Local businessman reveals three year search for affordable home in Cornish village
John Scorse was speaking ahead of a debate on Cornwall's housing crisis
Last updated 12th Jan 2022
A St Mawes resident has told us he "couldn't keep up" with rising house prices, when looking to buy a home in the village.
Jon Scorse, who owns Mr Scorse Gourmet Deli and Wines, lived in rented accommodation in the area for three years before finding an affordable property of his own.
The businessman was only able to secure a home under a covenant for people who live and work locally.
Jon said: "I'd been saving and working hard. St Mawes gets busier, the business gets busier, but always facing property prices rising far higher more sharply. You just couldn't keep up really.
"I am so thankful for the covenant on this house so nobody else could buy it".
Recent government figures show Cornwall provided the second largest number of affordable homes in England between 2020-21.
The Duchy offered 814 affordable houses in the past year, and 8,172 in the last decade.
Jon Scorse thinks affordable homes are not enough on their own and told us more changes can be made to make other people's searches easier.
He continued: "Finally this past summer a house came up in the village with a covenant on it which stipulated that it would only be available to someone who lived and worked in the local area, so after three years of searching it was perfect for me. It's fantastic.
"It's all very well having an affordable home but if anyone can come in and buy it. I think it should be limited to people who live or work in that area".
St Mawes on the Roseland is known for expensive homes, with last year's figures showing it to have the largest house price increases for any UK seaside town in the past year.
Jon agrees that there is a local issue: "The problem with St Mawes in my opinion is there's very few houses for normal working people. They're all great big beautiful houses, millions of pounds, but there's very few houses that you'd find in any normal town and that's always been the big problem here".
Cornwall Council is holding a Facebook live debate on the Duchy's housing crisis at 4pm on Wednesday 12th January.
Officials will explain what is being done to tackle the issue and you can read more and watch the debate at the link below...