Yeah, yeah, it's business... but is it right?

The new Boscawen Woods development at Truro:

'Boscawen Woods boasts 53 luxury houses and maisonettes encompassed within a unique sylvan setting.'

'The challenging yet unrivalled opportunity that this 3.5 acre woodland site presented us with, as developers, has resulted in an exciting partnership involving our architects alongside ecologists, arboriculturalists, and engineers. The outcome is a development that is sensitive both to its environment and setting whilst enabling us to produce contemporary homes suitable for the demands of 21st Century living.'

Sounds nice, and ticks all the right boxes, except for affordability that is. The cheapest property here will set you back £299,950. That's nearly 30 times the usual wage in Cornwall. Way beyond the reach of 90 percent of the population.

Of course, it's fine to build expensive houses, because there's a demand. But there's also a demand for ordinary homes, for ordinary people, and these homes are not being built. Not by private developers, who often get subsidised with public money, or by the council, who get your council tax money. And it's the councils that approve of these developments.

So you ask yourself: Why am I paying extortionate rents for shoddy accomodation, and my taxes are going on developments that will make prices even higher?

'Yeah, yeah it's business' I hear you say.

Sure it's a business. Arms dealing is a business. The slave trade was a business. But it doesn't make it right, right?

You pay in, and they take out

What have property developers and layabouts got in common? They both expect handouts, something for nothing, and to squeeze as much out of the system as possible. A system that we pay for, and a system that fails working people in Cornwall.

A system that allows property speculation on an uncontrolled, unmanageable and destructive scale.

It's time to stop the apathy, and take control over our lives. We pay the taxes that keep the country running, so why is our tax money being wasted on luxury housing that we cannot afford?


Luxury housing in Cornwall costs the councils, costs the environment and costs communities. Much of it is subsidised by you, the taxpayer, yet you cannot afford to live in them - you cannot even afford your rent if you think about it - how much of your wages could you reasonably save for a deposit on the average house?

Wouldn't it be better to ban the gambling habits of property speculators and take back the homes and let them out to ordinary working people? What good are all these homes empty?

Some houses in a Cornish fishing port, forget about ever owning or renting one of these if you're on average wages.


Ordinary working people don't need homes as status symbols to show of to their posh friends in London. They need houses to live in.

Property developers have abused the system for long enough. What use is a house when it isn't a home?

Affordable to whom?

How many people do you know who earn more than £50,000 per year in Cornwall? Because that's how much you need to earn to be able to get a mortgage on a modest two bedroom house. This detached house built by property gambling firm, Porthia, costs £475,000. Giving themselves a Cornish name is about the closest you'll get to see the average local living in one. Unless it's lawfully squatted.

But it's not just buying a house that is impossible for local people. Due to many state quangos hyping Cornwall to be a fashionable lifestyle destination, buy to let investors have pushed their rent prices up.

And what does the state do? It allows yet more, expensive luxury housing developments.

Getting words of sympathy from politicians does not solve the problem. If politicians can approve the construction of luxury homes, exclusive private estates, and building on green belt land, why cannot they approve creating homes for people on ordinary rural wages?

Perhaps politicians don't have a clue on what it's like to be a young working person in Cornwall, unable to afford rent prices on adequate accommodation. They just say token references to the housing issue, ramble a load of statistics, mention a few buzz words, and then head to their nice warm home. Meanwhile nothing has changed - the property investors get richer, and ordinary working people have less money to buy food.

The legal occupation of second homes in Cornwall by working people who pay taxes and adhere to the law is not a political statement. It is simply because they have nowhere else to go. House are too expensive for locals to live in.

An apartment in this housing development near Bodmin costs over £270,000.





The most common wage in Cornwall is £210 per week.



Why is the state allowing expensive houses to built for the wealthy, and none that locals can afford?

visit www.homes4locals.com for more information on why ordinary working people are suffering at the expense of the wealthy, and what you can do about it.

Get the feeling you are being misled?

Here is an exclusive new housing development in Cornwall. Built to high standards, equipped with top of the range gadgets and delightfully arranged by interior designers. The problem is, these are all holiday homes. The question you should ask is: Why aren't homes being built for ordinary working people?

Fastfood takeaways get knocked up in a week, residential housing is sold off for holiday lets, farms are converted into holiday complexes, whole estates are being built for second home owners. But what about getting houses built for ordinary working people?




Why are we paying taxes to a state that endorses, encourages and allows a housing crisis to detiorate into Cornwall's housing nightmare?

Why are we working so hard? And what are we working for? Most of us work for basic essentials, we don't need jacuzzis or horse stables to make us happy. We're content with adequate accomodation, a reasonably paid job, food, water, modest socialising and generally going about our lives without trying to get one up on the next guy.

What do the property speculators want? World domination? Are they obsessed with getting as many zeros as possilbe on their bank balances? Why should ordinary people suffer to satisfy the whims of a minority group of property gambling fanatics?

Padstow - a ghost town

This is a street in Padstow, where 50 percent of houses are second homes.

How much money did you earn over the past month? How much of that went to a landlord, or a bank for a mortgage? How much did you have left over to pay for food and fuel?

Rent Free Cornwall is not an ideological debate; it's about saving money for people who, at the end of the week or month, have to choose between handing over huge sums of money to a landlord, or buying food.

Looks like Mousehole, but tastes like London

A Cornish family were on television recently. They had been evicted from their home as the landlord who didn't live in Cornwall had increased the rent, which they couldn't afford to pay on their wages. The council put all five of them up in a one roomed bed and breakfast. Shameful, and a disgrace.

What are we paying taxes for if the state cannot ensure its citizens aren't treated like animals, and where people's property gambling habits take priority over housing families?

It's no wonder then, that many people are so desperate for accommodation that they are considering to squat empty homes.

In Mousehole alone, over 50 percent of properties are empty or holiday /second homes.



The slave trade was a business, but it was abolished because it wasn't right.

Perhaps the housing industry needs regulation now that it is causing misery to thousands in Cornwall, and many more around the world.

Make your money work for you, not for the property gamblers

Whole villages in Cornwall are falling prey to people addicted to gambling on the housing market, creating stagnant, lawless communities, creating poverty and homelessness.

Here is a terrace of cottages in a Cornish village. How many are holiday homes? One? Two? Ten? All of them?



Walking around a typical Cornish village at night, as winter draws in, you don't see many lights on come early evening. These once bustling communities are crying out for proper residents, local families to bring life back to the towns and villages.

Port Isaac - looks like a village, but isn't

The fishing village of Port Isaac is overrun with empty houses. Port Isaac is desolate, and vulnerable to social breakdown due to huge amounts of housing being bought up for second homes and holiday lets.



These houses are publicly flaunted as being holiday lets. These empty homes render communities more vulnerable to crime, and give a false impression that villages are functional.

Houses, houses everywhere, but not a place to call home

Cornwall is becoming like Rio de Janerio. Plenty of large, expensive houses, shiny new cars, trendy marinas, and fashionable shops. And lots of poor people working their socks off just to pay the rent and bills. Rent Free Cornwall regrettfully announces that it is not advisable to squat this bunch of properties. They are gated, secured, and patrolled.




Working people in Cornwall aren't envious of people with luxury yachts, and superfast cars. They don't care for posh houses with jacuzzis. They just want somewhere decent to live. That shouldn't be an unattainable luxury, for anyone, anywhere.

We pay our taxes for an orderly society. By liberalising the housing market, the state has created dysfunctional and disorderly communities.