Cornwall holds the greatest number of second homes owned by people living elsewhere in England and Wales, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed.

Statistics from the 2011 census have shown that 22,997 individuals own a second address in the Cornwall Council district, over 2,000 more than in Wiltshire, which was found to posses the second highest number of non-permanent residents.

Nearly 18,000 people hold second addresses in Birmingham, while Leeds and Westminster were found to each support over 13,000 individuals habiting on a non-permanent basis.

People with second addresses for work outside of the local authority where they usually lived were most likely to have those addresses in the City of London or where the armed forces were resident.

In Westminster, 22 of every 1,000 permanent residents were found to be living in second homes.

In total, 1.5m people in England and Wales have a second address, representing 2.8% of the population.

David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said: ‘The high number of second homes in many parts of the country have helped push prices up so they are out of reach for local people. If families and young people are priced out of their local villages it can have a hugely damaging impact on community life, with village shops, schools and pubs closing in alarming numbers as a result.

'Unless we build more affordable homes for local people, they will continue to be priced out of rural areas and the countryside will increasingly become a place for the well off to enjoy at weekends.’