Last week I was invited to the official opening of a small housing development of thirty social homes in Troon.

It had taken five and half years to complete! We need to cut two thirds off that time and to do so is going to take some pretty radical changes to planning laws and no little investment into both council planning departments as well as from home builders and developers.

The Labour government has allocated an eye-watering £13-billion to building such homes nationally. What is at stake, however, cannot be overstated: the entire economic future and social fabric of Cornwall, over the next 10 years.

So why is it so important? Let’s first consider the health and social care sector. As many as a third of beds at Treliske are blocked by folk who, through no fault of their own, should be cared for in the social care sector. But very often the few nurses and social care workers we attract to Cornwall have to leave because they simply cannot find anywhere affordable to live.

Then consider our young people. Cornwall’s youth drain has accelerated over recent years, driven out because they cannot find anywhere affordable to live. And that all-important homegrown talent disappears with them. Today, as well as nurses and care workers, we lack construction workers, electricians, plumbers, engineers and much more.

I should make very clear that this is neither the fault of our amazing FE colleges and Universities. It’s entirely because having completed their education or training, our young people do not have access to suitable housing of their own.

I have to say I find it incredibly frustrating when I go to community meetings and listen to earnest folk espousing the importance of social housing in Cornwall and then you hear those dreaded three words: ‘Just. Not. Here’. That’s not good enough any more and should not be tolerated.

Put bluntly, Cornwall needs to become a nation of YIMBYS (Yes In My Back Yard). We should give awards to communities that are grasping the social housing nettle. And we need to be clearer that when someone purchases a house, they do not purchase the view.

So it may transpire that, that plot of land next door may end up being home to a few young Cornish families. Nor is this only the responsibility of our large towns and urban areas.

Towns like Camborne, Redruth, Newquay and Truro have already seen exponential growth over recent years. If we really care about Cornwall, every single hamlet, village and town needs to step up and think carefully about how they can play their part in fixing this crisis.

There are already some superb examples, like that in Troon, and speaking with many parish councillors, there’s a huge amount of goodwill and a clear understanding of the problem. And I’m very pleased and fully support this Labour government’s plans to change the rules so that a small number of NIMBYS cannot hold back our young people’s futures.