More than 900 properties in Keswick are now used as holiday lets, second homes or serve the B&B trade, a shocking report from the Lake District National Park Authority has revealed.
A total of 641 properties in Keswick are either holiday lets or B&Bs, and 261 properties are second homes with no sign of the trend changing, the new figures show.
It means 34 per cent of all properties in Keswick are not occupied year-round while 250 people locally are signed-up to needing housing in the town.
The startling figures come from data submitted to the Government by LDNPA bosses in a call for stricter controls.
In nearly 10 years since 2013, the number of holiday let units alone in Keswick soared by 10 per cent to 24 per cent, the figures show, with the Airbnb boom continuing and guesthouses converting to holiday lets
The report confirms what has long been suspected by town leaders – that the balance of residential properties to tourism is tipping.
Responding to the findings, councillor Tony Lywood said it showed that holiday let numbers in Keswick are now “out of control”. Keswick Town mayor Steve Harwood also said “urgent action” was needed.
The report found that second homes and holiday lets in Keswick are inflating already high house prices – putting property ownership beyond local wages, decimating the rental market for Keswick workers, and leaving businesses desperately short of staff.
At some workplaces, the recruitment situation is so bad that businesses face an “existential threat,” according to the report, with some becoming “increasingly constrained” by a lack of staff, and are having to reduce opening hours or cut-back on their offer.
From a stock of 2,589 houses in Keswick, more than 900 are used by tourists or second home owners who do not live in the town year round.
In Borrowdale, 52 per cent of homes have no permanent resident with 32 per cent of those holiday lets as the problem spreads to the valleys and villages.
Threlkeld is now home to 30 second homes, 54 holiday lets and 10 empty properties – which means 35 per cent of the village is not permanently occupied.
In Underskiddaw, there are 19 second homes and 41 holiday lets. In Above Derwent, which encompasses Braithwaite, Thornthwaite, Portinscale, Beck Wythop and the Newlands Valley, there are 100 second homes, 61 holiday lets – equivalent to 42 per cent of homes not used year round.
Yet studies have warned that when the number of second homes or holiday lets reaches 20 per cent, the sustainability is threatened.
Of 61 houses across Buttermere, 14 are holiday lets and 10 are second homes. The worst ratios are found at Martindale at Ullswater where more than 77 per cent of properties are not permanently occupied.
Worryingly, the LDNPA has warned that the numbers could actually be far worse. It is unclear to local authorities which properties are paying council tax or business rates.
The LDNPA has called for all furnished self-catering properties with a rateable value of less than £15,000 to pay council tax.
Cllr Lywood said: “The number of holiday lets in our town is now out of control. These figures do not include many of the unofficial lets and the Airbnbs rented on an occasional basis. Tourism is the lifeblood of our economy and I welcome holiday lets; the issue is not their existence but their proportion of the community. I welcome the
Government’s moves towards regulating this industry and would suggest they introduce a cap on the number of holiday lets as a proportion of total dwellings. It cannot be good for any community to have over 50 per cent of dwellings not permanently lived in. We are not there yet but we need to act now as the effects on employment, schooling and particularly the local rented market are already being felt. Trying to find a long term local rented property is as rare as hen’s teeth in Keswick.”
Cllr Steve Harwood, a former architect involved in planning, praised the LDNPA for the information.
He said: “It is good that the LDNPA have taken the trouble to prepare these figures which the town council have been requesting for some time. However I do feel the figures are under reported but important that some statistics have been prepared given the importance attached to providing evidence.”
