Rich and powerful holidaymakers are able to build ‘ghastly’ second homes in coastal beauty spots because cash-strapped councils can’t afford to fight lengthy planning battles.
Councillors in Cornwall – dubbed Britain’s second home capital – told MailOnline they are under pressure to ignore concerns about size and impact on coastal beauty spots and ‘wave through’ applications to avoid the risk of costly appeals and judicial hearings.
Business tycoons and celebrities including Gordon Ramsay and Oscar winner Cate Blanchett have built luxurious holiday homes in Cornwall in recent years.
It comes amid a surge in multi-million pound developments in Cornwall’s most sought-after seaside towns including Rock, Polzeath, St Ives and Mawgan Porth.
Actress Imogen Stubbs, Fifty Shades of Grey actor Jamie Dornan, and Hollywood actors Jason Statham and Jason Momoa are all said to have bought properties locally.
The co-founders of Innocent smoothie Richard Reed and Jon Wright also own a home in the area. According to planning documents submitted to Cornwall Council, Reed and Wright plan to share the property which will be used as a holiday residence.
And despite local concern surrounding holiday lets, Cornwall Council – currently more than £700million in debt – has been forced to cut back planning officers who evaluate applications and those remaining are hopelessly overworked, sources say.
In turn, councillors say they are being told not to refuse planning permission against officer recommendations if it will lead to costly appeals.
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s £4.4million beach side mansion in Rock on the north Cornwall coast
A-list actress Cate Blanchett’s clifftop house is nearing completion at Mawgan Porth
A £4.5million mansion in Fowley was won by a grandmother in a prize draw but was branded ‘like a goldfish bowl’
Cornwall Councillor John Fitter – who sits on the council’s east and central planning committees – told MailOnline: ‘Our legal people sometimes tell us “if you proceed with refusal the applicants will appeal and it will cost the council a lot of money”.
‘It frustrates me because I think if you have a planning committee allow them to make decisions and don’t fetter them.
‘I have fought against various applications in Mawgan Porth, not all of them because there are some incredible designs. There are some absolutely ghastly designs too but the planning officer needs to agree with your view.
‘If the officer makes a judgement to recommend approval the committee can still refuse it but they have to have a reason that will stand up at appeal as losing an appeal is costly.
‘Planning officers have been trimmed right back, in theory they have 28 days to decide on an application but they are severely understaffed which affects their ability to make decisions.
‘I get the feeling it is easier for them to wave it through without proper scrutiny.’
Former military medic Emma Keelan, 45, who now works as a dog walker, lived in Mawgan Porth for almost 20 years but was forced out of the village and into temporary accommodation during Covid when her landlord decided to turn the rental property into a holiday let.
She said: ‘It’s unbelievable how all these celebrities and wealthy people behave. How much is enough? They’ve bought the houses for crazy amounts of money but they just want more and more.
Business tycoons and celebrities including Gordon Ramsay (pictured) have built luxurious holiday homes in Cornwall in recent years
Cate Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton bought their former cottage in December 2020 before demolishing it to make way for their clifftop house
The bizarre home, which looks like a shipping container is reportedly costing £5million
Innocent smoothie co-founders Richard Reed and Jon Wright also have built a house in the small village
The two properties overlook the beach where the nickname Hollywood-on-Sea has been coined due to the influx of actors
‘If they get permission for this what next? Normal people already can’t afford to live here any more, look how it is in the winter, it’s a ghost town.
‘When I first moved here in 2002 there was livestock grazing the fields on that clifftop, now there’s just big houses that are empty for most of the year.
‘I’m sorry but I get so emotional about this.’
In Mawgan Porth, dubbed Hollywood-on-Sea because of the number of A-listers who have homes in the area, four appeals have been upheld against planning refusals to build new homes since 2020, just two were rejected.
Under new housing targets announced in December by Deputy PM Angela Rayner Cornwall will have to build an extra 1,771 homes a year to reach an annual building rate of 4,421 which could further weaken their ability to reject applications.
Councillor Andrew Mitchell who represents the second home hotspot of St Ives said the council has a ‘fairly good record’ on winning appeals but admitted costs impact decisions.
He said: ‘We’ve just had the government tell Cornwall Council we’re going to have to double the number of houses we build – it doesn’t distinguish what sort of house.
‘Money is king in this country, it always has been, it pisses me and many locals off when many people work all the hours god sends and still can’t afford a first home.
Construction work on both properties in Wamgan Porth appeared to be ongoing with diggers and earth-moving equipment still on site
Residents of the village have become increasingly frustrated by the constant building work
‘Without a doubt there is pressure to approve [planning applications], there is no planning policy where we can say “you don’t need a property that size”.
‘There are commercial applications where anybody would look at them and say “bloody hell how did that get planning permission” and it brings the whole system into disrepute but if it was an inquiry it would be the Cornwall Council solicitor against a £10,000 per day barrister.
‘It’s not just the planning system that’s bought by cash, it’s the legal system.
‘Look at the council finances, we don’t have enough planning officers, we don’t have enough enforcement officers and I’m afraid the system is biased in favour of development.’
Locals previously revealed their frustrations with huge celebrity mansions popping up along their coastline.
NHS worker Kim Emmett, who has lived in Mawgan Porth since 1987, said demand for the chance to rub shoulders with celebrities had got so out of hand her mum has had people walk by her house and offer £2 million for it.
Kim, 51, said: ‘It has always been a popular holiday destination as it’s between Newquay and Padstow and near a National Trust hotspot. It’s become more and more popular every year. The locals have sold up here and the properties have been taken down and there’s modern complex, cube-shaped, Californian-style buildings instead of your 1930s bungalows.
‘There’s a lot of posh cubed modern buildings. Those properties are now going for over a million. You can’t buy a property here for under one million. Not one local can afford to buy anything here.’
Another upshot of the vast expanse of second homes is that in winter Mawgan Porth becomes a ghost town.
A local said this week: ‘I’ve barely seen another soul walking around, it would be spooky if we weren’t so used to it.
‘In summer you can barely move for people, it does bring the year-rounders closer together and there’s a nice little community and we support local businesses as much as we can but having such a stark difference is not ideal.’
Second homes means any furnished properties that are not classed as the owner’s main residence – and Cornwall’s 14,000-strong count dwarfs runner-up North Yorkshire’s 8,572 properties.
Catherine Hayes, co-founder of the First Not Second Homes group, said: ‘For too long, property has been viewed as a form of investment for profit at the expense of both the community and the local economy. We need a sea change in how we view property ownership and the social responsibility that should accompany it.’
From this April, Cornwall Council will charge a 100% council tax premium to all second homes, which campaigners say is a ‘small step in the right direction’ but more needs to be done.
‘Let’s be clear, we’re referring to homes that are standing empty,’ she said. ‘I know people who have been in emergency and temporary accommodation since before the pandemic due to a lack of affordable housing – people who there are simply no options for because the council can only help the most vulnerable. This needs to change, now.
‘More homes need to be built with the right infrastructure to handle increasing needs, and landlords need to be supported and incentivised to stay in the long-term rental market to lower rents.’
Cornwall Council was contacted for comment.