Large queues formed outside polling stations as locals voted in favor of ending second home ownership in an unusual referendum on Monday, with a total of 2,228 people voting. A significant 2,111 voted in favor of restricting all newly built and additional housing in the area as the main full-time housing. Only 157 voted against the measure and 18 ballots were rejected, as announced at midnight. In 2021, about 20% of homes in Whitby were second homes or vacation rentals, according to the Scarborough Borough Council. The percentage in the coastal city has almost doubled in the last two decades, with 8.1% of properties being second homes or vacation rentals in 2001. Social media users reacted to the results of the poll, with one person writing on Twitter: “Good for Whitby. Locals need affordable housing and if the city is flooded with wealthy Londoners, real estate will be inaccessible and locals will leave “. Another said: “Power to the inhabitants. Too many local towns on the coast are flooded with COMPANIES buying houses to rent.” Residents were asked a second question in the poll – with 1,982 people rejecting plans to remain on the same district committee as Scarborough on North Yorkshire’s new unified council. This compared to 253 residents who were happy to remain on the same district committee as Scarborough. The results of the vote, in which a little less than 23% participated, have no legal weight, but represent the views of the population and could help shape local design estimates with a mandate to suppress second home ownership. Whitby City Councilor Linda Wilde, a councilor, told Sky News that the result “demonstrates the importance of this issue to locals and the depth of the sense of overcrowded housing afforded by the abundance of second homes and rental housing.” hands of unscrupulous owners “. He said the power to deal with the issue rests with the city council – which is trying to tackle the problem – as well as the government, “which must amend the planning regulations to make it possible to protect the local residence for the main residence”. “We need a ‘use category’ that applies to the holidays. Designers can then handle this change of use. We also need to tax second homes and cottages more efficiently through municipal taxes and business rates to reflect that. “They have an impact on local people,” he said. He said he hoped the city council “would take up this fight and invite our neighboring parishes to participate”. “For holidaymakers, Whitby is beyond parish boundaries. I hope people in Sandsend, Sleights, Sneaton and Stainsacre feel that this is a campaign for them as well,” he said. “Whitby is not unique in this difficult situation and the locals want their voice to be heard by the government along with people from Cornwall, North Norfolk, Northumberland and the Lakes. “We definitely need the government to give the locals the power to keep the holiday communities sustainable.”
