A Cornwall Council officer denied claims by a councillor today (Tuesday, June 13) that an "awful lot of people" from upcountry are being given council housing in the Duchy which should be given to Cornish people first.

It's a comment that many Cornwall councillors have heard from the public over the years. In fact, it's a comment that anyone living in Cornwall would have heard – that people from Manchester, Liverpool, London, and other cities across England move to Cornwall and are given priority council accommodation.

But it's simply not true, according to the council's service director for planning and housing, Louise Wood.

During a discussion about housing services being moved back in-house to the council from Cornwall Housing Limited (CHL) at an economic growth scrutiny committee at Lys Kernow / New County Hall in Truro, Cllr John Conway (Conservative, Launceston South) raised the thorny issue.

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He said: "We seem to have an awful lot of people from outside Cornwall getting our Section 106 and council houses, and I believe we [should] make it a priority that residents of Cornwall get absolute priority wherever legally possible.

"I'm not saying that people suffering from domestic abuse from outside shouldn't come here as that's perfectly correct; I'm not saying that people as they leave the Services or veterans don't get housing, but we have an awful lot of people come down from outside Cornwall and take on our properties. Unless there is a legal reason, the houses should first of all given to residents of Cornwall."

The chairman of the committee Martin Worth (Conservative, Saltash Trematon & Landrake) asked if there was evidence of what his fellow member was saying.

Ms Wood replied: "I don't believe that's the case. I don't believe it's true that we are seeing significant amounts of people not from Cornwall in those properties. Our policies are strict as far as they can be. The way that we have our Section 106 agreement does prioritise people with a local connection to Cornwall. In fact, some of our restrictions, in terms of the priority we give, are very restrictive.

"Obviously anything that is open market is open market but even then statistically people on new estates tend to have come from the local area. That's what various bits of research have shown."

She said a review of the council's housing allocations policy was currently being carried out which will come back to Cabinet for a decision later this year.

The committee noted the council's housing transformation plan, which has brought the Housing Options Service – which provides support and assistance to people who are at risk of being homeless, are homeless or who are in housing need – back in-house from Cornwall Housing Limited (CHL), the company which is part of the Corserv Group owned by the council .

However, members of the committee believed there should be a dedicated housing department within the council especially at such a time of dire need.

There are 28,000 people currently on the Homechoice register for people in need of housing in the county.