A list which showed there were around 160 holiday homes in just one parish in the North Lakes is set to be updated, with the likelihood the number has risen again.
The list, compiled in 2019, covered the Newlands Valley and the villages of Thornthwaite, Portinscale and Braithwaite.
Fresh details could now be added to the list when they emerge at Above Derwent Parish Council’s monthly virtual meeting today.
At the council’s meeting last month, a vote was taken to submit a fresh list of holiday homes to the Lake District National Park Authority to see if any local occupancy clauses were being breached.
The LDNPA passed comment on all the properties included in the 2019 list, which was compiled by a former parish councillor with information gained from internet research.
It was found that only a small number of property owners were in alleged breach of local occupancy clauses and in one case a property had been sub-divided into two dwellings without planning permission.
Parish councillor Don Thoburn said councillors would consider whether they present a new list to the LDNPA with the inclusion of additional properties at their Zoom meeting.
He praised the way that the LDNPA had dealt with the previous list by issuing enforcement notices on those owners in breach of local occupancy clauses.
“It’s getting to a point where all it’s (the increase in holiday lets) doing is forcing the price of houses up,” said Cllr Thoburn. “Any house that comes available now is either a retirement home, a second home or a holiday let.
“In Thornthwaite, where I live, if I count up all the dwellings, 50 per cent are either second homes or holiday lets. We can’t really say anything about the second homes because we have no official register of those,” he added.
He said the situation had stabilised in Thornthwaite but added that the problem was particularly bad in the Newlands Valley.
