I was forced to live in car park as second home owners invaded seaside town – I offered year’s rent but it wasn’t enough

IT is one of Britain’s most popular seaside towns with families paying thousands of pounds per week to relax near its sandy beaches and vibrant nightlife during the summer.

Even this week, on a clear but chilly day, it was awash with tourists and surfers, but you do not have to scratch much beneath the surface in Newquay, Cornwall, to see some locals are struggling to make ends meet.

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Earlier this month, Prince William – who took over running the Duchy of Cornwall from his father in 2022 – announced a £3million fund to build 24 new homes for homeless people in Nansledan, a new estate on the edge of Newquay built by the Duchy.

The move was welcomed in the town but with 27,000 on the waiting list for council houses in Cornwall, few believe this alone will have a major impact on the most vulnerable.

Among them is Maddie Tyers, 54, who slipped into homelessness following the death of her mother in 2020.

After selling the house they both lived in, Maddie tried to rent a flat in Newquay but was turned down despite offering a year’s rent up front because of her low income.

Within a year she was homeless and living in a van in the town with her two huskies Ghost and Maverick. 

Maddie sunk into depression and was close to suicide but has bravely chosen to tell her story to highlight how hardworking Brits are falling through the cracks.

Maddie – who worked as a construction site cleaner before having to stop work to care for her mother – said: “At my lowest point I was living in a car park in Wadebridge and I nearly took my own life.

“If it wasn’t for my uncle calling me up that evening and the dogs I wouldn’t be here. The dogs are my lifeline with my anxiety and mental health.

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“He sat on the phone with me crying for two hours. I couldn’t breath from crying because I had lost everything and it was just getting worse.

“People say pull yourself out of it but you can’t, you just keep going down. At every stage I just went down and down. 

“With the money from the house I bought a caravan for £42,000 but after a year I was told I couldn’t stay there and had to sell it back to them at a £10,000 loss and I ended up living in my van.

“The council put me in homeless accommodation over Christmas but they wouldn’t let me stay there with the dogs so I stayed in the campervan outside because I wouldn’t give them up.

“When you’re living in a camper van you can’t make any connections because you’re constantly moving, it’s hard to find a job and the hole just keeps getting bigger. It’s horrible.

“I have spoken to a lot of people going through the same thing, when one thing happens it’s like a snowball.”

Second home owner invasion

With the help of a local charity, The Drop In and Share Centre (DISC), Maddie was able to find a privately rented one-bed flat in the town but still struggles to find the £750 monthly rent and goes to extreme lengths to cut down her bills.

She said second homes and holiday lets had decimated Newquay’s community and urged those wanting a seaside holiday retreat to buy a caravan and leave the bricks and mortar for locals.

She said: “The rent is the first thing I think about. Because if I don’t pay it I’m homeless again. Everything else comes after and if I can’t afford food then I can’t afford food.

“I don’t put the electric heaters on, I just wrap up with a blanket.

“DISC helps me out with food quite a bit and I am moving to a smaller flat soon, which is cheaper.

“You are never more than two paychecks away from being homeless.”

The current situation is horrendous. I have lost track of how many people need housing in Newquay

Monique Collins from local charity DISC

Figures show homelessness is getting worse in Cornwall – with Newquay experiencing more than its fair share.

Last year charity St Petrocs supported 695 people sleeping rough — up by more than a third compared with 2022.

Among them was Jason Smith who became homeless three years ago after moving to Cornwall following the deaths of his mother Pat, and his wife Linda, within four days.

He worked at a Padstow hotel where he had staff accommodation but was told this would be withdrawn in the off-season.

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“I ended up living out of my car with my dog,” Jason said. He approached the council for help and was put in touch with St Petrocs.

He added: “I will always remember it. By two o’clock I was in a house in Newquay. It was like paradise.”

Jason said St Petrocs also helped him with therapy to cope with his grief as well as finding work. Today he has a front-of-house role at Rick Stein’s seafood restaurant at Fistral Beach, Newquay.

Monique Collins from DISC, which helps the most vulnerable people in the town with food, clothing and accommodation, said: “The housing crisis is worse than it has ever been and there is no light at the end of the tunnel, working families are struggling to keep a roof over their heads.”

Of Prince William’s plans, she added: “I know it’s only 24 homes but that is better than zero. I’d love it if he said we are going to build 1,000 homes here but it’s a step in the right direction.

“The current situation is horrendous. I have lost track of how many people need housing in Newquay. On Friday morning when we hand out free food the queue is around the block and there are more people every week.”

You are never more than two paychecks away from being homeless

Maddie Tyers

In a park overlooking Newquay’s Towan Beach, Cornish-born Jacey Peacock, 29, was working to tidy up green spaces ready for the influx of visitors during the warmer months.

She said: “I’m Cornish born and bred, I rent a one-bed flat in Newquay with my partner for £680 per month but there is no way we can afford to buy a house. If we had the money or not the difficulty is finding one which isn’t already an Airbnb.

“Things have gotten worse since the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of people came down and realised how beautiful it is so wanted to live here. 

“Second homes make it a lot harder for us. We see the community of Newquay every day doing what they can to get by. To see people you know struggling, it affects you.”

Houses for hope

Newquay has always attracted a mix of people, with many surfers choosing to camp in vans near the beach as a low-cost way to enjoy the waves.

But few can deny that the number of vans becoming a permanent fixture in the few free parking spots in town has grown in recent years. 

Two miles inland in the quirky suburb of Nansledan, plans for new homes for the homeless – a mix of four-bed houses and one bedroom flats – will go out for public consultation this month, with work on the development to begin in September. 

The first homes are due to be completed the following autumn.

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The duchy, which owns the estate and provides the heir to the throne with an income, recorded profits of £24million in 2022-23.

It will supply the land for the project free of charge and cover all construction costs. It will also invest in local infrastructure, including a bus link and connections to electricity, water and superfast broadband.

The new low-carbon homes will feature slate roofs, granite lintels, solar panels, heat pumps and colourful timber windows. It will be built in a “traditional Cornish seaside” style.

The Sunday Times reports William wants the development to “look and feel as homely as possible” to combat the stigma of social housing. The site will also be relandscaped, with shrubs and wildflowers planted to encourage biodiversity.

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Royal brainchild

Nansledan was the brainchild of the then Prince Charles and was built using traditional Cornish methods in 2020.

Residents must follow a 38-page rulebook to “protect the character” of Nansledan including not having visible washing lines or satellite dishes. Loud arguments and slamming doors are also banned.

All stone and slate must be from a West Country quarry – with no red bricks allowed in the development.

This week, most residents welcome the announcement about new homes, saying they are pleased steps are being taken to combat the town’s homelessness problems.

Emma Smithson, 43, who has lived in Nansledan for two years, said: “I think it’s great they are building houses for the homeless. I was in a position where I had to move into a rented home two years ago and I was really struggling.

“We were looking for quite a few months and it was a struggle to even get a viewing then we found this place in Nansledan.

“It’s such a nice community for families and kids, it feels safe. A lot of the wages don’t match the cost of living. Everything is increasing and people aren’t getting paid enough to cover it.

“I heard about the rules at first but we have one [clothes line] in the garden and we’ve never fallen foul of them. I have nothing against it but I would still like to buy out of Nansledan.”

Leigh Mayor, 45, who runs Nansledan Stores, said of the plans to help the homeless: “Most people I’ve spoken to are positive about it, there are only one or two worried about house prices.

“Everybody else is up for it. I live on the estate myself and I have no issues with it, I’d rather see somebody living in a house than on a doorstep.

“If you walk through Newquay at night you see so many many people asleep in doorsteps. It’s shocking quite how many there are. People living here in social houses and private rented houses are struggling.”

Asked whether he would like to see the Duchy go beyond the proposed 24 homes, Leigh said: “I think they should. Not just homeless people but a lot of people who are struggling. I would like to see a lot more homeless off the streets.”

A Cornwall Council spokesman said: “We are sympathetic towards those who are finding it difficult to find somewhere settled to live as Cornwall continues to experience extreme and unprecedented pressures on housing due to an imbalance in housing supply and demand.     

“Nationally, there has been a significant reduction in the availability of homes to rent and a matched sudden escalation in rental costs exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis.  

“In the last three years, the number of households in need of emergency accommodation has increased by around 224 per cent to around 850 while the number of households on our social housing register has more than doubled to around 27,000.    

“There is a high demand for accommodation which includes our own housing stock, properties that we rent, or other accommodation. 

 ”The steps we have taken include the provision of emergency temporary accommodation so that fewer residents are housed in B&Bs or hotels.

“But we’re also working to provide housing through investment in our own stock of accommodation – recent projects include new modular homes, buying and refurbishing disused properties and providing dedicated ‘move on’ accommodation to support former rough sleepers to help people find settled, permanent, homes. 

“We are reviewing our offer to private landlords to help keep people in their homes in the private sector.     

“We’re building more ‘council housing’ to add to the stock of 10,300 council houses in Cornwall and have bought open market homes to convert into affordable housing for local people in need. We’re also working with developers, local communities, and partners to identify suitable sites. ”