Left to right: Andrew Mitchell - Mayor of St Ives, Simon Ryan - CEO Three Seas Cornwall, Peter la Broy - Portfolio Holder for Housing Cornwall Council, Tom Crook - Resonance Community Developers, Keith Jones, Mat Hayter, Martha Patrick, and Jill Block - St Ives CLT.

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We are excited to announce the launch of our new community housing project, at the Old Vicarage Flats building in St Ives. A new agreement has been reached between ourselves and the St Ives Community Land Trust, supported by Cornwall Council and the St Ives Town Deal. The project will provide six secure, Social Rent homes in the heart of the town, 4 one-bed flats and 2 two-bed flats, with priority going to local people who have strong connections to the community.

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We held a launch event at the building on the 9^th of Sept, which attracted 33 representatives from the CLT, key supporters, town organisations, the Town Council and Cornwall Council's Affordable Housing and Town Deal teams. The mayor of St Ives came too, in his mayoral regalia. The visitors looked around the part-finished building and were all impressed with the quality of the work done.

Neil Mitchell (Mitchell Construction): “I grew up nearby in Hayle, loads of my friends have had to leave their hometowns, I've seen it first hand and that's why we wanted to be involved with this project. Cornwall has an industrial history, there are so many redundant buildings left to fall apart that could be converted into local, social housing. Let's bring them to life again.”

Tegen Veal (Local Volunteer): “It's important to have space for people to live where they work and where they've grown up, growing up here I've seen how much of the housing becomes second homes and stays empty for most of the year. We need more projects like this, in more places, and on a bigger scale to give more opportunities to the people that want to live and work around here.”

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The new agreement will see us take on the freehold of the building giving us access to the main Government housing grants, together with additional funding from Cornwall Council’s Land Remediation Fund. The work is supported by a short-term finance loan from Resonance Community Developers.

These new funds will allow Three Seas to complete the work started by St Ives CLT and get the housing open. This has been a long-running project and everyone involved is delighted that the coming-together of the organisations can get it over the final hurdles. If all goes according to plan, the final build period is expected to be no more than 6 months with the flats ready to welcome tenants from early 2027, though we are well aware that timetables can slip and have to be kept flexible. Full announcements on the housing availability will be made nearer the time.

We will be running a public information meeting and full Open Day for local residents, expected in early December – please watch for announcements.