Three Seas Cornwall: Making coastal homes affordable for Cornish people

Think of Cornwall and images of unspoilt coastline and outstanding natural beauty spring to mind. The reality for the county’s natives, however, is not always as idyllic as the outsider’s view. 

“There are no houses available to rent to people from Cornish coastal towns,” said Simon Ryan. “The private rental market here has disappeared and the holiday market distorts the whole area.

“When someone can make £1,000 a week on Airbnb, they’re going to do that instead of renting their property to local people. The market isn’t just damaged, it’s destroyed.” 

Simon is one of the six founders of Three Seas Cornwall, a community benefit society working to redress this problem and provide affordable homes for local people. 

It was set up following the success of a previous project: “There were three redundant council houses in Cawsand that were going to go up for auction. Instead, the council sold them cheaply to the local community trust to refurbish for social housing. Three local families now live there, paying low rent in a beautiful area of Cornwall,” said Simon.

Three Seas Cornwall is currently working on the redevelopment of a grade two listed terrace of 11 flats overlooking the old town of Looe. 

“We made a full presentation to Cornwall Council and said we could raise the money to do them up and rent them out to local people from the town at £400 a month,” he said. “They agreed to give us the 11 flats for £1 – on the condition they’re only ever used as social housing for local people at low rents and that we raise the money to refurbish them.”

So with £2 million to find, Three Seas set about raising capital. They secured a loan from Triodos Bank and grants from Homes England and Cornwall Council. The final £250,000 came from a community share offer. 

To prepare the offer, they were awarded a £8,000 development grant from the Community Shares Booster Fund delivered by the Community Shares Unit at Co-operatives UK.

After reaching out to local people while canvassing the council – and being warmly received – they were already well known when the share offer launched in March 2024.

When the offer closed, it had raised £114,000 from local investors, £40,000 from the Co-operative and Community Finance ICOF fund and £100,000 in match equity investment from the Community Shares Booster Fund. 

“The match funding was vital to complete the finance package,” said Simon, “and community control is vital to what we are doing. The Booster Fund made the community shares part of it work. It wouldn’t be community controlled without it. 

“We are serious about local control. We guarantee that those who grew up in the town will get the housing. To make that guarantee real, it needs to be a local organisation that has ownership of that site.”

Three Seas now has 203 shareholder members as a result of the offer. Around 80% of these are Looe residents. “There will be representation from amongst these members on the board going forward,” said Simon, who is now waiting for the redevelopment to start. 

“We need to be approved as a registered social housing provider from the government. Once we’ve got all that sorted, we pay our pound and start building the next day. It’s a six-month build and we’re aiming to have tenants in by May 2025. 

“One of reasons we’re spending so much on the refurb is because we’re investing in eco-friendly measures for the properties, including insulation, solar panels and heat pumps. This is great for the planet and the tenants.  

“It’s hard to take an old stone house and turn it into an eco-home – but it can be done. They’re beautiful listed historic buildings too, and we want to maintain their heritage look.” 

Word of Three Seas has now spread throughout the county and they have been approached to replicate this model elsewhere. 

With an exciting future ahead for the team, they’re hoping their work will make the same difference to others that it has to the tenants in Cawsand where it all started.

“The families in those houses – their parents were born in the village. These are bar staff, fisherman and a window cleaner on proper low incomes who will never get on the housing ladder.

“The window cleaner and his girlfriend were living in a horrible, insecure flat. It’s changed their lives. They said getting a secure home was better than winning the lottery.” 

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