THE Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is right to take its time over the adoption of its new housing policy and in particular the plan to restrict the sale of new homes to local people.

This is a momentous move, for never before has a public body attempted to interfere with the workings of the property market in a specific location in such a way. Its radical idea has attracted attention from other areas of the UK.

The motivation behind the policy is spot on: the national park needs more affordable homes for local people on relatively low incomes to buy. But the full effects of the policy are difficult to judge.

Will any developer be prepared to build homes with such a restriction? Will somebody who works just outside the national park boundary, in Richmond for example, be considered a local person? What's afffordable? What if someone who works in the park and buys a house with restricted occupancy conditions attached then gets a high-paid job in Leeds or Middlesbrough and decides to commute?

Will the policy be workable and will it meet the objective? The park's local plan working group will puzzle over this central issue and others before the policy is implemented. The policy has to be watertight. If not it could create more problems than it solves.