Cornwall Council should have its own housing department, like many other councils across the UK, to tackle the housing crisis in the Duchy. That was the view of councillors discussing the transfer of housing services from Cornwall Housing Limited (CHL) to the council.

At a meeting of the council's economic growth and development overview and scrutiny committee today (Tuesday, June 13) members voted in favour of Cornwall Council considering the re-establishment of a single integrated housing department to "streamline the service and increase accountability".

The meeting heard that there is unprecedented demand for accommodation, which is two to three times the level it was before the Covid pandemic, with 28,000 people currently on the Homechoice register for people in need of housing in the county.

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.

In November 2021, the council and Corserv Limited commissioned an external appraisal of the future management of council homes and the provision of other services commissioned from CHL. As a result, it was concluded that the commissioning from CHL of homelessness and housing options services be brought to an end, with the council making arrangements to provide the services. Cabinet approved the decision last year.

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Cllr Tim Dwelly (Independent, Penzance East) said: "I don't understand why we don't have a housing department. We're moving things from one out-of-house Cormac-owned company into another bit – we've moved a lot of the service into a directorate here that is not experienced in housing. The worry I have is that there are too many cooks. It seems to me that bringing Cornwall Housing's allocations services into the council, wasn't that a great opportunity to have an actual housing department doing it?

"We've discussed this before and officers say it's much more efficient like this, but that's not been my experience as a councillor. Can we have some clarity on why this council strategically, unlike most councils, doesn't have a housing department with a head of housing? I don't get it."

Louise Wood, who is the council's service director for planning and housing – the nearest position to a 'head of housing' – told Cllr Dwelly that the creation of a dedicated department would be the decision for the Chief Executive Kate Kennally and the council's executive "in response to budget pressures and the pressures in terms of the services we have".

She added: "This is the structure we have now and there are more of us involved in housing. We're bring a collective knowledge to the challenge."

Cllr Dwelly commented that the decision for the current way of handling housing was made at chief executive level and endorsed by Cabinet "as a cost-cutting exercise". He added: "Whether that proves successful remains to be seen."

Cllr John Conway (Conservative, Launceston South) agreed with Cllr Dwelly: "We have missed the opportunity of bringing the whole of Cornwall housing right back into Cornwall Council and make it an integral part of what the council does. Go back to the old-fashioned way where council houses are run by the council. Housing our residents is one of our prime functions."

Cllr Peter Perry (Conservative, Camborne Roskear & Tuckingmill) and Cllr Steve Arthur (Conservative, Perranporth) both agreed that there should be a dedicated housing department, with the latter saying: "The move to Corserv was a disaster – it needs to be brought back in-house."

The meeting heard that the transfer of housing services back to the council had seen 135 staff transferred to work on the various strands of housing need, with the introduction of a complex needs team as one of the new areas. The team will focus on people who have additional needs such as domestic abuse, mental health and those homeless people who might be ex-offenders.

The committee was told that there is a need to foster greater partnership with multiple agencies, including Planning and Housing, Adults Social Care, Health, Together For Families, Public Health, voluntary and third sector organisations. The transfer programme will be reviewed in 18 months time to see if it has been successful.