Local Persons restriction seem a bit racist? Or am I overthinking?

[dartmoorgirl12]

We're house hunting on Dartmoor (clue's in the name!) at the moment, and we've seen a house with a Local Persons restriction on it. You have to live or work in the local or neighbouring parish for the previous five years. We actually qualify, but it got me thinking... Isn't it a bit weird that the "protected" group here are extremely likely to be white/broadly Christian. It just seems really exclusive for 2023. I do understand the idea that local communities should be protected, and that there is absolutely toxic housing pressure in Dartmoor at the moment. But ironically I live down here now because we got royally outpriced in the bit of London I grew up in. And there def doesn't seem to be any move to have Local Persons protections on various parts of London, which have been rapidly gentrified in recent times. I just thought it was interesting. Why is it that this group of white people get protected in this way?

The OP is not moving 'for work'

The OP doesn't live in London she qualifies for the "protected" housing.

If all communities had similar schemes, there'd be no diversity in London, no one could ever leave the village/city/slum they grew up in.

Because everyone who lives on Dartmoor now is white. Except for 28 (!!) people .

As it happens of the 2373 people living on Dartmoor, 2300 are white, 12 Asian, 16 Black. (from an earlier post in the thread)

I think the thread has moved beyond the OP!

I hate to break it to you, but ‘white’ people are not yet an ethnic minority in England.

Shock horror!

I find it fascinating the way this kind of social justice rhetoric is used to try strip away any protections or benefits that the working class might have.

"Oh so you want to reserve a small number of ex council houses for local people so that members of the local working class might have the slightest chance of one day owning their own home. Well I, a middle class Londoner, find that racist (and probably sexist, homophobic and transphobic as well if I think about it). Social justice requires that those properties be available to purchase by rich Lononders because there's a miniscule chance that the rich Londoner might be black."

Why do they have to be rich? Poor people get priced out of areas and need to move too!

‘Won’t anyone think of the middle classes?’ Social mobility my arse.

We have affordable housing in my area which is only available to locals, which is as it should be.

imagine if they started doing this in hackney all the "shire" transplants would be spitting blood and maybe all the local kids could spend less time being harrased by the police for being "too loud" when sitting outside in the bloody day time.

Afaik this restriction is only for buying not renting so if someone wants to they can "put the roots" and buy later. Like many of us did everywhere anyway.
Doesn't matter whether you are black or white, christian or muslim, scouser or londoner.

It's not favouring ethnic minority, but locals. Everyone else is affected the same no matter what protected characteristic.

Apparently the absolute worst thing you can be on MN is middle class. Christ, the spitting venom.

Yes, that was my point earlier. If money's no object you can rent for 5 years and buy then (also qualifying for the money saving schemes?) so a 5 year restriction is unlikely to helps someone who grew up in the area?

We need to protect our local communities in Devon, locals can’t afford to buy here anymore and are being forced to move away from their families and friends.
How would you prove that it would be someone’s primary residence? You can easily prove that someone’s lived and worked within the area for many years and they’d much rather the property be sold to a local vs someone from London.

I was answering that poster's question. Sorry you didn't understand that.

You're arguing that it's okay to drive valuable workers out of the area they grew up in and where they are desperately needed because of a lack of affordable housing. Really?

You have to declare if the house is a primary residence when you buy it (wherever it is) for tax purposes.

Why do they have to be rich? Poor people get priced out of areas and need to move too!

Because these houses would be very expensive to buy if there was no restriction on ownership.

There are lots of reasons for local residency restrictions. They are used to keep ex Council housing stock in the ownership of people within the community. They are used in National Parks to ensure the property will be used all year round not just for holidays or be used by essential workers. This is tied to complicated negotiations about protecting the greenbelt and not using national parks as trojan horses for sneaking housing into areas of natural beauty.
There are lots of restrictions around housing. Local plans tend to look beyond 'can this one person move here?' and consider what's best for the built and the natural environment.
It strikes me that the ones who are complaining are people who have never even considered rural housing issues and are suddenly shocked they can't just wave around money and do whatever they like.

YABU - I live in the Lake District and every other bloody house is a holiday home these days.

This means that locals can't afford property because as soon as a house goes on the market (for over inflated prices) it is snapped up by someone wanting a holiday let as opposed to a young local wanting to move on to the property ladder.

This means that young locals can't afford to live in the towns and villages they were brought up in and so have to move further and further afield to find housing. Invariably this means that they then work elsewhere because they aren't going to commute in to a low paid job (especially when public transport is non existent except tourist "sightseeing buses" etc) when they can get one locally because the only viable employment in their town is tourist based - gift shops or hospitality - hotels, cafes, pubs and restaurants, cleaning holiday lets etc. Even that is limited to the tourist heavy months and the people who work in those industries can't live there because they can't afford a house (either to rent or buy) on the NMW they earn for those jobs.

This then means companies struggle to keep staff and things shut down or are 100% aimed at the tourists as they bring the most money in eg the local pub only opening at weekends except in the summer because they can't afford the staff and running costs of opening 7 days a week and as weekends/summer are when the tourists and holiday makers visit then they're when they make the most money.

This just perpetuates the cycle of there being nothing for locals, as they can't afford to live in the town when they're only able to get weekend/holiday work and they can't go out or enjoy their village as there's nowhere to go (can't go to the pub as it's shut unless it's the weekend but you're working the whole weekend, same for the restaurants/bars/cafes etc) so they leave and their properties become even more holiday lets, bought up by rich people who have only ever spent a week or two in the Lakes as a summer holiday. Equally the other infrastructure is dwindling - got to drive 3 towns over to find a bank/school/dentist/doctors/library/post office/supermarket etc because there isn't enough of a permanent community to sustain them so they close and all the people move elsewhere, leaving the towns and villages to the tourists.

Outside of high tourist seasons the places are like ghost towns as everything is shut, half the houses are standing empty and there's no community because the community has been priced out of their homes.

If it helps stop locals, people who've lived in the area for years, maybe all their lives, from being priced out of the area where they work, then it has to be a good thing.

No you don't. You can make a nomination to HMRC up to two years after you acquire / sell properties / move house regarding a primary residence, and it only impacts you for capital gains tax and PPR relief should you sell one property.

Presumably it's locals who sold the properties for inflated prices in the first place...

It greatly reduces the outside buyer pool because not everyone is willing to do that and wait.

Stamp duty is different if you own more than one property.