SOARING Exmoor property prices were due to a ‘restrictive planning regime’, MP Ian Liddell-Grainger claimed this week.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said planning officials made it so difficult to obtain new homes permission that the Exmoor property pool had remained almost static, while demand grew.

In a Parliamentary debate on farming he warned Government proposals to relax planning restrictions to allow farmers to convert unwanted buildings would achieve nothing inside national parks unless planners conformed to them.

He said: “The spirit of the new framework is to make it far easier for farmers to diversify, whether to provide housing or open up other income streams.

“But Exmoor National Park Authority has become a world leader in saying ‘no’ to planning applications.”

Mr Liddell-Grainger said one of the more ‘spectacular’ refusals was seeking removal of a shepherd’s hut because it was ‘out of character’ in an area where there were 40,000 sheep.

He said the anti-development stance meant virtually no new homes had been built in the national park in recent years.

“Yet, one local estate agent alone had 2,000 people on its books, all looking to move and live on Exmoor,” he said.

“This state of affairs is now reflected in property prices that are going through the roof to a point where it is nigh-impossible for anybody on local wages to obtain a mortgage.

“In addition to creating a stagnant property sector, the planners are now helping to drive young families out of Exmoor because they cannot afford to live there.”