Peak District getaways: Here are how many second homes in Derbyshire Dales stand empty as holiday homes

Sheffielders love a weekend getaway to the Peak District – but campaigners are concerned holidays homes standing empty in UK villages are turning communities into ‘ghost towns’.

New data has uncovered how many homes in every local authority are only visited ‘just for the holidays’ by their owners – and that isn’t factoring in homes used for ‘short-term lets’ like through Airbnb.

It shows how holiday homes now account for one in 10 properties in some parts of England and Wales. But campaigners say the issue could be “10 times worse” if short-term lets are factored in.

For example, out of approximately 28,000 households in Cornwall, 6,080 were recorded as holiday homes in 2021 – a rate of one in every three homes that stand empty most of the year.

However, the problem is far less pronounced in areas like Sheffield or the Peak District.

Holiday homes are defined as a second address in which the owners stay for at least 30 days a year.

Around 70,000 second addresses were used as holiday homes in England and Wales, according to data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). These holiday homes were found to be mainly concentrated in picturesque coastal areas and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The data shows exactly how many houses in the Peak District, a popular getaway destination for Sheffielders, are only occupied for getaways by their owners.

The total number of holiday homes across the ‘Derbyshire Dales’ was 415 out of approximately 30,000 in 2021 – a rate of around one per cent. Additionally, even in areas where the number of holiday homes was greatest, they only made up less than five per cent of all households.

The combined area of Bakewell North, Baslow and Calver recorded 100 holiday homes in 2021, out of approximately 3,300 households in total. Hathersage, Bradwell and Tideswell recorded 80 holiday homes in 2021, out of approximately 2,500 households in total.

As well as this, the total number of holiday homes in the ‘High Peak’ region directly west of Sheffield came to 110.

In comparison, the total number of holiday homes across all 69 of Sheffield’s officially designated neighbourhood area was approximately 80 out of around 232,000 households.

Regionally, the South West had the highest concentration of holiday homes with 7.5 for every 1,000 properties, followed by Wales, with 6.9 holiday homes for every 1,000 homes. London had the lowest, at 0.6 per 1,000. The South West was also found to have the greatest total number of holiday homes with almost 20,000, followed by the South East with just under 12,000 and the East of England with almost 9,000.

Chris Bailey, national campaign manager at Action on Empty Homes, said: “The latest ONS work on holiday homes might seem shocking but I’m afraid the bad news is that it is just the tip of an iceberg of homes sucked out of use.

“The issue could easily be ten times as serious across the country as the latest ONS figures suggest. We really need the Government to introduce a proper licensing scheme so that we can assess the real impact.”