A Cornwall Councillor for Falmouth has responded to the House of Lords report on regenerating seaside towns.

The report highlights some of the major issues facing seaside towns in the UK, including lack of digital connectivity, access to higher education, poor-quality housing, inadequate transport, skills gaps and access to government funds.

Councillor for Smithick ward Jayne Kirkham said: "We are definitely not a run-down seaside town and have a lot going for us. [We're] a great destination town with independent businesses small and large, and world class ship and boatbuilding facility.

"But parts of our high street are struggling and we have very high housing costs here due to a particular mixture of second home ownership and HMOs which are very profitable for landlords and often push people who work locally out of the rental/house buying market as wages in Cornwall still run at only 80 per cent of the national average."

Addressing housing quality, councillor Kirkham said: "This has been an ongoing issue for Cornwall. 80 per cent of our current housing stock does not meet energy efficiency standards for example, and much of the new building is not of high quality.

She went on to say: "We have struggled with planning appeals being taken over the heads of local authorities to centralised planning inspectors. Some of the HMOs are also not kept in a good enough state. The new HMO licensing scheme, which I am hoping will extend to all HMOs soon rather than just large ones, should help us ensure a decent standard."

On the topic of government funding, councillor Kirkham said: "We are very concerned here in Cornwall that we will be forgotten by central government as we have been in the Stronger Towns funding where the north and midlands took the lion's share.

"We need our parliamentary representatives to remind national government that Cornwall is a region that qualified for EU funding for a reason and continue to support us when the EU funding goes."

As for higher education in Falmouth, she said: "Before the University of Exeter and Falmouth University moved onto the Tremough campus (again, with the help of EU money), we had no university in Cornwall and anyone wishing to go to uni had to leave the duchy.

"However, the uni's benefits have not spread out across the whole of Cornwall yet and our unique geography means that many will still have to travel a long way for further education. It has also increased house prices in the area due to lack of forethought in providing purpose built accommodation at the beginning."