A campaign has been launched to strengthen restrictions on holiday lets and second homes in the Lake District.
Friends of the Lake District said its Fairer Housing, Stronger Communities campaign is to make sure there is a better balance between the value that tourism brings to the local economy and the needs of permanent residents.
It wants to see a mandatory registration and licensing scheme introduced for short-term holiday lets.
At the moment, any property owner can convert an existing home into a holiday let or second home without seeking planning permission.
Informal holiday letting via Airbnb and other platforms is not subject to the same conditions as traditional B&Bs.
Friends of the Lake District said: “Local authorities must have the power not only to refuse new licences where a significant proportion of properties are already given over to holiday letting but also to require planning permission before a permanent residence can be changed into a holiday let or second home.”
It also wants to see a requirement introduced for holiday let owners to pay council tax, rather than much lower business rates.
Research commissioned by the landscape charity found that 92% of holiday lets in the national park – 4,546 – were suitable for use as homes.
It added: “Many are unoccupied for a large part of the year: in some tourist ‘hotspots’, the proportion of unoccupied dwellings is more than a fifth and, in Windermere North, Ambleside and Langdales, more than a third.
“This proliferation of holiday lets and second homes has a perverse double impact: there are both too few permanent residents to sustain local schools and businesses and too many visitors in terms of the strain on roads, water and sewerage systems, waste collection and disposal services.”
Michael Hill, CEO of Friends of the Lake District, said: “With this campaign, we’re taking a stand for the people of Cumbria.
“Holiday lets and second homes are underused and often empty, all the while local people cannot access affordable housing and are priced out of the areas that they grew up in.
“To restore community vibrancy in heavily visited areas, we want the rules on short-term letting to be tightened, the purchase of a second home (further) disincentivised and underused properties brought back onto the housing market.
“This will also reduce the amount of new build needed and ease the pressure to put new homes in less sustainable locations.
“We want to see fairer planning policies and stronger restrictions on the loss of residential homes to holiday use.
“This isn’t a matter of telling people what they can or cannot do with their property or undermining the visitor economy but giving a fairer chance to people wanting to live and work permanently in Cumbria and who will keep communities – and the visitor economy itself – alive”.
Gavin Capstick, chief executive of the Lake District National Park Authority, said: “The Lake District is a beautiful and unique National Park beloved by many, which is reflected in the millions of people who spend time here enjoying the landscape and exploring its rich natural and cultural heritage.
“While the national park’s popularity supports its visitor economy and, as a result, its local communities, there is a real pressure on the availability of affordable housing for locals.
“Introducing measures to manage the number of second homes and holiday lets will help to maintain community vibrancy and resilience in the Lake District National Park.
“For this reason, we’ve asked the Government to select the Lake District National Park to accelerate a national registration scheme for short-term lets, and to trial either a new licensing scheme for short term lets or a new planning rule that would treat short-term lets and second homes as a different category from residential homes, so owners would need planning permission to change a permanent dwelling to a short-term let or second home.”
