Cumbrian MP Tim Farron has launched a petition calling for planning law to be changed to stop family homes being turned into second homes and holiday lets.
In South Lakeland, there has been a 32 per cent increase in the number of holiday lets in the district over the past year, the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale said.
A recent meeting of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority heard that 3,100 of the national park’s 12,000 properties were now holiday lets and second homes.
Mr Farron said: “In rural places across the United Kingdom from Cumbria to Cornwall, and Wales to Northumberland, the explosion in the number of family homes being turned into second homes and holiday lets is turning our beautiful vibrant communities into ghost towns.
“Holiday lets provide great economic benefit to the local area and of course people are entitled to buy a second home, but the need for families to have a home of their own must come first.
“I want to see holiday lets and second homes become different categories of planning use so that local councils have the power and resources to say when enough is enough.
“This should have happened years ago but the extreme circumstances brought about by the pandemic and the stamp duty holiday mean that now surely is the time for radical action.”
