North York Moors Planning Plans Welcomed

A government proposal which would require people letting their homes on a short-term basis to get planning consent has been welcomed by those charged with maintaining two of the country’s oldest national parks.

Custodians of both the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors national parks have described the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ consultation on the move, after collecting evidence from the park authorities last year, as “an absolute breath of fresh air”.

The consultation will also consider whether to give owners the flexibility to let out their home for a maximum number of nights a year without the need for the permission.

The planning changes, subject to the consultation, could be introduced in legislation later this year and it is hoped planning authorities would shortly afterwards be able to set limits for the number of holiday lets for some settlements.

The culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, said:

“This new world of ultra-flexible short term lets gives tourists more choice than ever before, but it should not come at the expense of local people being able to own their own home and stay local.

“The government wants to help areas get the balance right, and today we have an incomplete picture of the size and spread of our short-term lets market.”

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.

The proposed changes follow years of campaigning by Lib Dem MP Tim Farron, whose constituency includes part of the Yorkshire Dales, for more help for local people, saying the demand to buy second homes during the pandemic and the ease with which people could now advertise holiday lets online had pushed up prices.

The North York Moors’ management plan set last year aims to double the delivery of affordable housing, create 100 affordable homes over the next five years, but also pressed for control the conversion of housing to holiday homes.

Chris France, director of planning at the North York Moors National Park Authority, said the government’s proposal was “really helpful”, particularly as the proportion of holiday lets was rising at a rapid rate in some areas of the park.

He said:

“In coastal settlements like Runswick Bay, Robin Hood’s Bay and Staithes the communities are virtually being lost. Some 17 per cent of the national park’s housing stock is either a second home or a holiday let.

“We have always said this is a huge issue for us. We have got small village schools that are hanging on and if you lose a couple of pupils they close.”

Mr France said even with local occupancy or principal residence conditions on all new housing, “delivering such housing if you can’t have any control over the vast majority of the housing stock is like filling a bath with the plug out”. He added:

“This would give us the ability to put the plug back in.

“This is an absolute breath of fresh air that they are now consulting on it. If it comes into the planning process we might introduce a policy targeting villages that are already facing that great change in the housing stock.”

Richard Foster, the Yorkshire Dales park authority’s member champion for natural environment, said while holiday lets were useful to sustain local businesses such as pubs, giving local authorities the ability to determine the volume of holiday let properties would boost efforts to increase housing for local people.

He said:

“We are losing many houses a year out of the existing housing stock with people deliberately buying properties as holiday lets.

“As we have got villages with over 60 per cent of properties being either second homes or holiday cottages which just means the core of the village has been taken out, so to be able to look at an application and decide if that village needs another holiday let I think will be really useful.”