Tim Farron meets Minister to make the case for Cumbrian councils to have more powers to tackle housing crisis

This week, Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron met with the Minister for Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook, to ask him to consider giving councils and national park authorities in Cumbria the power to restrict the number of second homes in the area.

Last year, the previous government consulted on creating a new planning use class for short-term lets, but stopped short of proposing the same for second homes.

Tim is supporting a Liberal Democrat amendment to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill which would create a separate category of planning use for second homes. This would mean that in areas where there is already a high proportion of homes which are stood empty for most of the year, local planning authorities would be able to turn those applications down.

Speaking after the meeting, Tim said “Communities like ours in the Lakes and the Dales have a situation where so many of the properties that could be lived in by local families are either second homes occupied by people who hardly live there at all, or are short-term lets.

"You get a situation where so many properties are gobbled up by non-permanent residents that there is nowhere for local people to live.

"You lose your primary schools, secondary schools, GPs - you lose your communities.

“The Minister very clearly understood the pressures our communities are facing, but I’m afraid I left the meeting unconvinced that the Government will take the radical action needed to tackle the housing crisis.

“That’s why I’m joining Liberal Democrat colleagues in putting down an amendment to the Planning Bill which would give our local authorities the power to put a limit on the number of second homes in our communities.”