Year-round residents need suitable year-round homes
East Devon District Council warns that home-buyers are snapping up holiday lodges and static caravans as yearround places to live, when they should be used only for tourists.
That is bad news for the buyers, who are not going to be able to live in the properties in which they have made a substantial investment. It is also damaging to the vital Devon holiday industry, where availability of accommodation for visitors is absolutely crucial.
But it also demonstrates the frustration many wouldbe home owners must feel, not just in East Devon, but across the region, that while temporary homes for holidaymakers are widely available, often in beautiful and highly desirable locations, they, as long-term residents, cannot get foot on the housing ladder. There is, of course, a big difference between a caravan site on the cliffs or near the beach, which is busy during the summer season but virtually deserted for the rest of the year and a permanent estate of dwellings occupied year round.
Councils give permission for permanent homes on the basis of the ability of local services and infrastructure to cope with year-round residents – or at least they should. Holiday accommodation, on the other hand, gets the go-ahead partly because it will be occupied 1836: Three people died at Great Corby, near Carlisle in
Cumbria, in the first fatal railway derailment.
1910: Neon lighting, developed by French physicist Georges Claude, was displayed for the first time at the Paris Motor Show.
1926: Novelist Agatha Christie disappeared from her Surrey home. She was discovered on December 14 staying under an assumed name at a hotel in Harrogate.
1967: The first heart transplant was performed by Dr
Christiaan Barnard and a team of surgeons in South Africa. 1984: More than 3,000 people only for a part of each year. But, increasingly, the South West is becoming a yearround destination for visitors. And although the pressure is always greatest in the summer months, some caravan parks welcome visitors through much of the spring and autumn too, while Christmas and New Year can also be busy.
It is not surprising that when would-be home owners see that is happening they make inquiries about purchasing a holiday home for their own yearround use; especially when such properties often cost less than a “real” house.
Turning caravan parks into year-round accommodation for locals is not the answer to the housing crisis, however. Properties provided for visitors cannot be relied upon to offer warm, secure and suitable accommodation for families 12 months of the year. Planners are right to impose the rules. Seeking permission for a field full of holiday lodges and then selling them off to full-time residents is damaging and lets down the buyers who are getting a home that isn’t legal or appropriate. This problem is not confined to East Devon.
As house prices continue to rise it will worsen. The answer is to create yearround homes in the right places at the right price – and let the visitors occupy the caravans and lodges. died in a chemical factory spillage at Bhopal, India. 1988: Health minister Edwina Currie claimed that most of Britain’s egg production was affected by salmonella. Paul Nicholas, actor, 74 Ozzy Osbourne, rock singer, 70 Daryl Hannah, actress, 58 Julianne Moore, actress, 58 Daniel Bedingfield, singer, 39 Anna Chlumsky, actress, 38 Isaiah 7:14 – The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
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