Councils should have the power to curb the growth of second homes in Britain's most picturesque villages, Gordon Brown was told yesterday.

In future anyone wishing to buy a main residence and use it as a weekend retreat or holiday let should apply for planning permission to change its use.

The controversial plan, disclosed by The Times on Monday, was put forward by Matthew Taylor, the Liberal Democrat MP for Truro & St Austell, in a government-commissioned review of the rural economy.

His report blames the exodus of 800,000 people from towns to the countryside in the past ten years for driving up the price of rural properties and preventing local people getting a foot on the property ladder, not an influx of second-home owners.

He recognises, however, that in villages where second homes stand empty for many months of the year, public services are threatened. Schools, bus services and post offices all suffer if fewer people live full-time in rural communities.

Mr Taylor calls for one or two national park authorities to test the use of planning permission powers to control second-home ownership.

Ministers tried to steer Mr Taylor away from this thorny issue. There is no appetite within Government for a clash with second-home owners.

Caroline Flint, the Housing Minister, said that she was not convinced by the arguments for limiting the rights of second-home owners. Mr Taylor, however, believes that ministers must confront the problem.

His report says: “This issue will not go away, because it raises genuine concerns in those communities most affected. The unique status of the national parks makes the issue particularly important for them, since there is very little option to make up the loss of full-time homes by new building, and the maintenance of their unique environment relies on people living locally doing relatively low-paid agricultural work and other jobs that maintain the landscape.”

His remarks have outraged many homeowners living in national beauty spots who fear that the value of their homes will plummet.

Glynn Bromley and his wife, Jill, live in Troutbeck, near Windermere in the Lake District, where 40 per cent of the housing stock is second homes and holiday lets.

They fear that the value of their home would fall by at least 50 per cent and possibly as much as 80 per cent from such a move and would strip many pensioner homeowners of their savings.

Mr Bromley, 63, who is writing to the Prime Minister to voice his objections, said: “I am stunned by this proposal. We purchased our permanent home here from a second-home owner at open market price. But there may now be retrospective legislation which will prevent us from selling our home in the same open market.”

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