Cornwall Council in the period 2009-13 went for a high growth strategy. They committed the council to increasing the housebuilding rate, working closely with developers in a strategy that involved boosting in-migration. The only thing new about this was its scale, ramping up the effective de-facto policy of the past half century. Since the 1960s this process has resulted in the Cornish environment, its communities and Cornishness itself paying a heavy price. And all to benefit a handful of wealthy landlords and a pack of ‘developers’ and large construction companies usually based well beyond Cornwall.