A Broad Rental Market Area is an area ‘within which a person could reasonably be expected to live having regard to facilities and services for the purposes of health, education, recreation, personal banking and shopping, taking account of the distance of travel, by public and private transport, to and from those facilities and services.’

A BRMA must contain ‘residential premises of a variety of types, including such premises held on a variety of tenures’, plus ‘sufficient privately rented residential premises, to ensure that, in the rent officer’s opinion, the LHA for the area is representative of the rents that a landlord might reasonably be expected to obtain in that area’.

[Legislation - Rent Officers (Housing Benefit Functions) Amendment (No.2) Order 2008]

NORTH CORNWALL & DEVON BORDERS

Broad Rental Market Area (BRMA) implemented on 1st December 2009

Map of the BRMA

Overview of the BRMA

The above map shows the northern part of Cornwall plus the Devon border area within a boundary marked in red.

The North Cornwall & Devon Borders BRMA includes the towns of Bodmin, Wadebridge, Launceston, and Bude together with the smaller towns of Holsworthy, Camelford and Padstow and various villages and rural settlements. The towns are linked by a network of A roads – principally the A30, A39, A388, A389 and A395.

The BRMA extends some 35 miles from Milton Damerel in the north to Trebyan in the south and 42 miles from St Eval in the west to Bratton Clovelly in the east.The BRMA is bounded by the coast to the North. Several rivers flow through it - the River Allen, River Camel, River Tamar and River Fowey. Bodmin Moor is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and provides the highest point in Cornwall.

The area is a well known tourist destination primarily for its spectacular cliffs and beaches. Attractions include Tintagel Castle whilst Padstow is noted for its Rick Stein establishments. The high visitor numbers in the summer affect the transport infrastructure. The towns tend to be dominated by small businesses and, more recently, manufacturing industry is increasingly helped by funding from the European Union. Farming is also still a major contributor to the local economy and agriculture is the predominant land use. There is also a fishing industry.

Identification of Health, Education, Recreation, Banking and Shopping (HERBS)

The map indicates that the facilities and services in the BRMA are clustered in and around the towns of Bodmin, Wadebridge, Launceston, and Bude.

Accessibility to facilities and services (Information sourced from publicly available websites)

Distance By Car (based on the Time By Remarks From To Time by Car Time By Train quickest rather than Bus (where applicable) the shortest route) Wadebridge Bodmin 7.3 17 25 There is no rail network within the BRMA. Padstow Bodmin 15.2 28 45 Camelford Bodmin 17 27 40 Holsworthy Bude 10 26 29 Bodmin Launceston 22 32 90 Camelford Bude 16.8 23 87 Wadebridge Bude 27.5 39 141 Padstow Bude 34.7 50 146 Okehampton Bude 29.2 64 66 Launceston Bude 19.3 37 48

The above table shows the approximate distances in miles and journey times in minutes to Bodmin, Bude and Launceston from peripheral locations. Most journeys are under an hour by private transport and under or around an hour and a half by public transport, demonstrating the reasonableness of accessibility to the main facilities and services in the area. By implication the table also indicates that journeys to and from nearer destinations are also reasonable.

Variety of Property Types and Tenures

Variety of Property Types Total All Household Spaces (Total) 46451 In an Unshared Dwelling 46331 House or Bungalow (Subtotal) 41079 Detached 22296 Semi Detached 10981 Terrace or End Terrace 7803 Flat, Maisonette or Apartment (Subtotal) 4636 Flat, Maisonette or Apartment: In a Purpose-Built Block of Flats 2022 Flat, Maisonette or Apartment: Part of a Converted or Shared House 1561 Flat, Maisonette or Apartment: In a Commercial Building 1022 Caravan or Other Mobile or Temporary Structure 726 In a Shared Dwelling 126 Variety of Tenure Types All Households (Total) 41436 Owned (Subtotal) 29531 Owned: Owns outright 21311 Owned: Owns with a mortgage or loan 15539 Owned: Shared ownership 272 Social rented (Subtotal) 5008 Social rented: Rented from Council (Local Authority) 4034 Social rented: Other social rented 1775 Private rented (Subtotal) 5746

The figures in bold in the above table show the number of houses and flats in the BRMA and how many of them are owned socially rented and privately rented. The other figures show sub categories. The table demonstrates that the BRMA contains a variety of types of residential premises and that they are held on a variety of tenures. Note: The table was compiled by matching the Office of National Statistics 2001 Census data as closely as possible to the BRMA map boundary.

Sufficient Privately Rented Premises

The table shows 5,746 privately rented premises in the BRMA.

We would expect to collect approximately 15% of the private rented sector market; this would be about 862 pieces of lettings information to include on our list of rents. This is considered sufficient privately rented residential premises to ensure that, in the Rent Officer’s opinion, the Local Housing Allowance for tenancies in the area is representative of the rents that a landlord might reasonably be expected to obtain in that area.