PROPERTY expert Kirstie Allsopp says people buying second homes in Dorset should be seen as a force for good when it comes to revitalising rural communities.

With the right management, the Location, Location, Location presenter believes second homes can be rented out to provide revenue for their owners while encouraging out-of-town visitors to boost the local economy through the use of shops, pubs and tourist attractions.

Kirstie brought her wealth of knowledge on the rural property market to bear during a recent visit to Dorchester to open the new-look Scats store on the Grove Trading Estate.

“Dorset is very fortunate and Poundbury is an amazing example of what it’s possible to achieve,” she said. “I’ve done a lot of work with the Prince’s Trust and the Prince’s Regeneration Trust and they’re both very good, forward-thinking organisations.

“They understand they’re building for human beings rather than for financial gain and they understand the need to employ local builders to boost the local economy.

“The key to owning property in Dorset is the county’s transport links and employment.

“Phil Spencer and I first relocated someone to Dorset from Bath on series three of Relocation, Relocation and it seemed clear that if you’re going to live here you’ve got to work here.

“It’s perhaps the first county you hit, if you’re coming from London, that you can’t commute to on a daily basis. On the other hand, I don’t think it’s as much of a problem to have a holiday home in Dorset as it is in Devon or Cornwall.

“Cornwall has the highest price contrast in the country between the average wage and the average house price, so Dorset fares well in that sense.

“I think that’s all strongly linked with the tourism industry and it’s a must that second home owners contribute something back to the area. Issues surrounding second home ownership and young people not being able to remain in the communities where they grew up need to be looked at separately.

“A lot of people, especially politicians, want to join these issues up but they’re not the same.”

No stranger to Dorset, Kirstie has had a long-term love affair with the county, especially since her parents moved to Sturminster Newton around 10 years ago.

She said: “My parents are typical of people who live here most of the time and have a second home in London, although I hate the term ‘crash pad’ as they are often called. I consider that I have two homes.

“I have one in London that I travel and work from but I also live in Devon every single weekend,” she said.

“I know from experience of doing up a home that had been empty for 36 years in Meadowgate that it leads to people coming back to use local shops and pubs and creates employment.

“It’s certainly not beneficial to local communities to have long-term vacant properties.

“If you renovate a rural home that you can rent out, you bring in people who use the local tourism attractions, shops and pubs.

“I think people have to accept that a lot of our national income comes from tourism.

“We do have industries that produce high-end products, such as Scats in Dorchester, which sells some food items I’ve only seen before at delis in New York.

“Dorset certainly has a lot to offer but it’s partly down to people turning products over to see where they were made and buying British and buying as local to their own area as possible.

“Aside from the fact that Dorset is a very beautiful county, its people are lovely and the Jurassic Coast is an incredible resource that local industries, particularly tourism, can draw on.”

Speaking about the housing situation in rural parts of Dorset, Miss Allsopp said more could be done to keep small villages alive.

“We should have been building around 250 new homes nationally each year for the past few years,” she said.

“You can visit any village in Dorset and see rows of terraced, post-war homes in need of some care.

“What these communities in Dorset really need are starter homes, of the right size, and built in the right architectural vernacular style of the area.

“To achieve this we need better tax incentives for these kinds of housing projects.

“There need to be better incentives for bigger developers to create new homes in local rural communities.

“We also need to work on ways of making moving homes easier.

“So many people have other issues going on while they’re moving, so it can be very daunting.”