Figures have revealed there are thousands of properties in Cumbria being used as holiday lets.

According to short-term rental data analytics website AirDNA, there are currently 8,111 short-term lets in the county.

52 per cent of these were listed on Airbnb, 26 per cent on Vrbo and 22 per cent were listed on both.

The data also showed that there is a 97 per cent occupancy rate during the peak month of July and that the average daily rate was £128.

Cumbrian MP Tim Farron has pledged to carry on his campaign to tackle the issue of second home ownership after his amendment to the Levelling Up Bill was defeated by eight votes to five earlier today.

The MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale presented an amendment to the Levelling Up Bill Committee this morning which would make a holiday let a separate category of planning use so that local authorities would be able to stop family homes being turned into second homes.

The Levelling Up Minister, Marcus Jones said that Mr Farron had been “charmingly persistent” in making the case for limits on second homes but that the Government is already “taking this issue seriously”.

Speaking after the vote, Mr Farron said: “In the debate this morning, there were a lot of warm words from the minister but no action, it was clear that the Conservative Government still do not understand the plight of rural towns and villages from Cumbria to Cornwall.

“The amendment I brought forward would have been a silver bullet to tackling this enormous issue but sadly the Conservatives chose to fiddle while Rome burns.

“But I won’t give up and there will be further opportunities for me to make these proposals in the coming weeks. Our communities can not be left to turn into ghost towns, while our young people are robbed of the opportunity to afford a home of their own in the place they grew up in and where families are ejected from their homes, devastating our communities and our economy.”