Ten years after St Ives voted to ban new‑builds from being used as second homes, the Cornish town is still grappling with soaring house prices, unstable work and young residents being pushed out.
The 2016 referendum was viewed as a national test case after census data showed around a quarter of local properties were second homes.
“I don’t want to move because I have a life here, but at one point I thought about moving to be with a friend in Coventry just because it is cheaper,” says Hannah Roach, 26.
She has moved between several rentals in St Ives since she was 17, three times pushed out by landlords raising rents hundreds of pounds at a time.
St Ives made national headlines when residents voted overwhelmingly in favour of adopting a neighbourhood development plan that included Policy H2, external- a rule that added a “principal residence” requirement to the sale of newly built homes.
H2 was a bold intervention designed to give local people a better chance at staying in the town and to deter purely investment‑driven purchases.
It made St Ives the first place in the UK to require new homes be kept for full‑time residents only.
In Northumberland, villages such as Beadnell, Bamburgh and Seahouses have enforced principal‑residence rules for years, reporting a rise in permanent residents – although some argue winters still feel “lonely” as streets empty out when holidaymakers leave.
And in Whitby in Yorkshire, more than 90% of voters backed limits on new‑build second homes in 2022 amid concerns locals were being priced out of the town.
Yet despite hopes the rule would stabilise prices, many young residents say housing is still out of reach.