Short-term Holiday Lets: Planning

Duncan Baker Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd May 2023 Westminster Hall

[Duncan Baker (North Norfolk) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to speak in this debate. I am thankful to my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay (Kevin Foster), who brought it forward. As everybody has said, this matter dominates our postbags in every constituency around the country; it has been incredibly important in North Norfolk ever since I was elected. It is pertinent for me, because I was born and raised in North Norfolk and I have seen what has happened over the last 10 or so years; the property market has been turbocharged.

We have all said nice things about our constituencies. Mine is coastal, rural, beautiful and idyllic, just like pretty much everybody else’s here. However, there are unique and very difficult issues for tourism hotpots, which all suffer from the same phenomenon. People probably do not know that North Norfolk has the second highest number of second homes and holiday lets outside of London and Westminster. We talk a lot about how the issue affects the Lake district, the Peak district and the south-west, but 9.8% of all homes in North Norfolk are second homes or holiday lets. That is nearly 5,500 out of our 55,000 homes. Of course, we have a huge leisure and tourism offering, as do other areas, but with that offering comes nearly 3,000 holiday lets. That number has been totally turbocharged since the pandemic.

To put those figures into context, in Wells-next-the-Sea, which is one of the primary areas that I represent—I am sure many colleagues have holidayed there—40% of all homes are now second homes or holiday lets. In the villages around my constituency that are often coined “Chelsea-on-sea”, such as Morston, Salthouse, and Blakeney, where every new build house now goes for £1 million, over 50% of the homes are holiday homes or holiday lets. Some 2,700 families and households are on the North Norfolk District Council housing list. That cannot go on.

I may be a Conservative, but sometimes the Government are right to intervene in the market to try to help people. I am pleased that when the Minister speaks, we will hear that the Government are doing something about this issue. We have to recognise what the Government have achieved in just the last few years. I am pleased to see that the planning system is being considered. That comes on top of the doubling of council tax for second homes that are not used. Those are sensible, proportionate and measured ways in which we can improve the situation.

We must remember that all our local economies are supported by tourism. In North Norfolk, it generates £529 million. However, that is absolutely no good if the local restaurant, hotel, care home or shop cannot employ anybody in the vicinity. Communities do not want to be ghost towns in the winter. We have tried different things. We tried placing local restrictions; for example, we had residents-only referendums in St Ives, which did nothing but turbocharge the market. They did not work appropriately. We have tried placing restrictions in house builders’ sale documents, to say that homes are primary residences. However, those documents quickly become not worth the paper they are written on, and stag and hen parties turn up to those estates. People retire to those places to live in comfort, only to have that taken away from them.

It is right that local authorities, which know the areas better than anybody else, be given the planning tools to help. When we double council tax on second homes, we should think about district councils. Mine receives only 8p in the pound to help the areas that receive that double taxation. Those local authorities should be able to take that money back. I know the Treasury does not like hypothecated revenue, but we should help those local authorities by giving them that money—it is worth £8.2 million in North Norfolk—to build more affordable homes to rent and to buy, so that they can help the communities affected. This is about a range of tools, not one, but the measures I have mentioned are proportionate and will help.