There will be nothing to stop hundreds of new homes due to be built in Dartmouth over the next decade being turned into yet more highly expensive holiday homes, the town has been warned.

The Millwood Homes developers in the middle of putting together a masterplan for over 400 new homes on the edge of Dartmouth have warned many could become second homes – and there is nothing they can do about it.

Millwood's planning manager Judith Gannon revealed: 'We are unable to restrict the use of properties as second homes.

'Therefore, while we do not expect the majority of our purchasers to be as second homes, we cannot guarantee that they will not be used for this purpose.'

Now town councillor Steve Smith is appealing for help from South Hams' Tory MP Sarah Wollaston in finding way to restrict how new housing can be sold in a highly desirable holiday area like Dartmouth.

He warned there are already more than 600 second homes in Dartmouth, making it one of the top holiday home hotspots in the South Hams – second only to Salcombe.

He protested to Millwood Homes: 'I fully appreciate that it is not in your remit to restrict property ownership and that business is business but I, along with the majority of residents in this wonderful town, are frustrated that the property ladder is restricted to the more affluent in our society.

'Dartmouth is second only to Salcombe with the level of second homes and the ordinary folk, many who have lived here all their lives, are at an unfair advantage.'

Millwood Homes has been consulting for months over the proposals to build the homes along with employment units across more than 80 acres of land on the western edge of Dartmouth stretching from the academy boundary to Venn Lane – and possibly beyond.

It is still unclear just home many of the homes will be affordable – in that they will be social housing for rent or shared ownership homes – and how many will be sold on the open market.

Cllr Smith, who represents Townstal which will be the immediate neighbour to the new development, pointed out that there are some 600 people from the local area on the housing waiting list.

'If every second home got shifted over to people on the affordable housing list it would wipe out the list,' he said.'

'We have enough second homes in Dartmouth already. If you go to Kingswear in the winter and look across the areas like Swannaton and Above Town it is in complete darkness because that is where all the second homes are.'

He added: 'More affordable homes are needed as a matter of urgency in this area – affordable to local people first, even with the market values in this area.

'Shared ownership with social housing stakeholders must be the answer to this.

'Unless this is sorted by 2016 we may have lost many youngsters from this parish that simply can't afford to live here anymore, and with no disrespect to Salcombe, Dartmouth will end up as a second Salcombe – open six months of the year only.'

He said he had written to Sarah Wollaston asking her to explore the possibilities of some form of covenant that could be placed on the new houses stopping them from becoming second homes.

But the MP held out little hope as she replied that new 'planning requirement' would be divisive as homeowners saw that it would reduce property prices.

'There is no legal mechanism to force a covenant but it can be done on the affordable housing element,' she said.

Ms Gannon also added: 'Any restriction on the use of properties not only impacts on the market and therefore value, which has a knock on effect on monies available for planning gain, but also on the ability of purchasers to obtain mortgages, hence why shared ownership properties are often difficult to mortgage as there are only one or two prospective lenders.'