CORNWALL Council has signed a confidential ‘memorandum of understanding’ (MOU) with the Government’s Homes England agency to deliver more housing across the Duchy.

The council’s administration says that the agreement will lead to more funding to deliver homes during a housing crisis when more than 20,000 households are in housing need and 800 households are at risk of homelessness and are being supported by the council in temporary or emergency accommodation.

However, opposition councillors have questioned why the exact details of the MOU have not been made public.

An individual decision day meeting at Lys Kernow (County Hall) heard on Wednesday, September 2 that “whilst there is a public interest in understanding the terms of an agreement between the council and Homes England, Homes England has made it clear that the terms of the memorandum of understanding are to be treated as confidential information”.

Cornwall Council has produced a Cornwall Housing Growth Prospectus that sets out a prioritised set of programmes and projects that will help accelerate the delivery of the homes Cornish residents need.

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook supported Cornwall’s housing prospectus and endorsed the council’s request to enter into a ‘place partnership’ with Homes England. By entering into the partnership, Cornwall will be only the third local authority in the country to enter into such an agreement with Homes England.

The council says that reflects the scale of its ambition, the scale of the housing target set for Cornwall by the Government (which is the second highest of any local authority in England, outside of London) and Cornwall’s unique position to become a Foundation Strategic Authority without a mayor.

Cllr Peter La Broy, the council’s Independent cabinet member for housing, said at today’s meeting: “We are pioneering a lot of work in Cornwall and putting Cornwall at the forefront of national politics and this is part of that process.”

Cornwall Council says the partnership will allow it and developers to secure support, including equity, loan and grant investment into housing projects across Cornwall. However, the exact details of the partnership have not been shared.

Non-aligned councillor Dulcie Tudor questioned why the draft MOU was exempt and confidential. “How can elected council members like myself decide whether they are supportive of this agreement with the Government if the actual terms of governing that partnership aren’t publicly available and haven’t been made available to us?”

Cllr La Broy responded: “There is nothing in the MOU, which I’ve personally read through many times, that scares me or, I believe, would scare any other councillor. However, Homes England have asked for confidentiality.”

He added that the “confidential papers” can be examined by a council scrutiny committee in private session. Any individual councillor can also request to read the confidential agreement.

However, he said it could not be scrutinised in advance of today’s decision to sign off the agreement, which Cllr La Broy did at the end of the meeting. Cllr Tudor said that was a “topsy turvy” way of approaching the matter.

Conservative member Cllr Rob Parsonage also questioned why the details were exempt, “but you’ve cleared that one up that Homes England asked for the confidentiality”.

The issue of the removal of Section 106 planning agreements to allow for alternative ways of funding affordable homes – which led to a protest in Penzance on Monday when a giant fake poo was pulled to a development in the town – was raised during today’s meeting.

The proposal is for the affordable homes element of developments to now be provided through an application to the Homes England Social and Affordable Housing Programme, which could mean the amount of affordable homes being built in Cornwall actually increasing.

Cllr La Broy said the changes were difficult to explain to fellow councillors and the public. “If you take the 106 requirements away, the end result is you’re probably going to end up delivering more affordable units. It’s really hard to explain that and there’s a measure of trust that’s required in moving on to this phase.

“But, to me, this is all a really good news story. The reality is most volume house builders are going to really struggle to build market homes, the only homes they can afford to build are ones where they’ve got a chunk of money from Home England supporting them.

“I’ve got an ambition that on these bigger housing projects that we’ve got, that we’re looking at a much higher level of delivery. I would like to go as far as saying that I’d hope we would be delivering up to 50% affordable, so half and half is my ambition that I’m pushing on.”

Find out about planning applications that affect you by visiting the Public Notice Portal.

The council announced its Homes Cornwall project in June, which is supported by Homes England and will use local construction companies to build 4,000 new homes on 400 acres of council-owned land.