a “lack of aspiration” that holds people here back. The inequality in Devon and Cornwall is horrific and has gotten unbearably worse in the last 2 years. People recognise inner-city poverty and deprivation, but the poverty and inequality in Devon and Cornwall is statistically much worse. Consider that if you live in poverty in London, you at least have access to many universities and can continue to live at home rent free. If you grow up in Devon or Cornwall, your options for studying and living at home are much more limited. Most people born and bred here therefore earn minimum wage. Their parents weren’t home owners themselves (so no help with buying), but are now competing with people who have grown up in the South East with all the opportunities for social mobility there are there, with all the equity from their home ownership, with much higher wages etc.

I see it now again. The kids with the rich parents who moved down during the pandemic, now lining up a ton of extra-curricular activities so their child again gets the grammar school places. The local kids left behind to be laughed at as “lacking aspiration”. The parents in their cars that cost more than most people here will earn in 8 years. The wellies that cost more than my own car. The music, sports and language lessons that cost more than most parents receive in universal credit. Getting turfed out to live in B&Bs because your landlords selling up (for extortionate London prices) or turning your home into an air bnb. We’re not “unfriendly” or “insular”, we’re just utterly heartbroken.

Thank you for sharing you thoughts and the story of your family.

I am sorry that people have felt this was the place to bring up other stories of deprivation.

I lived in Cornwall for a few years in my twenties working as a social worker for older people, before that I'd spent a few years doing the same in south London. Obviously there was poverty in both areas but I was really struck by the rural poverty ( 1990s). I saw elderly people with dementia in Cornwall who'd never had fridges before so forgot to use them, one woman who still had a cooking range and one plug socket in whole room, people living in decrepit houses in the middle of nowhere, down long lanes. And a huge lack of services. Plus a lot of people in their eighties who'd retired 20 years earlier from the Midlands and were now isolated (and more than a few racists who told me they'd moved there to get away from black people)

I am referencing the article in today's Times that says explicitly that

A) rural poverty is much worse than urban poverty, if one takes/compares the SW to the SE
B) much harder to climb out of via further education or training, because the transport links don't exist
C) education budgets, per capita, are not quite half the spend in the SW compared to London. The last figure I recall is that London spends about £7k per pupil in deprived areas to raise the average attainment. It's about £4k per capita here to age 16, and then it drops off the cliff.

It's very hard to compute in general, but before the Brexit vote, Cornwall was considered one of the most deeply deprived impoverished areas of Europe. Yet that truth co-exists with a millionaire playground, which just leaves no middle ground where the world meet.

Air BnBs are now in normal streets, near schools, cul de sacs. People are cashing in, they can legally do this.
Our local dentist has had the last two summers ruined by a new set of tourists every Saturday. They want to sit outside laughing and drinking, he's off to work. The other side had a small baby with sleeping problems, which means the parents are sleep deprived. Tourists thumping on the walls are nt part of your community, there's no long term relationship being built.
I want areas zoned, tourists in tourist houses next to other tourists.

I think people are jealous, Padstow in lockdown was joyous. People greeting each other by name, drinking tinnies on the sip way, playing cricket. Tourists are milked just for cash, they don't get to buy into our community, that's tourism the world over. A second home means you are still a tourist.

@NecklessMumster absolutely. I remember a great aunt and uncle having their first phone line installed in the 90s - the line rental was so expensive, they could only afford it when the family had a whip round for their golden wedding anniversary. My grandparents only had central heating installed in 2005, prior to that they had a Rayburn, coal fires, food was kept cool in the outhouse because they daren’t spend money running the fridge. They literally lived the same as they had when they first married.

I would urge anyone saying it’s no different to London to read the link I posted in the OP. 19% of the poorest kids in the region go to university compared to 45% of the poorest kids in London. Cornwall is the second poorest part of Northern Europe. The rates of child poverty are comparable to London and Birmingham - but with house prices 17 times the average income, literally zero properties to rent long term and so little opportunity to earn more.

Google any local newspaper or look at the First, Not Second Homes Facebook group and you will see story after story of families being turfed out by their landlord (so they can air bnb or sell as a second home), many ending up living in temporary accommodation all over the country - further disrupting their children’s education, further jeopardising their minimum-waged jobs.

Of course I’m not equating poverty to people who have fled pogroms and genocide. I realise I’m lucky not to have faced that. But I don’t agree that the horrors others have faced around the world means we should just accept such grotesque inequality in the UK. I’m just asking people to think before labelling us as “lacking aspiration”.

How have people voted in these areas over the decades?

I typed a long post, that has just evaporated. saying much the same thing as @GraceJonesBiggestFan . Cornwall has very very rich residents and a lot more very poor ones, and the youngest and poorest in Cornwall get massively lower funding than equally deprived communities in Tower Hamlets.

Great post OP.

To others, this isn't about poverty one upmanship (or one downmanship?) It is a very specific issue being faced in a relatively small region of the UK although I wouldn't be surprised if the Dales and Peaks face similar issues. It is also a uniquely home grown problem on a completely new scale. There are really are very few positive aspects to the tourist and second home markets. It isn't just the impoverishment of the locals it is also the cultural and social damage to local societies.

My family have been in the same fishing village since the 1600s. My Dad was a builder, Mum worked in a shop. I got a scholarship to private school, and to uni. My sister the same, my cousins went to uni on loans. We all had low income upbringings and found ways to better jobs.

All I’m saying is there are some opportunities, not everyone’s experience is the same.

But the housing costs are a problem, as they are pretty much everywhere. The way to solve this is to solve the systemic issues with the overall housing system.

@bellac11, how did Cornwall vote in the referendum? They voted leave, because they thought that it would be a vote to bring decision making closer to home. The EU spent and invested money here, but on infrastructure. Not much that improved everyday life. For locals without cars or public transport, it was mostly irrelevant that there was a fast tourist trunk route upgrade when all you wanted was a bus to your GP surgery in the next village, and to get home again in under four hours.

'I wouldn't be surprised if the Dales and the Peaks faced similar issues'. They do of course - but second home ownership is nationwide. I live on the Fylde coast (Lancashire), just north of Blackpool; you might think it an unlikely area for second home ownership, but my nightly walks around my neighbourhood (about 50% of the houses in darkness) demonstrate clearly that it is.

Sympathies, OP. Our relationship to place can be so important for our sense of identity and happiness. It must feel like losing a part of oneself to be cut off from it. Has the Devon Rule had any impact on the housing situation?

OP, thanks for posting. It's fascinating to read what you've shared.
I clicked as currently living in the SW though Mendips not Devon/Cornwall, I do see a lot of poverty and also a fair bit of insular/unfriendly attitudes to people who are "newcomers".
In my own family both sets of grandparents came from generations who had lived in tiny towns, dad's family were Plymouth for many generations, mum's from the North. But then both grandfathers enlisted in WW2. Ended up based in various military bases all over the world, and mum and dad both got decent educations and met while getting their vocational degrees at Salford Polytechnic...
Did very few working class boys from Devon and Cornwall enlist, I wonder? Because that's the reason I can't lay claim to my family living in one place for 500 years - which I must confess that part of me does envy. I'm sneered at as being a "newcomer" where I live now but there's really nowhere else that I feel more rooted than here.
Wish you all the best (and will be voting tomorrow for Greens in hope they could deal sensibly with the housing nightmare).

I was more referring to national and local government over the decades, who of course influence housing and public services. I think generally speaking there is a lot of blue in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset

Same on the thread about the children with SEN and the lack of resources, you can bet your life that people whose children cannot access education or whose needs are not being met vote Tory but still complain.

But yes, the referendum is also a key area. I would dispute that EU money didnt make a difference to every day life, most of the projects up and down the country funded by the EU were aimed a local populations. But you get what you vote for.

"The village my parents moved to 1962 left my mum with a lifelong distaste for rural Cornwall. To say that she wasn't welcomed into the community would be an understatement: in 11 years, she was never offered a cup of tea or invited in by 'local' people."
My grandparents retired and moved from central London to very very rural Devon in 1968, and their experience was completely different; they were welcomed by the tiny village, everyone knew everyone else and what you were doing, it would take an hour to walk to the village shop approx 1/2 a mile form their cottage because everyone you met wanted to talk to you. It would have been considered bad manners to just say "hello" or "good morning" you always stopped and talked to people you met. When they died the whole village attended their funerals and as was the tradition in the village their neighbours carried their coffins. I spent much of my childhood in rural Devon so maintain an interest in it. I do despair that local people are being priced out of both purchasing or renting and also at the rise in holiday cottages/airbnb etc.
But I don't think this is unique to Devon and Cornwall I live in very rural Scotland in many ways its like the very rural Devon village I knew in the late 60's/70's a strong fairly isolated very friendly community, a mainly farming community and lots of retired. The number of young people and families in this part of Scotland is declining because there is little well paid year round work here and our nearest city is a 2 hour + drive, we too are increasingly seeing more second homes/holiday lets partly because currently properties are cheaper than areas like Devon and Cornwall the Yorkshire Dales or the Lake District although tourists numbers are rising (this is a change for us we were called "Scotland forgotten corner"). But even though property prices are lower than other areas they are still outside of the reach of many local people and rental properties are like hens teeth.

Im reading this thread with interest not only because I have a soft spot for Devon but also because I worry about what the future will bring for my part of Scotland. I'm not sure what the solution is I think what ever it is it will have to be something very radical and would involve major infra structure changes e.g better employment/wellpaid jobs not just minimum wage seasonal jobs, housing is obviously an issue affordable quality rental homes and affordable homes to purchase aimed at not just local people but young people/familes from outside of the area we have ageing population here and our one hospital (for the whole region) and the a few small cottage hospitals hospital care sector and related infra structure are struggling to recruit staff. I doubt any government will want to implement radical solutions but I do think a solution needs to be found ASAP.

Well said, OP.

There are a lot of similarities to the Lake District where I live; we have 80% second homes. Communities lose their critical mass at that level and can't function. Meanwhile we have a "recruitment crisis" in hospitality jobs - hardly surprising when the accommodation is all filled by tourists.

When migrants / refugees come to the U.K. they don’t aim to move to the rural south west, but to London or maybe one of the other big cities, on that basis alone it’s clear that starting from scratch/ being poor and bettering your circumstances is more easily done in a city. Having researched my family tree, people poured in to London from countryside all over England in the 19th century, when I asked my dad why that would be ( he was a historian) he said “more jobs, education for their children, jobs were disappearing in the countryside with mechanisation of agriculture “. Seems that maybe to a less dramatic degree that still holds true. What’s new(er) I guess is people moving to the countryside and inflating prices.

@MasterGland housing aside, many of the tourists and second home owners don't share that sense of belonging to the same space as locals and that is part of the problem. I suspect most part timers live in suburbia somewhere and that an inner city community is closer in many respects.

Yes ,I agree with the housing issues,it is so hard especially for younger people.However I know many young people in Cornwall who are from families with very little money who have achieved great success.Good A levels,degrees and now starting Masters.All have received full loans taken part time work whilst studying they were encouraged at school to do well.This school is in an area with a high percentage of FSM.There are many young people throughout the UK who have similar lives.

I agree that housing in beautiful areas like that should be affordable for those who live there. All the same. With the GCSE results you describe you were well on track for a scholarship to Oxbridge or at least you were when I was doing my GCSEs in 2005. There was no excuse not to pursue that opportunity other than a lack of desire to do so (and I'd completely understand that having no desire to progress myself).

I’m in South Devon and have lived here most of my life. In the last few years the amount of kids in my local primary who live in caravans and then sleep in unlet Air BnB’s for the one month of the year they’re booted off camp is terrifying. Even that’s going now as most of these families work for the holiday sites and get accommodation included. Many of them are now being told to find accommodation as the vans they’re staying in are being replaced with shepherds huts which, for some reason people pay more to stay in than they do to stay in a van and you can squeeze more in per metre. Luckily even the holiday park owners realise kids living in a one room shepherds hut isn’t suitable.

But there is no accommodation available. None. Everything that was previously available for let is now an Air BnB. There’s talk of a 122 house development being built on pretty much the only remaining greenfield site in town. 6 of them will be “affordable” homes. The rest will be bought as holiday properties.

The only way there was to make a living round here was fishing and now that’s pretty much gone too. I don’t know what the answer is but the grinding poverty with no way to get out of it unless you move elsewhere can get depressing.

@starlingdarling I had great grades and went to a good university and have a good degree. It still doesn’t mean I can get a good job where there are no good jobs though.

Not if you don't try, no.

I’ve never lived in the south west so no direct experience and have found OPs post interesting and eye opening.
As a Londoner though- (no denying the ability to better yourself in London is easier, although the bar is ridiculously high)- I will say what grates on me is why is not being able to buy where you grew up seen as awful in rural areas, a denied birth right- but a given in London?!

Is a great job enough these days? I'm a Londoner & the only people I know who bought here had big help from the bank of mum & dad. My most "successful" friend is the one who left school after her a-levels & was working in retail who was given help by parents to buy a flat age 18 in the late 90s, she has made millions.