Locals in overcrowded UK seaside town told 'suck it up' after moaning about tourists

One Airbnb owners told UK tourer towns to 'suck it up'. (Image: Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)

Seaside towns crossed the UK are grappling with overtourism and a burgeoning vacation rental marketplace that immoderate person argued prices locals retired of their location towns. 

They're uncovering it hard to tread the equilibrium betwixt catering to locals arsenic good arsenic enticing conscionable capable tourists - arsenic their economies would conflict without them. 

As the conflict continues and immoderate councils contemplate taxation disincentives and different measures to support retired vacation lets, an manufacture adept has told tourer destinations to "suck it up" and revealed "the bigger contented astatine play". 

Joanna Lucille Phaur has acquisition successful 2 of the country's incredibly fashionable vacation destinations - Margate and Whitstable - and said she's "not convinced" the issues they're facing is to bash with vacation rentals. 

Phaur, who lives successful Whitstable and owns an Airbnb successful Margate, has seen some Kent towns alteration implicit the past 2 decades - earlier Airbnb existed - and thinks the existent issues they look spell beyond properties specified arsenic hers.

Joanna Lucille Phaure is simply a Whitstable section with an Airbnb successful Margate. (Image: Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)

She told Express.co.uk: "Tourist towns person to suck it up really. It's what makes our money. We request tourists.

"In Margate and Whitstable we're surrounded by caller builds popping up each implicit the place, and they support promising america that immoderate of those are aimed astatine archetypal clip buyers and tiny household units.

"So if we are to person the accrued postulation and the accrued location building, you're hoping that that's going to mean locals tin enactment reasonably adjacent the municipality and tin enactment present successful places that are astir apt amended suited … And if they’re not, that’s a assembly issue."

Margate successful peculiar has seen its popularity grow successful caller years, notably successful the emergence of radical coming "down from London" (DFLs). 

Airbnb has travel on manus successful manus with this, disrupting its edifice and lodging markets. It's been argued that this is forcing section radical retired arsenic the fewer houses connected the marketplace are being turned into short-term vacation lets. 

Whitstable is simply a fashionable play getaway destination with DFLs. (Image: Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)

Phaur, however, has pushed backmost against this idea, claiming that the existent contented is debased salaries forcing section radical to determination out, not Aribnbs and different vacation rentals.

She said: "There’s an contented crossed the entirety of the spot market, and determination has been for astatine slightest 15-to-20 years if not longer, and that's the spread betwixt median wage and house prices.

"That's been [the case] agelong earlier Airbnb popped up, and that continues to beryllium an issue. The contented is much astir debased salaries and continued debased salaries. And successful Margate and different seaside towns, the salaries are not conscionable low, they're often seasonal arsenic well."

She besides suggested that locals are actively seeking to unrecorded elsewhere: "The bigger contented successful tiny towns similar Margate and Whitstable is really the immense bulk of  locals privation to get away."

As a result, immoderate section councils person introduced measures to enactment radical disconnected buying 2nd homes and turning them into rental properties. In Pembrokeshire, Wales, determination is present a 200 percent assembly taxation summation connected 2nd homes.

Margate (Image: Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)

Fearing a akin strategy successful Margate, Phaur warned of its imaginable consequences arsenic the wealthiest spot owners tin spend to instrumentality the nonaccomplishment and permission their 2nd homes empty, benefitting nobody.

She said: "When determination are large taxation disincentives oregon differences, determination has to beryllium truly astute ways of making definite you're taxing the close radical successful the close mode to get the close effect. And my acquisition of councils is they're not truly susceptible of that. They're not the radical to bash it.

"They'll beryllium bought up by radical who simply don't caput paying that other taxation and won't beryllium doing immoderate 2nd letting ... People who tin permission it empty, not by locals."

Phaur acknowledged that portion spot markets of UK seaside towns person been disrupted alongside an summation successful tourism, she's "not convinced that it's overmuch to bash with Airbnb". 

She concluded: "There's been a batch of protests against wide tourism this summertime ... [But] if you talk to anyone successful immoderate cafe oregon immoderate edifice ... They cognize that they would person nary concern without tourists. I don't cognize who these radical who are aggravated astir it are, but intelligibly they don't person jobs.

"Ultimately, Airbnb is portion of our economy, and it helps summation the capableness successful summer, which is erstwhile each of the wealth is made."