Cornwall has the most empty houses and second homes in the country

'It does annoy people'

Helford - where community spirit meets second homes and tourism (Image: Greg Martin / Cornwall Live)

Cornwall has the most empty houses of any local authority area in England, according to a new report.

Cornwall tops the list with its 18,621 empty houses, of which 13,642 are second homes mostly used as holiday houses.

The data, acquired by maintenance company Structural Repairs via a freedom of information request, sees Cornwall exceed second placed Camden (12,187) and third placed Birmingham (11,946) by several thousand.

While Cornwall, as a unitary authority, is one of the bigger areas on the list population wise, the number of empty houses proportionate to population in Cornwall is around three times as many compared to large areas like Birmingham and Leeds.

The London Boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Tower Hamlets and Camden have more empty houses when adjusted for population.

In Cornwall 13,642 of the empty houses are second homes and, according to the report, the majority of these are holiday homes.

Cornwall Council cabinet member for housing, Andrew Mitchell, said that while this number is concerning, a more useful figure is the number of houses left unoccupied for six months or more.

According to Cllr Mitchell, this figure rose from 2,840 last year to 3,071, or 1.19% of the houses in Cornwall compared to the English average of 1.16%.

“The issue is that those homes are just sat there,” Cllr Mitchell said.

“Some are deteriorating, being issues for neighbours. Empty houses are a resource we want to help people use, put back into use, or aid with a new build going there.”

He said the council is working to reduce the number of empty homes, and that due to Covid, the rise is to be expected.

“We want families to have those assets, and we also have millions of pounds we can use to help remove barriers to renovating homes so they can be sold on, rather than sit there unused," he added.

Cllr Mitchell, who lives in St Ives, went on to say that second homes are a problem which needs addressing, especially ones which have remained unoccupied for large parts of this year.

He said the issue of unoccupied houses and second homes relates to the broader issue of reliance on tourism.

“The problem is compounded in Cornwall. 65% of business support this year went to addresses outside of Cornwall because of the number of holiday lets, which don’t pay council tax or business rates.

“It does annoy people. A lot of people in Cornwall are struggling, and people who can afford two, three, or more properties abuse the system. It’s not all of them, but it’s enough to raise the question of just how good is this for Cornwall?

“I don’t think this government will ever give us the power to fix this entirely. But we need to reduce the percentage of the local economy reliant on tourism."

One of Cllr Mitchell’s main fixes for the problem of many Cornish houses being left unoccupied, which he says is largely houses designed as holiday lets, is to ensure all properties in the county pay council tax.

According to the data in the report, 534 of Cornwall’s empty houses have been unoccupied for two to five years, and 277 for more than five years.

Matt Stockill, from Structural Repairs, said the report came about after the company had worked on several houses which had seemingly no one living in them.

He said: "The number of empty houses was surprising, and while people are struggling with housing - it made us think: why is there such an issue?”

He added that, across the country, several of these empty houses were council-owned.

Daniel Jones, who helped put the report together, said: “We are astounded by the large number of homes which currently sit empty given the housing crisis which is in such dire need of being addressed and resolved.”