08.11.2021

NHS staff unable to find rental homes in Cornwall

News cornwall Rural Vulnerability Rural Affordable Housing

The BBC reports NHS workers have called the stress of finding a rental property in Cornwall "overwhelming"

Graham Milne, who works in the radiography department at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, is looking for somewhere to live after his current landlord decided to sell the property.

He said he recently viewed a property in Falmouth and there were 75 people ahead of him wanting the same home.

Mr Milne has lived in Falmouth for 30 years and in his current rental property for eight years. He has has been given until 31 December to find somewhere new for him and his son.

In a social media post he appealed for places to rent, saying he feared for his health and his son's future.

He said:

"The stress that this has given me has been overwhelming. I've had tightness in my chest, my hands are shaking, I can't sleep at night.

"I am determined to continue to work at Treliske [Truro] and particularly my team are under so much pressure at the moment which I don't want to add to. However, I don't know how long I can keep this up. It's very difficult to search for a house whilst working shifts full time."

Royal Cornwall Hospital NHS Trust (RCHT) said finding affordable housing to rent or buy is one of the biggest challenges it faced when recruiting staff from outside Cornwall.

RCHT said:

"We are working with our NHS partners and Cornwall Council to find ways to help our key workers and have actively supported local planning applications where developers are aiming to provide key worker or affordable housing."

The trust says its working to find ways to help key workers and would love to hear from landlords or letting agents with accommodation available.

Cornwall Council said it was working to address housing pressures in a variety of ways, including the purchase and refurbishment of disused properties.

"We need affordable housing in Cornwall everybody knows it, this not a new issue," Cherilyn Mackrory MP for Truro and Falmouth said.

"We all know that we need more affordable housing in Cornwall but what we need is more keyworker housing in Cornwall.

"It doesn't matter what level you work at in the hospital, we can't borrow staff from other hospital trusts like other parts of the country, if people are coming to work in Cornwall they are coming to live and work in Cornwall and we want to make sure we've got as much keyworker housing as we need to help facilitate those families' moves."

Full article:

The BBC - NHS staff unable to find rental homes in Cornwall

The RSN has campaigned as part of Revitalising Rural, for affordable housing in rural areas.

Rural communities should be diverse and inclusive places where people of all ages and backgrounds can live together. A supply of affordable housing helps to ensure that is the case. Without it, rural communities become places where only the more affluent (who are disproportionately from older age groups) can afford to live. There is a risk that the cost of open market housing rises further in rural areas if more people move there from urban areas following the recent pandemic.

Adequate housing provision is not simply a question of numbers of homes built. Just as important is the type of housing built – especially its tenure and size – to ensure it addresses the local community needs.

You can see the RSN asks of Government for Affordable Housing at this link.