Yorkshire's secret MP Tim Farron on a mission to limit second home 'ghost towns'

There are many factors that have made second home ownership in the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District an increasingly attractive option in recent years.

From the pandemic limiting foreign travel to the chance to profit from booming property prices and growing holiday let opportunities via online platforms such as Airbnb, demand has soared. But while the benefits are clear to those with the finances and good fortune to be able to invest, the negative collective consequences of such individual decisions are not always immediately apparent.

One person is who well aware of the growing problem is Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron, who has been raising the alarm over the issue for years. But he says the past two years dominated by Covid-19 have seen the problem deepen from “crisis to catastrophe” with 85 per cent of recent property purchases in some parts of his constituency going to second home owners.

Mr Farron cites the case of one elderly constituent living in a hamlet who called him for some advice on Covid-19 guidelines.

“Before he rang off, he said: ‘I wouldn’t have bothered ringing up before, I would have gone and spoken to my neighbours but I haven’t got any anymore’,” Mr Farron recounts. “He lived in a clutch of 16 or 17 houses and he literally didn’t have a neighbour anymore. He was widowed and there is a real sense of loneliness and isolation for people in that situation.”

Mr Farron, a former Liberal Democrat leader, adds: “Excessive second home-ownership essentially does two things. It helps to push up house prices beyond the reach of what folks locally can afford.

“But more importantly and more significantly, it robs communities of life. If you’ve got a village with maybe 10 or 20 per cent of the properties are not lived in all year round, you can probably just about absorb that. But when you get into 50 and 60 per cent and beyond, then you run the risk of just killing the community altogether.

“If you’ve got a village of 450 houses and 250 aren’t lived in, you can kiss goodbye to your school and your Post Office probably and your bus routes and maybe your pub and your church because there just isn’t a permanent population to sustain those services.

“It means that the beautiful places people go on holiday to end up becoming ghost towns.”

Mr Farron has been the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale in Cumbria since 2005. But the Liberal Democrats’ only Parliamentary representative in northern England says he also has a legitimate claim to be “Yorkshire’s secret MP” given parts of his constituency like Sedbergh and Garsdale were historically within the West Riding before it was abolished in the 1970s.

“I think over probably the last 30 or 40 years, there’s been this kind of growing erosion of the affordable available housing stock for people who live in the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales and other similar places,” he says.

“As a Liberal and as hopefully a reasonable person, I recognise people have a right to buy a second home. It is of huge value to rural communities that we have got a strong visitor population coming to have holidays with us.

“In no way is this me saying ‘go back to where you came from, don’t trouble us around here’ type thing.

“This is not me trying to turn everywhere into Royston Vasey (the fictional ‘local town for local people’ from The League of Gentlemen).”

Mr Farron has instead come up with a seven-point plan to limit second home ownership to more sustainable levels.

The proposals include making second homes and holiday lets new and separate categories of planning use – meaning councils and National Park authorities would have the power to limit the number of such properties in each town and village. The idea is one supported by Airbnb.

“It is a really simple mechanism. If I wanted to turn my house into a chippy, I would have to apply for planning permission to turn my residential dwelling into a business fast food takeaway,” he explains.

“I’d have to apply and the council would probably say no. But if I wanted to sell my house to a person who wouldn’t live in it or turn it into a holiday let myself, I could just do it.

“With this power, as a community you decide what is a tolerable percentage and anything above that, you say no. There is a sustainable level and that level is definitely not zero.”

During a recent Westminster Hall debate on the issue, Mr Farron set out his seven-point plan – which also includes giving local authority the ability to double council tax on second homes and making new build properties in their areas “genuinely affordable” for local people.

He says he was disappointed that Housing Minister Christopher Pincher would only commit to launching a consultation on the introduction of a tourist accommodation registration scheme in England “so we can build our understanding of the evidence of issues that second homes present”.

Mr Farron says despite the ongoing challenge in bringing about government action, he has a simple vision of what he hopes to achieve.

“It would be the ability for communities not to be powerless and define their own destiny,” he says.

“We don’t want to be clearing out tourists or second home owners, we just want to be in the position to limit the numbers so that community is sustainable.”

Closing loophole 'is a reannouncement'

Tim Farron has given a qualified welcome to the Government’s plans to close a loophole allowing second homeowners with empty properties to claim they are holiday lets to avoid council tax.

It was announced this month that from April 2023, second homeowners will have to prove holiday lets are being rented out for a minimum of 70 days a year to access small business rates relief, where they meet the criteria.

Mr Farron said that while he welcomes the principle of the idea, the proposal had originally been announced in March last year and had been due to come into force this year.

“Actually it is a re-announcement and a delay,” he said.

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