More homes for locals – MP demands

19.03.2010  West Cornwall MP, Andrew George, re-visited a site of new housing which he helped get off the ground.  Mr George met residents at Long Moor at Ruan Minor, which he had formally opened ten years ago.

Before Mr George was first elected as MP for the constituency in 1997, he had worked in a professional capacity to promote affordable homes for local people in many villages and towns around Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, including work on the scheme which has provided 16 homes for local people in Ruan Minor.

Mr George said: “It’s great to see these schemes get off the ground. Cornwall Rural Housing Association – which I am a member of – is doing excellent work, but there is still a lot more to be done.

“West Cornwall and Scilly is desperately short of affordable homes. Although Cornwall’s housing stock has more than doubled in the last 40 years – growing faster than almost anywhere else in the country – the housing problems of local people have got worse. That’s because too much of the development is unaffordable to local people. There are simply not enough affordable homes. In future we need to get the balance of development right.”