COLUMN: Action taken on short term holiday lets - Selaine Saxby MP

Levelling up North Devon is the manifesto commitment I stood on in 2019. However, the housing situation has worsened as we emerged from the pandemic and in July, the Housing Minister is hosting round tables with MPs and councils across Devon and Cornwall as we continue to seek solutions to the issue.

This week has seen the launch of the Government's long awaited call for evidence into short term holiday lets goes live. I have campaigned relentlessly to get this started, as repeated ministers advised this is the first step to finding a way to rebalance our housing market. MPs from all parties have repeatedly called for action to be taken to tackle the surge in short term holiday lets, and house prices across Devon and Cornwall. At this time, there is only limited information available about the number of properties that are used as short term holiday lets rather than residential properties. We need our visitors for our vital tourist economy, but we also need to have people able to live here for work to service the industry, and across our public services.

I was delighted Levelling Up Minister, Neil O'Brien, was able to come to North Devon and see how the Government's investments into North Devon are being spent. The Minister opened the new Tarka Leisure Centre, which benefitted from £3M of Sport England and Coastal Community; the same fund that also has seen investment into the Ilfracombe Watersports Centre. Council officers, the minister and myself also toured the Future High Street project. Another £6.5M of government funding to improve parts of Barnstaple town centre. Work is now underway, and whilst this project alone will not address all the concerns in our town centre, it is a great first step and combined with the High Streets Task Force, which North Devon are a recipient of advice from, much work is underway.

The Minister also met with our local police, who were out and about in Barnstaple and they raised some of their concerns directly. We have an application in for Safer Streets Funding as we have seen an uptick in antisocial behaviour in town. We can all do our bit to support Barnstaple as it continues to bounceback from the pandemic, and shop locally, and I would again like to take this opportunity to thank the voluntary "In Bloom" groups in Barnstaple and our other towns in North Devon who work so hard to improve our town centres, as well as fill them with flowers.

Focusing on investment into Barnstaple, I was also pleased to bring Health Minister, and former nurse, Maria Caulfield to our hospital to see the newly opened Jubilee Ward. This ward has been built from £1.9M government funding for Covid catch up, awarded in December, and opened in May, ringfenced to ensure that those who have been waiting for orthopaedic operations such as knee and hip replacements can receive state of the art treatment in this fantastic new facility. I continue to lobby health ministers relentlessly to expedite the plans for the rest of the hospital, as the team have done such a great job with this one ward, on time and on budget, and with plans ready to go for further improvements I hope there will be more projects underway sooner rather than later.

I will continue to work for residents, businesses, the economy and the environment to level up our communities and ensure North Devon's voice is heard in Westminster.