A £300m proposal to tackle the mounting pressure on housing in Cornwall will go before the Council’s leading cabinet for approval.

The Housing Crisis Plan proposals have been developed with Cornwall Council’s housing partners and were also shaped by survey responses from more than 2,500 people in October.

The plan covers four main areas: working towards ending homelessness and rough sleeping, and reducing the reliance on short-term hotel and B+B accommodation; improving availability and access to homes for local residents; and increasing the supply of affordable homes in Cornwall.

Among the policies being put forward are some significant changes. The Council has proposed encouraging private landlords to make their properties available to help meet housing needs through improved financial and tax incentives.

There’s also a proposal to Government that planning permission should be needed to switch a home to a second residence or holiday let, and that the authority should be able to charge double Council Tax on second homes.

And in future, developers of rural exception sites could be told that 100 per cent of homes must be for affordable home ownership and rent.

Olly Monk, Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning, said: “This is the start of a multi-faceted approach to address the housing crisis. There are lots of aspects to the plan and each one will make a significant difference to the overall crisis – now, in the medium term and moving on into the future.

“This plan will involve more than £300m of potential investment moving forward into housing that the people of Cornwall want. It will also go some way to try to get the legislative changes we need at Parliament to be able to control the amount of second homes, and give us the ability to be able to set a Council Tax surcharge against those homes.”