TIL – A (2) - Truewayist

Q. 1

(text for Q.1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5)
Outsiders are to be banned from buying houses in some of Britain’s most desirable villages in an attempt to reduce the influx of wealthy owners of second homes. The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority claims that the banning of holiday home purchases will mean new properties selling at a discount of thirty per cent.
This radical move, which includes barn conversions, is being watched carefully by national parks across the UK. The aim of the move is to reverse the trend of young people being forced to move out because they cannot afford to live locally. House prices in the national park average £228,000, which is £100,000 more than the average cost of a home elsewhere in the region. Wealthy outsiders, looking
for second homes or holiday cottages, are forcing up the price of homes so much that local people cannot buy. Other national parks, including Exmoor and the Lake District are facing similar problems.
In the Dales, fifteen per cent of all properties are second homes or holiday cottages and in the most popular villages, the proportion is as high as sixty-five per cent. In Exmoor and the Lake District national parks the proportion is of about twenty per cent.
A mass house-building programme is not feasible in national parks, where large-scale development would destroy the landscape, they have been established to protect. The restricted occupancy strategy adopted by the Dales national park will not affect the sale of existing homes. The 10,000 existing historical houses in the Dales will continue to be bought and sold on the open market.
However, in thirty-three villages considered suitable for the building of new homes, developers will be allowed to sell only to people who have lived within the 684 square miles of the national park for at least three years or outsiders who have full-time employment in the area. The restriction will be permanent. Estate agents selling new homes or barn conversions will, in future, be obliged to advertise the fact that they can be purchased only by those who meet ‘local needs’ criteria.
The chairman of the Dales authority said that some of their villages were dying because local services such as buses, the post office, shops and pubs cannot be kept up. ‘We have to provide affordable homes for local people. If a community dies, there will be no one left to protect the beautiful countryside which attracts millions of visitors every year,’ he said.
The new policy was welcomed by local residents and parish councils that have been campaigning for the introduction of restrictive occupancy. One resident, who has run a café for the past nine years, said that the local housing situation had become desperate. ‘About three quarters of the people I grew up with here have gone to the cities and towns for work and cheaper housing. A couple has to earn £20,000 each to be able to afford a mortgage and you’re not going to find many round here who earn that,’ he said.
The Yorkshire Dales is the third national park authority to implement restrictions on who can buy new homes. The Peak District did so more than ten years ago and Exmoor followed suit two months ago, with the Lake District imposing similar restrictions informally.

In this case, the term ‘outsiders’ refers to ......