Plan to let nurses use holiday lodges to ease housing shortage
Luxury lodges would provide ‘desperately needed’ accommodation for NHS staff at Cornwall hospital
A country estate in Cornwall is seeking permission to use luxury holiday lodges to provide ‘desperately needed’ accommodation for NHS staff over the winter.
Up to 45 NHS clinicians could be housed in properties on the Killiow Estate – about three miles from the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro – if the plan is agreed by Cornwall Council.
The ‘luxury eco lodges’ are described as contemporary, open-plan spaces that feature woodburning stoves and nestle amid beautiful surroundings.
The estate is currently barred from using the properties to provide short-term accommodation over the winter but has asked for the restriction to be lifted. The application does not state how much it would cost to house NHS staff at the lodges.
Trusts seeking to recruit more nurses but accommodation close to their place of work can be hard to find
The application says: ‘We have been asked to make our lodges exclusively available for temporary NHS staff accommodation purposes for this (and future) winter periods.’
If granted it would make up to 30 double bedrooms available to front-line NHS staff for the six months from October to March.
The estate said the move would help generate vital income after the closure of its golf course, spiralling costs and availability of local Airbnb-style accommodation had resulted in the lodges becoming ‘almost financially unviable’.
The application says: ‘The proposed use would not constitute unrestricted residential occupation as the houses would be let under licence to NHS staff only during the relevant part of the year. This would help to provide desperately needed winter accommodation for between 30 and perhaps 45 medical staff in the current housing crisis.’
Trusts across the country are seeking to recruit more nurses – including those trained overseas – but finding suitable accommodation close to their place of work can be a problem.
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