The Yorkshire Dales national park authority chairman, Carl Lis, said people looking to the area for a picturesque bolthole were stimulating the housing market and helping to create “a gaping affordability gap between house prices and local wages”. Around 1,500 properties in the Yorkshire Dales are second homes – more than 10% of the total housing stock. If approved, the plans will then go to the national park’s constituent local authorities for consideration. “I think we’ve come to the point where we would not be doing our duty if we didn’t take a serious look at second homes,” he said. It is about incentivising the sale or renting out of second homes in order to bring them back into full-time occupancy.

Source: The Guardian December 03, 2017 15:27 UTC