A motion brought before Scarborough Borough Council on Monday by Conservative Councillors Clive Pearson and Phil Trumper, for a primary use stipulation on the sale of all new housing, aims to ease the additional stress placed on the local housing market, due to people buying second homes to use as part time residencies or holiday lets.
The Council’s adoption of the motion, and its commitment that the Planning Committee at Scarborough Borough Council seriously consider restricting the sale of new homes to people who live and work in our Borough all year round could be a step closer.
Councillor Phil Trumper says - “We need local people and local families to be able to buy homes in the town in which they live. A primary residency scheme will help to make this possible. We cannot let our resort towns be turned into a theme park in which the only residents are those who are on holiday”.
Successful adoption of a local residency policy will ensure that all new housing must be kept for full time residents or those working in the area.
In the Whitby area it is estimated that 20% of all dwellings currently have no full-time resident. This means house prices have risen, unnecessarily, for local residents and makes the dream of owning a home even harder to pursue. The consequence of this is much higher property prices as a result of the increased demand from outside the Borough. Secondary to the strain placed on local housing is that these houses do not contribute to the funding of local services. Indeed, across the Borough around 20% of new homes built from 2001 to 2011 currently have no full-time resident. Meaning that new developments have a lower effect on relieving the problem.
While we value visitors to the Borough, our priority must be to our residents, the people who live and work here all year round.
