Editor,

I am not local to your part of the country but hail from North Norfolk, an area blighted by second homes and holiday letting property.

The proposal for locals only housing is a very valid one (Local-only scheme to tackle crisis, Cambrian News, 10 August), whilst in North Norfolk it’s not a question of language but one of community.

House prices are inflated by two to three times those of similar houses in less popular inland parts of Norfolk due to outside non-local buyers — be they second homes holiday letting or the wealthy recently retired migrating from the London conurbation.

This, as in Wales forces, local youngsters to buy elsewhere outside their community — if indeed they can afford to buy and if not enter the rental sector from whence it often proves impossible to save a deposit for a purchase.

This creates a divided society of the haves and have nots. Villages have gone into decline with schools, shops and pubs closing due to the changes this has made to the population demographics, and some villages struggle to fill parish council seats. Radical reform of housing is required not merely by optional local market houses but legally enforceable local market houses as adopted in the Channel Islands.

I applaud the proposal to increase council tax on those who have second homes when locals cannot afford a home.

We need to make it uneconomic for second home owners and legally impossible.

Paul Vickers,

Fakenham,

Norfolk