DALES families could be asked to contribute to a central pot which would be used to help home-buyers.

People who live in the Yorkshire Dales National Park often find themselves priced out of the market when it comes to buying a house.

The situation has become so desperate, the national park authority is considering policies which will bar more affluent buyers from snapping up properties as lucrative holiday homes.

Planners have agreed to consider extending the number of settlements where people will be able to convert barns and outbuildings.

Authority members, who meet today, will consider setting up a Community Housing Investment Trust and inviting people to contribute to a central fund which would then be used to help others who would otherwise struggle to afford a new home.

Those who benefit would then repay the cash they borrowed when they sold the property on.

The Upper Wensleydale Partnership has asked the national park authority to contribute £2,500 for a feasibility study and park authority members will be advised to accept.

Strategic planning officer Peter Stockton said: "As the investment would be tied to the local household probably through a mortgage subsidy rather than the property there would be no need for complicated restrictive covenants governing occupancy.

"On resale, the trust's investment would be returned, with profits, back into the pot for other households.

"The trust would not then be burdened with managing a stock of housing that might not meet its actual requirements."

If the feasibility study is approved, it will look at how many people are likely to need help, how much money they would need, how many would be willing to contribute to the pot and if there are other sources of cash which could be added to the equation.