Is there any ethical way to go on holiday to Cornwall WRT the housing crisis?

[MonChoufleur123]

Husband wants to go to Cornwall this summer and stay in a holiday let. I'm aware there are huge problems for local people with all the houses there being bought up for holiday homes and a shortage of affordable housing. Is there any 'ethical' way to go and stay in Cornwall without being part of this problem?

Oh hell no, the last thing Cornwall needs is another bloody motorhome!

Please just come down to Cornwall and enjoy your holidays. (OP and all the lovely lurkers too!)

Tourism keeps people employed and your spending will help the economy.

1 in 3 of our jobs here are in food and drink! So when you come down make sure you eat and drink lots of Cornish produce.

It’s the empty 2-4 bed homes that are the issue. Loads are abandoned and falling apart. Loads are left empty even in the Summer so it doesn’t help with the economy or local families who could be renting / buying them.

Anyway, come down and enjoy your holiday! 💐 🌊

They're incredibly expensive to rent

We went to a lovely caravan park several years ago in Cornwall, it had no clubhouse or kids club and advertised that it was a quiet family friendly site. Our kids who would run a mile from organised holiday clubs, made friends with other kids on the site. It had various food outlets selling eg bacon baps for breakfast or a pizza van in the evening, and we ate out a couple of times. We were going to go back but it's changed hands now, and has a different more expensive type of vibe.

I don't really like hotel holidays - for more than a weekend - for most reasons already mentioned.

So you get the convenience of a washing machine and in return the housing crisis intensifies and thousands of people's lives are rendered not worth living?

Would you buy cocaine or stolen goods? AirBnbs cause just as much misery.

I can't believe people think a more enjoyable holiday is a price worth paying to ruin countless lives.

@Idkwtdwms

Airbnb is just a platform though, surely the issue is the type of property being marketed and rented that is the issue and what is described as a ' holiday let'
There is a world of difference between a cottage or flat that could accommodate a family or first time buyers starting out and caravans/flats/lodges/canins etc which can be booked via airbnb.
I visit Cornwall every year but stay with friends in Helston. In the past I've stayed in B&Bs and YHAs in Cornwall so not family housing.

Upthread I mentioned I visit the Isle of Wight most years. I found the flat via airbnb, now I book direct with the owners. It is lovely, tiny with no frills but everything you need for a weeks stay. In no way is it family or starter property.
Air bnb and the other booking platforms can be used responsibly

@Ted27 what is a flat if not a "starter property"? It doesn't make any difference who you rent it from(AirBnB or direct) - it's still a place where someone could live if you weren't using it for a holiday. If you think it's too small to live in you clearly aren't as desperate as some of us in the west country are.

I have given up on ever having somewhere to live because studio flats I could get a mortgage on to buy go instead to cash buyers to use as second homes/holiday lets.

No they aren't ideal places to live, but the same holiday letting hell has pushed the price of one bed cottages to north of 200k, so 30sqm flats are the only thing a person with a normal salary could ever hope to afford.

Lol, compariing the drugs trade with holiday cottages!!!

Fool

Yeah, people living in cars and vans because other people are happy to ruin their lives for convenient holiday is really fucking funny....

Same here. Husband is Cornish and we used to go every summer to visit family. A couple years ago we spent small fortune and it was cold and rainy, we now visit family in February and the weather can’t let us down. It’s also miles cheaper.

@Idkwtdwms

You might not think it, but I do have some understanding - my friends son will be 30 this year and is stuck at home.
The issue is multi faceted isn't it
Even where I live in a midlands town there is a tourism industry which is growing and needed for the local economy. If you want tourists they need to stay somewhere. Then it's about the least worst option.
My friends son can actually afford to rent, his parents can pay the deposit and act as guarantors - his problem is his local employers, whilst he works pretty much full time, the employer will only give him a 12 hour contract. That's not enough for the rental agency, so he's stuck.
My own son and several friends here in Coventry have the same issue, work full time and have 12 or 15 hour contracts.
Another factor we have here is student accommodation and HIMOs. I live in a bog standard Victorian terrace area. Every time a house comes up for sale it's bought by a developer who turn three bed terraces with one bathroom into 5/6 bed rooms with en suites. I'd say the ceiling price on my street is around £250k. There is a house for sale on my street for £450, 000, 6 ensuite rooms for letting, it's no longer a family home.
Of course the loss of housing to the holiday market is an issue but it's not the only issue.
The fact is the housing market is heavily skewed or broken pretty much everywhere

Comparing the drugs trade to holiday cottages? Insane

Abuse and rape of children, not quite the same as having to move out your home town is it

Has it genuinely not occured to you that being homeless/in temporary accomodation/miles away from friends/family/support network makes people more vulnerable to abuse than if they were properly housed?

Homelessness is everywhere, moreso in big cities, but the social implications of it are well known

Its foolish to compare renting a holiday cottage to being part of the class A drug trade. You were foolish to do so and you clearly dont know about the issues with drug running and child abuse within it otherwise you wouldnt have made such a comparison.

Homelessness is solveable by appetite for building huge swathes of social housing, most of the people who are homeless wouldnt be able to afford the usual holiday cottage and wouldnt be able to buy many holiday lets as they woulxdnt get planning permission to be a full time domestic residence.

There is no appetite for building huge swathes of social housing, particularly in 'unspoilt' areas where NIMBYS are up in arms about more housing

People tend to move out of an area they cant afford, thats not limited to people from Cornwall as many have already set out

muddyford

"Camp"

No

So let's think this through- when a house is being sold it is usually either by probate in which case the executor has a legal obligation to achieve the highest price. Or it could be someone simply looking to move, in which case if they sold their property at a lower price to other locals then they wouldn't be able to afford the next property.

In some villages in Cornwall there is up 70% second homes or Airbnb. This completely kills the village during winter and effectively turns it into a theme park.

Plus you can't create alternative all round employment because no one can afford to live there on normal salaries all year round.

ZOO!!

😂

Chalet on Whitsand Bay?

@soupfiend
You're yet to give an actual reason why ruining peoples lives by contributing to the housing crisis is any different to ruining their lives by contributing to the drug supply chain. Both create misery and render life completely not worth living for some people, while others overlook this the pursuit of fun/convenience/ease, ignoring the consequences of their actions on others. To dismiss the pain and harm something causes just because you benefit from it is both foolish and cruel.

As someone who has experienced both sexual assault as a child and homelessness as an adult because of second homes/holiday lets, I can honestly say the latter is a million times worse.

Because I find hotels in the UK extremely expensive for what they offer. The weather is too unpredictable to be sitting together in a tiny room compared to a larger s/c house/flat where we can all split up.

I still have to pay to eat in the evenings and buy something for lunch.

DH and I did couple weekends away in a hotel, one (large sea front victorian hotel) felt like our room missed the renovation schedule or the budget was just spend on the lobby, another one had creaking pipes at 6am on a Sunday, it was a beautiful old country house hotel, the third (original Tudor house) had a fire alarm at 4am and no staff overnight at the property.
All were on the higher end of price levels.

I would look into farm stay quirky properties. Some really look lovely and the income supports a struggling industry.

Why don’t you just go somewhere else?

I think a lot of desirable, coastal holiday places have a similar issue, Cornwall is not the only place to have the problem (parts of Devon, Wales, The Lake district, Norfolk and Suffolk....and probably others)