Fresh calls for action as rising numbers buy second homes in Dales

A REVIEW into the impact of coronavirus on the Yorkshire Dales National Park has heard fresh calls for action over surging numbers of second homes and holiday cottages as people look to move to the country.

A Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority meeting heard while some of Covid-19’s social and economic consequences on the 841 square mile area remained unclear, there was increasing evidence that rising numbers of people were buying properties as an investment rather than as somewhere to live and work. Members were told while 3,100 of the National Park’s 12,000 properties were now holiday lets and second homes and the number was rising, the pandemic had accelerated a trend for rural relocations.

The concerns come three years after the authority saw its proposal to bolster communities by imposing a five-fold increase in council tax on second home owners in the National Park rejected.

Former Friends of the Dales chairman and park member Mark Corner said coronavirus had been “a game-changer”.

The authority’s chief executive, David Butterworth, warned members of the lack of support from surrounding councils the last time the second homes issue was raised, and said it was the market which determined who bought properties.

He added: “When the authority tried to show some leadership over this matter, we got slapped down in an extraordinary manner by those bodies concerned.”

Mr Butterworth said members would have the opportunity to revisit policies over second homes in the forthcoming planning blueprint, the Local Plan.