A WEST Cornwall land trust hopes to find out at the end of the week if its loan application to fund an affordable housing development has been successful.
The Land's End Peninsula Community Land Trust filed for a council grant earlier this year, which would see six affordable two bedroom homes and two open market bungalows built in Moorland Close, Pendeen.
The group has secured planning permission for the project and a meeting to discuss the submission is said to be "imminent".
Sue James, Cornwall councillor for St Just and chairman of the trust, is positive about the pending decision and has been trying to bring affordable housing to the area for years.
"We should get a decision by the end of the week – in principle it has been approved," she said.
"We hope to provide six affordable homes in Pendeen, partly financed through two open market ones."
However, although the build would be a step forward, the councillor feels that the Government's current initiative, which was devised to help those on smaller incomes get on the housing ladder, is misguided.
"The Government-backed Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme can only be accessed for the open market homes," she said.
"This will mean that people looking to buy the open market housing will require a smaller deposit than those buying the affordable homes and that seems crazy to me."
Mrs James argues that the scheme should be inclusive of affordable homes, a sentiment shared by MP Andrew George.
He said: "The Government has the right idea but it clearly hasn't thought it through sufficiently.
"The current loan scheme favours better off first-time buyers more than the less well off."
Mr George points out that the county is a particular area of the country where people are struggling to buy their own homes as "house prices are high and wages are low".
Mrs James said she will continue to lobby for a fairer deal for those on lower incomes.
