Once upon a time, at this point in the year, I was likely to be found in a run-down seaside town somewhere, listening to all manner of plots and conspiracies advanced by a small group of desperate people who were trying to take over the country.
They were not alone. Every party conference had an exhibition area where lobbyists would hang out, distributing pencils and car stickers to anyone who loitered too long in one spot. This year, Cornwall Council has sent a small team to each of the main party conferences in the hope that somebody, somewhere, cares anything about what they think at County Hall in Truro.
As news filters back from this year’s conferences, I was reminded of the “Rural Coalition” – a network of organisations which formed in 2014 in the hope of influencing policies ahead of the 2015 general election.
Its founding premise was, and still is, a good one: that rural Britain should consist of vibrant, living, working communities and not become merely gated communities of wealthy retireds, who have been able to exploit house-price inequalities by stripping the equity out of London and the South East.
The question of social housing loomed large in the Rural Coalition “manifesto,” thrust at surprised conference delegates. There were also other fascinating facts: “By 2028 the over-85 age group is set to increase in rural areas by 186% (compared with 149% in the UK as a whole). A growing number needing social care. By 2029, it is estimated that there will be 930,000 people with social care needs living in rural areas.”
The Rural Coalition, which is led by former Euro MP (and Cornwall councillor) Lord Robin Teverson, was long on good questions but, not surprisingly, short on clever answers. Its manifesto called for political parties to “Strengthen the role of neighbourhood plans within the planning system where advanced community-led proposals conflict with developer-led proposals that fail to meet local needs. Require ‘change of use’ permission for new second homes in rural and coastal areas where there is a shortage of local housing and a high density of second homes.”
Who could be against such a sensible suggestion? Unfortunately politicians are a good example of clever people who are often surprisingly ignorant. Margaret Thatcher once told me that Cornwall was “an ice cream county” and seemed genuinely astonished when I gently suggested that schools, hospitals and houses might also be a good thing.
On another occasion, I found myself (accidentally) invited to a party at Rock, by friends of the then-Chancellor Kenneth Clarke. “And where do you live?” I was asked. “St Mabyn,” I replied. “No, where do you really live?” insisted the hostess, astonished that anyone actually lived in the area all year round. I felt like a refugee in my own country.
Next Wednesday the courts will pass judgement on an attempt by people in St Ives to take control of the situation themselves. More than 83 per cent of St Ives voters backed a plan to restrict the growth of new second homes – to the fury of estate agents and property developers, who also tend to lobby at party conferences. The St Ives case has implications for the whole country, and Cornwall in particular. It is a shame that our fragile democracy now has to hang on the threads of a ridiculously expensive Judicial Review.
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