Furious locals occupy empty Cornish holiday home

In a remote west Cornish village last week, five young professionals legally entered an unoccupied holiday home with the intention of residing in it. Hopeful that their occupation of the detached converted barn would not come to the attention of the owners, they appeared relaxed and cheerful when they agreed to explain their actions to Rentfreecornwall.

'We were renting a house in the Penzance area, but when the landlord put our rent up to £2000 a month we decided enough was enough. With all the other costs of living, we just couldn't afford it out of our wages,' claimed a squatter. 'We looked around for other accomodation, but there is a housing crisis in Cornwall due to people gambling on the property market and charging extortionate rents. Now we've squatted a house, we still have to pay rates and council tax, but at least we have money left over from our wages to buy food, and perhaps save some money for a deposit on a house of our own.'



The five bedroom holiday home is about 5 miles from the Cornish town of Penzance, in a secluded location, surrounded by farmland, with distant sea views.

The squatters are hesitant about encouraging others to follow their actions.

'We're not making an ideological point. We're just ordinary working people priced out of the housing market.'

Council housing was not an option available to them, they claimed.

'Because we work, we aren't entitled to help from the council. Despite paying taxes and contributing, we feel let down that the council cannot help.'

Rentfreecornwall were unable to locate the owner of the occupied property, although sources indicated the £475,000 luxury house was owned by a property holdings company based in London.