Prince William visits newly built Cornish suburb

BBC

Prince William has met with families living in a newly developed suburb of a Cornwall town known for being the home of British surfing.

The Prince of Wales visited Nansledan, described as a “sustainable urban extension” of Newquay, to explore plans for its Market Street project, which has been in development by the Duchy of Cornwall since 2013.

It already includes about 900 homes, a primary school, offices, a community centre and more than 40 businesses.

A family living in one of the Build-to-Rent homes, Jess and Nick Dunstan, said they were “really lucky” to have the chance to rent from the duchy. Such homes are built specifically for renting rather than for sale, offering long-term leases.

Jess Dunstan said the family would have “struggled” to find a rental in the area if it was not for this development.

The Prince of Wales also recorded a birthday message after being stopped by Mark O’Mahoney during a walkabout of the new Newquay suburb.

O’Mahoney asked him to record the message for his girlfriend, Rebecca Spencer, who was away, but he forgot to press record and asked Prince William to record it a second time.

The prince told her: “Very happy birthday Rebecca, you’re 38…”

O’Mahoney added: “My girlfriend was away so I asked him and he very graciously and kindly agreed.”

Prince William was also in attendance to highlight the efforts to tackle homelessness in the area, and saw the progress of 24 new homes being built in Nansledan in partnership with homeless charity St Petrocs.

Charity chief executive Henry Meacock said the organisation knew it was not going to end homelessness with just one project, but it was a “good example of a housing-based solution which is going to offer much needed capacity”.

The Duke of Cornwall travelled from Turkey to the new suburb on Thursday after watching his football team Aston Villa end their 30-year wait for a trophy by beating Freiburg 3-0 in the Europa League final in Istanbul.

Asked about the historic occasion, he simply laughed.

Theresa Ferguson said she told Prince William he had “goalkeeper hands” and he replied to say the Aston Villa goalkeeper had played with a broken finger.

She said she thought he was “over the moon” about the result.

He asked her what team she supported and, from her accent, guessed correctly that she was a Celtic supporter.

The royal visit comes after the Duchy of Cornwall, which provides private income of more than £20m a year to the prince, announced plans to sell off 20% of its estate over the next decade to invest £500m in housing and environmental projects.

The duchy said it was part of a shift in the role of being a traditional landowner with a greater emphasis on five areas, including Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and Dartmoor, where they could make “the greatest difference”.

But there have been calls for assurances that any sales would benefit local communities and tenants in the Bradninch estate area, near Cullompton, in Devon, which was put up for sale in March 2026.

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Duchy of Cornwall chief executive Will Paz said his message about any sale of duchy land was that it was going to be a “period of change”.

He said: “With that change comes some uncertainty.

“We will work with all of our partners, wherever that change is manifested, to ensure that it’s as positive and as enabling as possible for everyone.”

The Duke of Cornwall is set to visit Isles of Scilly on Friday.

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