A Keswick councillor has chalked up another significant victory in a campaign to put the brakes on second homes and holiday lets.
Cumbria County Council leaders have agreed to lobby the government after Tony Lywood warned them that some Lakeland villages are now 80 per cent second homes or holiday lets, while Keswick is nearing 40 per cent.
His motion that the county council rap at the door of the government for action, won unanimous cross-party support from the entire chamber, including the ruling Labour and Lib Dems, and opposition Conservatives.
Leaders in the county council’s coalition signalled they may go further and also explore whether holiday lets in towns and villages surrounding the national park should also have to apply for planning permission in order to do so.
That would help rein-in the spread of holiday lets to fringe areas on the national park boundary, which is seeing local homes lost to tourism in towns such as Cockermouth and Wigton, and villages such as Bothel and Greystoke.
Cllr Lywood, a Labour councillor, said of the decision: “All parties supported it and nobody abstained or voted against which is all good and means it was well received.
“The county council has agreed to take on the motion and may go considerably further, which is very important.
“They are going to discuss whether a planning option needs to be invoked – where people who wish to have a holiday let would need to get planning permission for it as well.
“The council can’t do that within the national park as they have no powers of authority within the national park, but they do have powers of authority outside of the national park, and will increasingly do so as it becomes the new Cumberland Council.”
He added: “What we are not trying to do is be anti-business or anti-holiday lets. We all understand the necessity for holiday lets and the need to get tourists into the Lake District – but it’s all to do with proportionality. ”
Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron, for the Liberal Democrats, has been campaigning on the issue in the south of the national park.
He said: “I’m really glad to see county councillors of all political colours coming together to back this motion to close this tax loophole for second homes.
“The simple fact is that a wealthy person, with a second home in the Lake District, is subsidised by somebody on the breadline and going to the food bank in the same community because they have let their second home for 70 days a year. I’d like to see Cumbria’s five Conservative MPs get behind this cross-
party motion and put pressure on the Chancellor to act.”
Keswick Conservative MP Trudy Harrison was unavailable for comment on the matter, but fellow Tory Dr Neil Hudson, of Penrith and the Border, said he was pushing the government on the issue.
The government has signalled that changes are on the way with the loophole closed 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.
Holiday let owners will have to provide evidence such as the website or brochure used to advertise the property, letting details and receipts.
Properties will also have to be available to be rented out for 140 days a year to qualify for this relief.
Dr Hudson said: “We need to address this head on and there are some positive initial steps from the government on this including the announcement on the closing of tax loopholes on second homes.”
“But I am pushing the government to go further. I have already urged the government to look at and address the issue of affordable housing, sensible planning and sensible measures, so that people can get on the housing ladder and it is not to their detriment when people come in and take second homes. I raised this issue recently in my Commons Debate on Levelling Up Rural Communities in Cumbria, where I discussed the need for the government to pivot away from London-centric ideas.”
Cllr Lywood’s concern is that the uncontrolled growth of second homes being spun into holiday lets, has decimated the availability of flats and houses across the town’s private rental sector.
As well as squeezing out local people who can’t afford to stay and work in the town, it means businesses are struggling to recruit staff who cannot find or afford anywhere in town to live.
Cllr Lywood has argued that second home and holiday let operators should not be getting cash back from the taxman via small business rates relief.
He believes the perk encourages people to buy second homes in popular tourism destinations and then flip them into income-generating holiday lets – avoiding business rates and benefitting from both tourism income and a tax subsidy.
The Labour councillor’s motion, delivered to a full meeting of the 84-member county council last Thursday, won unanimous cross-chamber support, along with backing from political opponents.
The hope now is that Cumbria’s five Conservative MPs – including Copeland Tory Trudy Harrison and Eden’s Dr Neil Hudson – will be knocking on the door of Chancellor Rishi Sunak to explain how it is affecting the ability of people to live and work locally, as well as hitting local businesses.
Earlier this year, the Lake District National Park Authority also agreed to a motion tabled by Cllr Lywood. Since then, the authority has been running a consultation on the issue.
It believes that the law needs to be amended to create new use classes for “primary homes, second homes and short-term holiday lets” – with no such distinctions made under the current planning regime.
That would mean any property requiring a change of use would need planning permission and that local circumstances – such as an area such as Keswick having too many second homes or holiday lets – could then be a “material consideration” – planning jargon for whether planning permission can be granted or refused.
The LDNPA has also been asking people whether they support business rates being applied to any property let for short periods that total 140 days or more per year, which would categorise it as a self-catering property.
