MP urges planning change for second homes

3.00.00pm GMT Wed 23rd Jan 2008

Local MP Tim Farron, Countryside spokesman for the Liberal Democrats is today pressing the Department for Communities and Local Government to consider changing planning regulations in order to control the spiralling cost of homes in rural areas. In answer to a parliamentary question tabled by Mr Farron, DCLG confirmed that councils have limited powers to limit second home ownership because planning law does not allow any legal distinction between first homes and second homes.

Mr Farron is urging the Department to formally reclassify second homes as a separate category of building-use. This would make it easier to impose limits on second home ownership including restricting the ability to extend second homes and the ability to change a first home into a second home.

Tim Farron said:

"Excessive second home ownership saps the life out of communities and it also puts houses out of the reach of local people seeking to get themselves on the housing ladder. The Government ought to be looking at ways of reversing this trend, and forcing people to apply for a change of use for a second home would be a great start."