Eight out of 11 national parks say their planners prefer locals

The eight parks, which cover more than 1 million ha, all told a Housing Today survey that spiralling demand for second homes was pushing house prices above levels local workers could afford (see table, left).

Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is the most recent to commit to such a policy.

Its decision follows a 55% rise in average house prices since 2002, from £152,000 to £236,000. This is largely a result of people from elsewhere buying holiday homes.

However, after the park authority got support for its plan from government planning inspector William Carlow, the vast majority of new developments will be forced to fulfil the needs of locals from January.

Peter Watson, the park’s head of planning, estimates this will allow the authority to provide 60 new houses per year for local people. “We can’t build enough houses to make prices affordable for local people unless we destroy the landscape,” he said. “So the obvious approach is to build them only for people who work here.”

Exmoor is also to clamp down on open market housing from February with a requirement for 100% of new homes to be affordable to local people.

Dartmoor’s policy towards the open market is more flexible, however. Phil Markham, Dartmoor’s head of forward planning and community, said: “Big settlements in the area make inward migration less of an issue.”