NEW houses equivalent to ’a town roughly twice the size of Bodmin’ could be required to be built in Cornwall in the next ten years under the Government’s overhaul of the planning system, Cornwall Council has warned.

Proposed new rules would set a requirement of 4,000 new homes in the county each year, says the Council, on top of homes which are already part of an existing target.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the changes will streamline and modernise the planning system and ’ensure that more land is available for development when it is needed’.

But the local authority here fears that affordable home provision could fall significantly under the new rules. Proposed short-term changes that mean developers will not have to provide any affordable housing on sites of less than 40 - 50 homes – currently it is a condition that affordable homes are included on schemes of more than 10 new houses.

While Cornwall Council said it was right that the Government wants to help small and medium sized builders in the Covid recovery, the Council says that thousands of homes already have planning permission in the county but have not yet been built.

Cornwall Council’s Portfolio Holder for Planning Tim Dwelly said: “The message is simple. Under these new proposals the overall number of homes being built in Cornwall will rise dramatically. But the number of new affordable homes will fall dramatically. The current planning system gives residents the right to?have a?meaningful say on the quality and location of new homes - as well as their affordability. The?Government proposals will?remove this right. That’s not?on.

“We are already building our fair share of homes in Cornwall in a careful, planned way.”

Cornwall Council is calling on Government to review the new housing formula, abandon proposals to raise the affordable housing threshold, and give Cornwall new powers or funding to build the infrastructure that is needed to unlock sites that already have planning permission.

The Council is asking residents to have a look at the Government’s consultation https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/planning-for-the-future and then copy their feedback into Cornwall Council so that it can make its own response.

Go to the Let’s Talk Cornwall website https://letstalk.cornwall.gov.uk/future-planning to find out more and have your say.