Cornwall Housing Summit Announced for April 2026

A major new Cornwall Housing Summit will take place on Friday 17 April 2026 at Cornwall Council’s County Hall in Truro, bringing together leaders from housing, health, skills, planning, community and business sectors to tackle Cornwall’s deepening housing crisis.

Cornwall has experienced years of rising house prices, soaring rents, growing waiting lists for social housing and increasing homelessness, all of which are impacting health, workforce retention and community sustainability across the county

Demand for housing continues to outstrip supply, with additional pressures from second homes, short-term lets and construction cost challenges.

The Cornwall Housing Summit will be a participatory, solution-focused event, designed not only to explore the causes and consequences of the housing crisis, but to identify practical, cross-sector responses that can lead to real change.

The Summit will:

• Showcase new evidence, including findings from the Institute of Cornish Studies’ New Household Survey
• Highlight learning from national and regional housing initiatives
• Host keynote speakers Lord Best, Jez Sweetland and Allister Young
• Hold facilitated workshops on key themes including: Planning & viability, Construction skills, Community engagement, Health inequalities, Rurality & infrastructure

The Summit is being developed by a steering group including representatives from Homes for Cornwall, Cornwall Council, the University of Exeter, The Institute of Cornish Studies, The Health Determinants Research Collaboration, Coastline Housing and Cornwall Rural Community Charity.

Further details, including the full programme and speaker line-up, will be announced in due course for now please save the date in your diaries.