Fact File — England

Yorkshire Dales Park Authority in Yorkshire to restrict the sale of new houses to local residents — 20th January 2005

The park authority has agreed that the sale of new homes in the Yorkshire Dales National Park is to be restricted to local residents.

The move has been designed to prevent wealthy outsiders buying second properties as holiday homes or weekend retreats and pricing local residents out of the market. It is reported that the average price of a property in the area is £240,000.

A government planning inspector, William Carlow has already backed the plans. It is reported that members of the Yorkshire Dales National Authority are delighted with these proposals. The plans are to be sent back to a working group to decide how to implement them.

There was a meeting in the village of Hawes lasting a couple of hours in which South Lakeland district councillor Kevin Lancaster said that the inspector has said that you can have local-only housing and that that you can have affordable housing and most of the committee are delighted with that.

Local residents appear to be equally as pleased. Apparently there is an influx of new investors to the park where there are 10,000 homes. This has resulted in house prices doubling. It is very expensive to buy houses there and that is bad news for local people, particularly young people. Holiday home owners do not occupy their properties fully and when they sell they usually make a good profit.

Because there are so many holiday properties, one resident said that the villages are becoming like ghost towns.

William Carlow the local planning inspector reported that any houses to be built within the National Park in the future should meet demand from local people and be at affordable prices.

Other National Parks are going to closely monitor the scheme and this might pave the way for a series of similar proposals across the country.

20th January 2005