A CUMBRIAN MP branded the Government’s Levelling-Up strategy “an unambitious planning bill” which he says misses opportunities to tackle the emerging second homes “housing catastrophe.”

Cabinet Member Michael Gove MP presented his Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill to the House of Commons for its second reading last week.

The 325-page document includes a number of initiatives to drive growth and economic development.

It has been hailed by Carlisle MP John Stevenson as “handing power back to local communities.”

But others believe the bill does not go far enough to address the issues in communities like Cumbria.

READ MORE: Tax hike on unused second homes welcomed by Cumbrian councillors

Tim Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale said: “There are huge crises to be solved environmentally, in terms of housing and in terms of planning control that this bill would give us the opportunity to tackle.”

But he said that it fails to address the rise of holiday lets in hospitality hotspots, which is reducing the number of homes available to families looking to get a foot on the housing ladder.

“Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a housing crisis become a housing catastrophe. We’ve seen over the space of the pandemic, up to 80 per cent of all houses bought and changing hands during the pandemic going into the second home market.

The Liberal Democrat MP said: “We’ve seen the collapse of the private rented sector into the holiday lets sector, into air B&B and seen individuals forced out of their communities with literally nowhere else to go; people with jobs, people with places with local schools for their children having to uproot to go to places where they’ve got none of those things because they’ve got kicked-out.”

READ MORE: Tax hike on unused second homes welcomed by Cumbrian councillors

It was reported earlier this month that more than 150 second homes have been registered in the Allerdale area recently.

Mr Farron said that the bill should be giving new powers to councils and national parks to prevent family homes from becoming second homes and holiday lets.

Central Government could be set to follow that of Wales in a council tax hike, disincentivising people from turning their home into a holiday let.