Ministers to rule out holiday home rules
Plans to get rid of a Tory rebellion on planning rules will be made by ministers to make it harder for new properties to be turned into holiday homes.
The housing secretary, Michael Gove, is in talks with a group of up to 60 Conservative MPs who are threatening to inflict a string of Commons defeats on the government that would severely restrict housebuilding in England.
Gove is considering restrictions on properties built in tourist hotspots. If they wanted to let them short-term visitors, owners could have to submit a change of use planning application to the council.
Gove is preparing to impose further sanctions on developers who delay building on land they already own with planning permission. It could be used or lose power to rescind planning permission if it hasn't begun within a year.
Other amendments being considered by ministers include measures to incentivise construction on brownfield sites, and giving residents a right of appeal against planning permission for unpopular developments.
Gove is resisting the rebels' central demand to allow local authorities to ban all greenfield developments other than in exceptional circumstances. This, ministers say, would make it impossible for the government to meet its promise to build 300,000 homes a year.
One senior Tory source said that concessions in other areas would be far-reaching and they are definitely in deal-making mode. The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill could address criticism that coastal communities are being hollowed out by a surge in holiday homes. Since the Covid 19 pandemic began, more than 17,000 properties in England have been switched to short-term lets, according to figures released this year. The property website Rightmove said that house prices in seaside resorts increased by 13.9 per cent on average last year compared to a national rise of 9.9 per cent.
The planning rebellion was led by former cabinet minister Theresa Villiers and Bob Seely, MP for the Isle of Wight. Other threats to defy the government include former party leader Iain Duncan Smith and former home secretary Priti Patel.
One rebel said that they were definitely making progress. They said that this is not about stopping development but rather stopping the wrong development in the wrong areas. We want to see the government come forward with its own amendments which will do a lot of things that we are calling for. Another rebel called for help in coastal areas where too often new houses end up becoming homes for local people. The average age of first-time buyers has risen to 37 as the cost of living crisis makes it harder to buy a home, according to a survey.
The average age had jumped by five years since its last poll in 2020, according to the First Direct bank.
The barriers have been raised by increasing mortgage rates and inflation since then. It takes a longer time to save for deposits, with the bank estimating that it takes an average of seven-and-a-half years to get one together.
77 per cent of prospective purchasers are concerned about their ability to get on the property ladder, according to the data. The cost of living crisis was the main obstacle for the vast majority of respondents, with 59 per cent saying difficulty with saving for a deposit was a major obstacle.
Just 35 per cent said that they would be able to buy without help from a partner or family member, and 28 per cent are waiting for an inheritance to help them get on the housing ladder.
Chris Pitt, of First Direct, said that buying a property was a distant dream for many. It is a long time and getting longer, and it takes a long time to achieve the dream of home ownership. The state of the economy will make the situation worse, he said.