Cherilyn Mackrory, Member of Parliament for Truro and Falmouth, has called on the Government to work with housing developers in Cornwall to tackle the housing crisis and improve access to GPs in conjunction in a debate in Parliament this week.
Speaking in the debate on Tuesday, Cherilyn raised the need to increase the provision of affordable housing while keeping in mind that for local communities to accept new housing developments, they must be supported by health infrastructure.
For health facilities such as dentists, pharmacies, and GP surgeries to supply these services, she argued that we must ensure key workers can buy and rent affordably in the area. Cherilyn said:
“New housing developments must be supported by the appropriate health infrastructure. Developers can help to provide funding for sites, but for GPs and other health providers supply the service and we must do more to ensure workers can afford to buy or rent near their place of work.
I am pleased that developers for the controversial Langarth Garden Village in my constituency, which will eventually provide up to 10,000 new homes, are committed to doing the right thing and have secured, through the planning system and with the council’s involvement, permission to develop a new health infrastructure. However, I would like more key worker housing to be set aside in the development.”
Cherilyn suggested several options to help key workers secure housing:
“In areas with key worker staff shortages, local authorities and housing associations should consider giving greater priority to local key workers in their respective allocations and lettings policies.
In addition, the Government’s future affordable housing funding programmes should prioritise allocating grant funding to affordable housing schemes in which a significant proportion of homes are reserved for key workers. It is especially relevant to places such as Cornwall, where we are on a peninsula and cannot borrow key workers from other local authorities.”