Who sold them the houses?
Ok - as everyone in Cornwall knows, second homes are highly controversial at the moment, because the local people cannot afford to buy homes in the towns they were raised in. When this is combined with a general lack of affordable housing across the county (and in fact in any rural community in an attractive part of the UK) one cannot help but have sympathy for today's and future generations.
However one has to ask the questions - who sold their homes to the second home owers? Who allowed them to come in and escalate the prices of these properties? Who made a very tidy capital gain as a result of the increasing desire for the city bound to escape their concrete confines for the shores of our beautiful county?
The answer is to a large extent the very same people who now complain that they (or their children) cannot afford to buy a house in the area. I know of no one who has decided to take a significantly lower price when they sold their house, just to ensure a local person could afford to buy it. They would argue that they need to get the maximum price to buy their next house, which has of course gone up in price, because the next person in the chain wants to maximise their personal profit. So the escaltion continues and affordibility decreases.
Unfortunately this patten of property prices is not new, although the scales of increase maybe significantly more rapid than in the past (isn't everything in life now!). Perhaps the issue is really more one of expecation. When earlier generations grew up and started work, they didn't necessarily expect to be able to afford to live in the same area as their parents, but rather aspired to be able to afford to live where their parents did in the future, after hard work and some success. Perhaps modern generations are used to having it all "NOW" as a result of the immediacy of modern life and technology, and the massive availablity of finance? Either way, a Padstonian still expects (even believes they have a right) to afford to live in Padstow, as if the town was still a quaint, sleepy fishing village dependent on the daily ebb and flow of the fishing fleet.
Sad though it is, times have changed and all we can do is adapt. By all means have a voice but temper it with an understanding that the situation here is not unique, and neither can the solutions be. The Lake District and many other places, including Wales (despite their best pyrotechnic efforts) and Scotland, have suffered at the hands of this phenomena. The solution may be in ressurecting communities and acting as one rather than just for profit, or maybe just in viewing the situation differently, perhaps even as an opportunity. Perhaps we can integrate the second home owners more deeply into our communities in such a way that their contributions (financial or otherwise) are of benefit rather than just to our detriment.
What is certain is that there is no simple rapid solution, so in the interim, work together buy houses in groups than as individuals, make your money and get on the property ladder somewere, some how. Alternatively just blame your parents, sit on your hands, complain about city bonuses, and sell them your house.
Comments
You contrived dimwit. Are you alleging that homeless people are homeless because they sold their house?
Yes, you may have a fairly reasonable writing style, enough perhaps to warrant some provincial corporate copy writing service, but certainly not enough to warrant an articulate, structured argument.
Intelligence isn't something you can buy with objective one funding.
Posted by: Anonymous | November 22, 2006 10:43 PM
As a provincial and Contrived Dimwit who was able to purchase 40% of his brain cells with Objective One funding I read "Anonymous's" comment with considerable humour... So "Anonymous" your comment implies that you haven't atually read the article or at least not understood it.
Nevermind, I accept your compliments on my provincial and reasonable writing style, personally I love the provinces.
Posted by: Contrived Dimwit | November 23, 2006 12:22 PM
"You contrived dimwit. Are you alleging that homeless people are homeless because they sold their house?" - where does it say that? I didn't read that anywhere. I think the artcile makes a good, if somewhat unpopular point. I would also add (and I know this from experience) that some villages here in cornwall, are dead in the winter because of 2nd home ownership. And the villagers moan because their village has shrunk and services are withdrawn (postoffice/bus etc). Funny thing is A LOT OF THOSE MOANING VILLAGERS OWN SECOND (OR THIRD) HOMES IN THE VILLAGES AND LET THEM OUT IN THE SUMMER.
Sorry, but you can't have it both ways. Get reall ffs.
Posted by: Objectional One | November 27, 2006 10:40 AM
Tim,
Took a look at your site, browsed the blog, and had to comment on this – months late though I may be
While I see what you are getting at, the idea that the people of Padstow have cashed in and brought the current housing crisis on themselves by being pushed around by the market is overly simplistic, inflammatorily judgemental, and a moot point anyway – so I’m not going to touch that. What I will pick you up on is some of your other observations.
You mention a need to integrate newcomers into the community, but this is exactly what has happened for hundreds of years (my Padstow blood is mixed with Irish, Scottish, English, Welsh and even St Columb). Padstow’s community has been continuous, but it has never been insular (it’s a port, for chrissakes). The issues we have at present are not about integration, but displacement.
The bottom line is that with houses the price they are, it’s a classic Catch 22 – if you live in Padstow, you can’t earn enough to live in Padstow. That means the people of Padstow are being driven out by the holidaying middle classes and wealthy (early/semi) retirees. Intractable though this trend may be, it’s sure to lead to resentment, as it threatens the essence of the community. The basic point is simple – local people feel Padstow is in our blood, and feel we are part of something ancient and precious. Your assertion that young Padstonians must give up their sense of belonging (something you see as presumptuous, outdated and naïve) because of market forces betrays that you can’t ever understand the depth of feeling involved, and this undermines the good points you make.
Padstow is the wonderful place it is because the truly ancient, continuous community based on tradition and the blood of a few families is counter-pointed by an inclusive and diverse population – old, young, rich, poor, local, newcomer, etc. When the last descendant of the old families is driven away and another retiree prices the last of the fishermen out of the town, something precious will be lost and Padstow will become just another Rock – devoid of soul, devoid of any meaningful identity, and devoid of any real sense of community. That’s where your logic will take Padstow, Tim. You may be right, but that doesn’t mean it’s for the best, and the people who so naively and proudly feel they have a right to be here are unlikely to go quietly.
Posted by: Dan | December 27, 2006 02:36 PM
Dan - thanks for the comments on the blog. I certainly didn't intend to be inflammatory but I guess there is always a risk of this when one comments on an issue that people feel passionately about. I think you may have misinterpreted some points but many you made were valid and an interesting insight to a non-Padstonian.
I too feel passionately about community (in my case Trevone) and preventing erosion via second home ownership is always going to be a battle.
I think the issue is really human nature, and to this extent the blog was a comment on that rather than Padstonians. The current rural problems are as a result of greed, from second home owners to local residents who have cashed in, and not just in Padstow.
As I said the problem is not unique but faced in many towns throughout the UK, especially where they are in an area of outstanding natural beauty. Many of those towns also have a history, and a strong sense of belonging, and they face the same erosion of their community and culture.
There is no simple solution and what is needed is just what you said, something that addresses the issues of rural displacement. The blog was not advocating the current situation and trend, it was meant to highlight it and encourage people to take what action they can. It is all to easy to complain – what Padstow needs is people taking action to preserve what they hold dear… in just the way you are.
Whilst I was at the Prioritisation event in Padstow I heard so many people say “what’s the point” “I told them what they needed to do ten years ago and they haven’t done anything”. There are always those who have this pessimistic view in any town, I just hope that they are not the majority in Padstow or the writing really is on the wall.
Posted by: Tim | January 2, 2007 01:21 PM