The first bricks have been laid at the Tolvaddon Contemporary Cornish Living site.

Work has begun for 38 new homes, the first to be built under Cornwall Council’s Contemporary Cornish Living scheme to provide attractive, high quality homes that people can afford in areas of high demand.

The development will include a mixture of one, two and three bedroom homes and will include nine open market sale, and 18 open market rental properties as well as eight affordable rental and three affordable sale properties. The first homes built will be completed in spring, with the full development completed by the end of 2018.

Local residents were invited to community consultation events in February to comment on the size and style of the homes they think should be built. The feedback from these events has shaped the development.

Some of the changes which were made following the consultation include making homes more flexible so that they can be adapted to meet changing needs, making sure that they are suitable for a wide range of residents, and ensuring they can adapt to the user over the course of their lifetime by maximising available space, such as roof spaces. The homes will also be energy efficient so they are cost effective to heat.

Councillor Andrew Mitchell, Cornwall Council’s portfolio holder for housing, said: “Cornwall needs more good quality homes, both to rent and to buy, and the market alone can’t meet this demand. This scheme will see the council directly invest in and build attractive, high quality homes that people can afford in areas of high demand. We aim to deliver up to 1,000 homes in the next four years, in developments that reflect the needs of the local community.”

Philip Desmonde, Cornwall Councillor for Pool and Tehidy, added: “I am pleased to see the Contemporary Cornish Living Tolvaddon construction is underway and I look forward to future schemes building on this delivery experience to incorporate the highest possible quality of Cornwall’s design expertise that will reflect the Cornish architectural vernacular whilst emphasising the delivery of homes our local communities so desperately need.”

The Tolvaddon site is one of two pilot sites being progressed by Contemporary Cornish Living, with the other in Bodmin on the former St Lawrence’s Hospital site. The scheme will be rolled out to other sites across Cornwall with an ambition to deliver 1,000 homes by 2022. The proposed housing developments will be self-financing. The council will use the money raised from renting and selling the homes to pay back the money it will borrow to undertake the developments.