Cornwall Council has addressed a rumour that it has been told by the Government that it has to find homes for 500 asylum seekers, writes Local Democracy Reporter Lee Trewhela.

The matter was brought up at a meeting of the council’s corporate finance scrutiny committee today (Tuesday, October 15) by the Conservative councillor for St Stephen, Mike McLening.

He said: “I’ve got six young couples who have been given eviction notices for no reason. I go around there and come away thinking I’ve done nothing except hold their hand for about ten minutes. Is there any truth we’ve got to find these 500 properties?”

The council’s chief operating officer Tracie Langley responded that it was just a rumour: “I have not heard that one and have no evidence that that is the case.” However, she did reiterate that there was great need for housing in Cornwall “regardless of who needs them. We need a significant number of houses.

“The Government is going to require us to have even more than we think we need, so we need to make sure we facilitate the building of lots of houses.”

The council’s Conservative deputy leader David Harris also poured cold water on the rumour: “I’ve not seen or heard anything about this supposed 500.”

The exchange occurred while the committee was discussing the council’s financial performance in the first quarter of the 2024/25 financial year (April to June) which saw a £4 million overspend; a figure which has now risen to around £6 million against a budget of £770.8m.

At a Cabinet meeting last month, Mr Harris stated that “overall, council finances were still not in a good place and fairer funding for Cornwall was needed”.

He said he was taking every opportunity to raise the council’s position with the new Government, both directly and through Cornwall’s MPs, including a detailed submission to the Treasury following the invitation to submit representations ahead of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement and Spending Review.

Cllr Harris said at this week’s meeting: “In the current year – back of an envelope figures – we will hopefully just about come out flat in terms of overspend, but that’s after we’ve used some reserves to balance this year’s budget in the first place.

“There is no appreciation from governments of the way demands for our services have gone up. Demands for placements for children is something like 1,400 places now as opposed to 400 four years ago and yet there’s no additional money for that.”