A body responsible for supporting a national park’s communities and managing its landscapes looks set to tell the Government a cocktail of pressures alongside a recent rise in short-term letting is “severely reducing the choice of homes for residents”.
The North York Moors National Park Authority’s proposed response to a consultation on requiring people letting their homes on a short-term basis to get planning consent supports the tabled changes, which could be introduced in legislation later this year.
It is believed planning authorities would shortly afterwards be able to set limits for the number of holiday lets for some settlements and that the North York Moors could look at protecting some specific tourism hotspots and coastal villages with the legislation.
Launching the consultation, Communities Secretary Michael Gove said:
“Tourism brings many benefits to our economy, but in too many communities we have seen local people pushed out of cherished towns, cities and villages by huge numbers of short-term lets.
“I’m determined that we ensure that more people have access to local homes at affordable prices, and that we prioritise families desperate to rent or buy a home of their own close to where they work.”
Analysis of figures from 152 councils last year revealed Scarborough district had the highest number of holiday lets, rising from 2,032 in 2018 to 2,913 in 2021. York had seen its holiday lets rise by 49 per cent to 669 over the same period and East Riding a rise of 51 per cent.
A meeting of the authority’s planning committee on Thursday will hear officers recommend intervention in the housing market “to protect local communities”, but to provide a flexibility for homeowners to let out their homes for up to 30 days a year without needing planning consent.
An officer’s report to the meeting underlines the authority’s second purpose, which includes supporting communities, and states the flexibility would provide a source of income to the homeowner as well as providing more accommodation options for those wishing to stay in the park.
It adds:
“The issue is an imbalance of holiday lets over homes, not vice versa, and introducing an additional control to prevent holiday let from becoming homes would potentially discourage such a change of use.
“The proposal will allow a local authority to introduce policy that could help manage the balance of uses in areas where a high proportion of existing housing stock is being used as a short-term let.”
The report states a mix of depopulation, high house prices, second homes and a rise in short term letting
“is now severely reducing the choice of homes for residents”.
“There is always a balance to be struck between diversifying the tourism market and attracting more visitors to the national park and protecting the future of its communities by making sure there is suitable permanent homes available.
“We consider that it is preferable to introduce planning controls over second homes over short-term lets, as the latter have the benefits of serving the visitor economy, providing incomes for local people and attracting a wider range of people into the national park.”
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