“Weekends, vacations,” says Leo Walker sadly as he leads the way through the historic St. Ives fishing district of Cornwall, pointing to successive properties.
St. Ives resident Leo Walker: “Something had to be done about housing poverty 20 years ago.” Photo: Johnny Weeks / The Observer
As the afternoon sun breaks through the clouds and heaps of tourists devour ice cream on a nearby beach in the harbor, Walker remembers how the area – known locally as the “downlong” – was once accessible to young tenants and was home to traditional bed and breakfasts.
“I used to pay £ 25 a week to live here, but those prices are long gone,” he said. “Housing poverty is not new here. Something had to be done about it 20 years ago.
In 2016, residents of St. Ives voted to take action against the scourge of second home ownership. By inserting a “main residence” condition in the sale of newly built properties, a mechanism known as the H2 Policy, the St. Ives Development Plan hoped to curb the influx of investment buyers while providing better and more sustainable housing prospects. for locals.
Whitby residents in Yorkshire recently voted in favor of such an action. But the people of St. Ives have a warning about them: such action may not be “brave enough.”
Morag Robertson, chairman of the St Ives Community Land Trust, said: “The policy is designed to alleviate market frenzy and ensure that open land is used for local housing and not for speculative investment or renting. We think it was a success, but we had to go further.
“The city has been drained of holiday rentals over the last few years because H2 doesn’t stop existing properties from being converted into holiday properties. We have also faced problems such as exile without guilt [long-term renters have been forced to leave their properties at short notice when the owners turn their properties into holiday lets]. Maybe we had to deal with the existing market. Maybe we weren’t brave enough. “
Morag Robertson, of the St Ives Community Land Trust, said H2’s policy was successful, but “we had to go further.” Photo: Johnny Weeks / The Observer
The average selling price of a home in the heart of St. Ives has risen from £ 336,153 in 2016 to £ 556,493 this year. Local real estate agents attribute part of this increase to increased demand in the southwest after the Covid pandemic, but lifelong resident Von Bennett believes “the horse has already escaped.”
“You won’t hear the voice of St. Ives anywhere here, now it’s a famous holiday camp,” he said. “I was born and raised in Cornwall; much of my legacy is gone. I don’t feel good about it. “
Bennett collects waste on behalf of holiday companies in St. Ives and feels “conflicted” by being part of such a predatory tourism industry. “I don’t know what anyone can do for St. Ives,” he added. “Restrictions may work elsewhere, but not in this area.”
Kat Navin, co-founder of the First Not Second Homes campaign, welcomed the news of Whitby’s referendum.
“Amnesty International recently said that housing must be based on human rights – I agree, that’s right,” she said. “It simply came to our notice then. We lost our moral compass.
Local Von Bennett: “I was born and raised in Cornwall – much of my heritage is gone.” Photo: Johnny Weeks
“The fact that you have queues of people running for referendum to change things in Whitby is really important. There are many more places like this one and I think more places will follow suit. ”
Even the tourists themselves are sympathetic. Paul Thomas and his family live in Upton St. Leonards, near the Cotswolds, and say their community is being eroded by second home owners.
“The houses in our village are bought by people from London, who then rent them out,” says Thomas. “You have to find the right balance between tourism and housing, because tourism finances these areas.”
However, many scholars have criticized the limitations of H2 Policy. Among them is Nick Galent, a professor of housing and planning at University College London.
“If you have decided to buy a second home in St. Ives, do you really want a new red brick house in a peripheral property or are you looking for an old fishing villa by the harbor?” He says. “I think most buyers want the villa. But H2 has not restricted the sale or use of existing properties. This is the problem.
“H2 in St. Ives was an act of political theater, because the local authorities had to see that they were doing something. This is not a criticism of them – they are doing what they can with the powers they have through the planning system. “
Andrew George, a former St Ives MP, is calling for intervention at the national level. “Since the late 1980s, I have been pushing for a new class to plan for non-residential use,” he said. “So anyone who wants to convert an existing property from permanent to non-permanent use will have to apply for a planning permission.
Tourist Paul Thomas and his family are sympathetic to the housing problem. Photo: Johnny Weeks
“Local communities and authorities could impose restrictions on this, and there will also be a register of existing secondary and holiday homes, on the basis of which the authorities could apply higher tax rates.”
As Walker roams the streets of St. Ives, reflecting on the merits of ethical tourism, he describes the current situation as an “economic disaster.” Still, he says he’s lucky.
“My mother bought a four-bedroom house in 1971 for £ 15,000 – now it costs £ 1.1 million,” he said, pointing up to their family home on the hillside. “We don’t want to sell it because we live there together. But if it wasn’t for this house, I couldn’t afford to live here because I don’t have a million pounds for a house!
Add Comment