A CORNWALL Councillor has called for ‘less talk and more delivery’ from the local authority on plans to build thousands more homes.

Cllr Adrian Parsons, the Liberal Democrat council member for Altarnun and Stoke Climsland said that the authority’s recent record for delivering social housing had been ‘notoriously poor’ in building the numbers required to keep up with demand.

He was responding to an announcement by Cornwall Council of a scheme called ‘Homes Cornwall’ where it will use council owned land in partnership with developers, including Treveth, the council’s own property developer to ‘provide an additional supply of homes for Cornish residents’.

The homes that Cornwall Council intends to build on land it owns are described as being a mix of affordable housing, market sale homes and market rental homes, which it says will be designed to meet a wide range of housing needs.

It intends to release approximately 400 acres of land which it says will enable the construction of ‘at least’ 4,000 homes.

Announcing the news, Cllr Tim Dwelly, the council’s portfolio holder for economic regeneration said: “Homes Cornwall is looking to use a small proportion of council-owned land to provide housing for local people.

“Using our land, we can work proactively with developers to enable them to accelerate building homes and focus on meeting our resident’s needs.

“This initiative will help us address the housing crisis by using our own assets and working in partnership with local builders, to maximise the benefits for our residents.”

However, Cllr Parsons said that while an ambition to build the housing is welcome, he has reservations on if it will be delivered.

He said: “Whilst I welcome the ambition to deliver housing for local people, Cornwall Council has, in recent years, been notoriously poor at delivering anything close to the number of homes required to keep pace with demand on the local housing register.

“In some cases, we have even had to purchase homes from local developers to help ease the pressure and move people out of temporary accommodation.

“Around seven years ago, the Council opened up its site beside the link road at Pennygillam. At that time, there were around 140 people on the local housing register, yet not a single home has been delivered on that site.

“Today, the figure is closer to 500 people, which only highlights the scale of the challenge and the need for action.”

Cllr Parsons said that the council’s priority should be to focus on the land it has already opened up for development, adding: “I genuinely hope that, when the funding from Homes England comes through to kick-start this programme, our first priority is building homes on the sites we have already opened up.

“We need to put right those areas where, in my view, we could and should have done much better, rather than getting carried away and repeating the same mistakes elsewhere.

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“In recent years, I have heard far too much talk. Now is the time to put some of our past shortcomings right and start delivering.”