Truro and Falmouth: 'Next PM should come and live as we do and see how hard it is '

Voters in Falmouth and Truro believe the next Prime Minister should come and spend a week as 'normal' people live to see how hard life in Cornwall is. CornwallLive spoke to people in the constituency and many people said that politicians need to realise the work that's needed to improve the lives of people in the area.

Housing and cost of living, low wages and second homes pushing the price of houses out of people's reach, immigration, a national health service and social care system on their knees, environmental concerns, these were the recurrent themes we encountered when we took to the streets of the constituencies largest towns.

"If the next Prime Minister stood before me after the general election," Aly Love said, "I'd ask them to live on the minimum wage for a week and see how far they get just surviving and how far they get with the costs of renting and the cost of living going up."

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The 26-year-old added: "Not so long ago a loaf of bread was £1. Now it's £1.30. What matters next is to help other people thrive. Those who are in a different economic background and education. The homeless and those who suffer from mental health issues. We need to target that demographic to help them with everyday life so they end up in a better place and become productive members of society. At the moment we are failing them when they have so much potential."

Aly, who works at Hall for Cornwall, believes whoever the next Prime Minister is on the morning of July 5 should put "being kind" at the top of their agenda, as she believes our society has become too fractious and unequal.

The constituency of Truro and Falmouth is where one in five residents in Cornwall live. Home to the county's only cathedral city and only university, it stretches from St Mawes on the Roseland peninsula, to Portholland in the East and Falmouth in the West on the south coast, up to St Agnes and Holywell on the north coast. It also encompasses towns and villages like Perranporth, St Newlyn East, Probus, Tregony and Chacewater.

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Truro is home to the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske as well as the seat of power that is Cornwall Council at County Hall. According to the latest 2021 Census figures almost 100,000 people live in the constituency (or 42,800 households), meaning that roughly one in five people in Cornwall lives there.

The proportion of 20 to 24-year-olds is eight per cent which is explained by the presence of Falmouth University and the University of Exeter at their shared campus in Penryn. Nationally that figure is six per cent.

According to the four indicators of deprivation, which are employment, education, health and disability, and household overcrowding, at least 34.5 per cent of households in the constituency are classed as deprived using one of the four indicators but only 0.2 per cent using all four indicators, which is the national average too.

While there are great pockets of wealth within the constituency such as the most expensive postcode in Cornwall at Feock, it is also home to areas of poverty and deprivation, low and seasonal wages. Second homes and holiday lets have come high on the agenda of those we interviewed, especially among the younger generation.

Molly Trembath, a dental nurse, and Ethan Lawson-Earley, a chef, like so many people in their age bracket, are finding it difficult to pay the exorbitant rent being demanded by landlords let alone save up for a place of their own. The two 26-year-olds are feeling the impact of the ongoing housing crisis. They said they pay more than £900 in rent for a one-bedroom house but it is not unusual to have to pay more than £1,000 or even £1,200 a month in rent.

"Housing is such an important issue," they said. "People our age simply can't buy a house. It's just too expensive. We're renting just now after looking for a place for four months. Everywhere we looked was the same. There are massive waiting lists. There are so many people looking for a place to live when at the same time there are so many holiday lets and second homes that take houses off the market and increase prices."

With her profession in the dentistry sector, Molly feels that the NHS should be at the top of the next PM's agenda along with the housing crisis and called for more help for people on low incomes. Ethan, who has been away on the Channel Islands for the last six years, added: "Sadly it doesn't seem to have changed in the six years I have been away. In fact it's got worse."

The Office of National Statistics said 83.5 per cent of people in the area own a whole house or bungalow which is more than the 77.4 per cent average for England. By comparison, 15.7 per cent of people in the constituency own a flat, maisonette or apartment compared with 22.2 per cent in the rest of England.

The ONS now puts the average house prices in Cornwall at £301,000 as of January 2024 which is down 2.8 per cent from January 2023. Meanwhile, the average price paid by first-time buyers was £247,000 in January which is 2.8 per cent lower than the average of £254,000 a year ago. According to Cornwall Council figures, Truro and Falmouth are also the towns with the highest council tax in the whole county.

As recently reported by The Telegraph, the drop in house prices, the increased time it takes to sell a house (according to Hamptons estate agent, properties took 77 days to sell on average last year, which is the longest sell time since 2015), sellers increasingly offering price cuts, all indicate that the Covid market madness is truly over and the property bubble has burst.

The news that house prices may be falling however did not cut it with many people in the area who still feel the pinch and can't get onto the housing ladder. "The country is in a right mess," Truro Big Issue seller Nick Cuthbert said. "There are so many people using food banks, with so many more people struggling and asking for help."

For him, homelessness and the housing crisis and helping those with addictions and mental health issues should be at the top of the agenda of the next resident of 10 Downing Street.

Nick, who is still on the lookout for a new companion Labrador, after his beloved Bryony died earlier this year, added: "I've never voted myself but I think the Tories have been in power long enough. We need a different government. Rishi Sunak just lives in another world, a world where people are brought up to just take. These people don't understand how 'normal' people struggle to live. They haven't got the faintest idea."

The Truro and Falmouth constituency has been in the hands of the Conservative party since coming into existence in 2010. It was created for the 2010 UK general election following a review of parliamentary representation in Cornwall by the Boundary Commission, which increased the number of seats in the county from five to six. In its present form, it replaced parts of the former Truro and St Austell and Falmouth and Camborne seats.

From 2010 until today it has been held by the Conservatives, first by Sarah Newton and then by Cherilyn Mackrory. The result was a very marginal one in 2010, with the previous results in either predecessor seat also closely fought between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives.

Indeed, in 2010 Sarah Newton beat the Liberal Democrat candidate by 435 votes. In 2015 she won re-election with 44 per cent of the overall vote. After both elections, Mrs Newton was one of four MPs sworn into office after taking their oaths in Cornish. During the 2016 EU membership referendum, the then MP was one of several figures from the South West region who signed a statement backing the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign.

The then pro-Remain MP did not seek re-election at the December 2019 general election and was replaced in the seat by Mrs Mackrory with a majority of 4,561 and a 46 per cent share of the vote.

The state of the NHS and social care in Cornwall came back regularly in our conversations with residents and voters. Nicola Burgess was walking back from a sea swim at Gyllyngvase beach in Falmouth when we caught up with her. "The NHS is so important," she said. "The waiting times are awful. Social care is a massive issue that needs to be sorted.

Over the years, we have reported time and time again on people having to wait for hours in ambulances outside the emergency department at Treliske before being admitted inside the hospital because no beds on wards are available. Since 2021, nine people have died as a result of what has been described as a "systemic failure" in our healthcare system when it comes to ambulance delays.

Bill Mason was walking his dog near Falmouth Harbour when he paused to talk to us. A full-time carer for his wife, he said: "We need change. This must be the most incompetent government I've ever known. They're not trying to help anyone at all. They're not doing anything. I'm a carer for my wife but we're made to feel like we're a bunch of scroungers."

For Nicola, the deplorable state of our environment, with sewage still being dumped in the sea - whether legally or illegally during dry periods of time - must stop. She believes there is still too much sewage and plastic ending up in the sea which has an impact on people's health and that of our planet.

She added: "We need to look at ways of doing away with this obsession with economic growth. We need to look at alternatives so the economy is more regenerative and sustainable. It needs to be more circular so it helps everyone thrive."

For Dulcie Curtis, an arts teacher and shop assistant in Falmouth, sorting out the housing crisis and bringing an end to sewage pollution of our rivers and oceans, should be at the very top of the agenda for the next PM. "The housing crisis is hurting people. People are struggling. Too many people are living on the streets.

"I swim in the sea every day. I have two children and we use the beach a lot. Their health is my priority. Sewage in the sea must stop. It feels that everything has got complicated."

Cornwall may not be in the throng of a massive immigration crisis as are other counties on the south coast and south east of England but for Carolyn Hamilton-Fletcher, a keen supporter of Nigel Farage's Reform UK party, putting an end to the little boats coming to Britain laden with immigrants is the answer to the housing and NHS crises. "We need to stop immigrants," she said. "We have too many of them. They see us as the land of milk and honey. But if we didn't have to send money to France, that's money that could go towards housing our own people and for the NHS."

She did blame current Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, when he was the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care under Boris Johnson, for cutting the funding to the health service, including junior doctors and nurses, which she said has led to many of them leaving the UK to work abroad instead. She says that in turn this has led to the UK bringing in immigrant workers from overseas. She added: "The NHS needs better working conditions as well as better funding."

Dulcie believes that for people to risk their lives crossing the Channel in precarious dinghies, they must have been pushed to the limit of hardship and a more global look at the issue of immigration, climate change and global cooperation is the answer, not detention camps and floating prisons.

"That Bibby Stockholm barge we had in Falmouth was a disgrace," she said. "It was nothing other than a floating prison. This is not the answer."

Perhaps the last word should go to Ross Reeve who was enjoying a spot of lunch and sunshine on Lemon Quay when we talked to him. "Whoever is elected next month, I want them to follow their heart."