Second Home owners doing sad faces in the press about council tax increase

Let it unfurnished then it has to be unoccupied for a year before the double charge kicks in

Sadly, you won’t see the benefit of the additional revenue! The majority of councils are hugely in debt and this is the reason they are increasing the second home tax. Added to which of these owners decide to sell it won’t be locals who buy them as most can’t afford the exorbitant prices, so you’ll be changing one set of absentee owners for another set! And no I’m not a second home owner.

Do you blame the people who sell the homes or the people who buy them?

I was with you up until the newts.

Well no, and that's why I- and many others- are rightly suspicious of the promise to build 1.5 million homes in this parliamentary term.

However, the building of 18,000 social homes, which is what I was actually talking about, is more achievable.

To add to my previous post - also I can't imagine they want to turn up to a dusty or mouse-filled house or a jungle of a garden so they probably also employ local cleaners, gardeners, handymen, builders etc.

I'm not convinced by the suggestion that second home owners don't spend money in the local area. We have a house in France - a non-touristy area where they welcome the crazy English who will buy a dilapidated but charming house and make it habitable as no one local wanted the job. We spend around two months of the year here, and with friends using the house as well it is probably occupied four months of the year. We go to the markets, the bakeries, the restaurants, the wine cave etc, they all know us and are very welcoming. We often have friends with us so that is more business.

I'd be very surprised if wealthy londoners with homes in Cornwall aren't doing the same - surely a large part of the attraction of Cornwall is going surfing and buying the equipment, going horse riding or cycling the camel trail (hiring bikes), buying pasties, cream teas, fish and chips, ice creams, crab sandwiches. Hiring fishing boats. Going to the fancy restaurants in Padstow, Falmouth and St Ives. Visiting the vineyards and cider orchards. Going to the outdoor theatres.

This!

I was talking to my niece about this over breakfast this morning. Her grandparents (on her dad's side) have just sold their holiday home in a coastal resort because of the increase in council tax. It was a little cottage. It has been bought by a young local family with a young child as their first home. Even her grandparents have realised that in selling they have not just freed up their finances they have also done something great for the local community. That young family get to live near friends and family and their jobs now. Their child will grow up knowing his grandparents well.

I wouldn't disagree with that.
In fact we need more policies to discourage excessive car ownership/use.

It's clear that most people have a straightforward selfish imperative when it comes to decision making so the state needs to intervene more to protect society and the environment

I also think full time living in the same county should be proved with properties in areas where housing is an issue.

Not really - on that basis I will put my home into my husband’s name (marital asset so I still have benefit of ownership) and we buy our ‘second’ home in my name? One property per person… that would be slightly different too, wouldn’t it?

You can only drive one car at a time. So, what’s the problem with owning more than one?

Unlike owning a second home you aren’t using up valuable housing stock.

I did say PER adult. As in 2 adults and 4 cars.

If you have a driver per car that’s slightly different, no?

Most of the families I know who have multiple cars have them because of multigenerational living and those 2nd/3rd cars are used to get people to work or college… so it’s largely lower income families, families with AC living at home for whatever reason (eg the ones in Cornwall who cannot afford to get onto the housing ladder and are living with parents) who would get penalised.

Luxury cars already attract higher VAT by virtue of the base price being higher. Paid with money they have already paid higher rate tax on. But hey, let’s just keep taxing the rich out of spite…

Have a friend, single, no kids who owns their flat, 2 others and a house. Rents out the ones not lived in. Talks a lot about the ‘stress’ of owning ‘properties’ and had just retired on a generous final pension scheme so doesn’t need the income from the rentals to live on.
My suggestions that one or more are sold to save on the apparent stress are met with lectures about capital gains tax and finances and tax on income etc.

our seaside town is blighted with 2nd home owners, and lack of housing available for locals. This friend is deffo part of the problem, why a 60 year old with plenty of money, no family to pass the houses on to etc. needs to have 4 homes is beyond me. I have actually said that I’m not going to listen to complaining about it anymore!
Sell one, or 2 or 3, pay the dues or fees or whatever. Still be quids in. It’s not like you can take it with you.

As we see with any tax increases, the wealthy will bitch moan and campaign to have them reversed

Just look at the VAT on school fees issue... they've used every trick in the book to justify why they shouldn't pay extra, even trying to say they've all got SENDS kids.... & they are all going to go state as they are all too poor to pay VAT..

Same with Nom Dom changes... they are all so fucking hard up..

2nd home CT should be a min 300%

Maybe they should. If one person owns more than one car - as a luxury, not talking about the builder who has a work van and a personal car.
But if you have a household with 2 adults and 3/4 cars perhaps those extra cars should be.m?

No way multi millionaires can afford extra council tax, is that your theory?? But they can afford the cleaners, housekeepers, gardeners and other staff for their extra homes? Just not council tax??

Irrelevant to my comment, which was in response to a persons using car ownership as an equivalency.

The damage caused to communities by second home ownership means they should be paying far far more in council tax .

...and where is Labour going to conjure up the money to build all these houses from?
Developers cannot be expected to build properties at below cost... and more building increases demand for trades - which we lack... and materials, increasing their costs even further...

So far, any tax rises are opposed tooth and nail by business & the wealthy and thanks to the Tories, we cannot borrow any significant amounts.

Aside, why people call Angela Rayner "Ange" and Rachel Reeves "Rachel from Accounts" is beyond me.

Very childish.

Silly equivalence - second homeowners already pay a council tax and higher stamp duty - if you follow that through to car ownership then household with second or third cars should pay double VAT on those cars at the point of purchase and a higher road tax too? They don’t, though, so they?

Nonsense!
Of course you can, take Exeter for example, not really a tourist destination as say St Ives or Newquay but an economy based on commerce.

You don't seem able to see that there is a balance to be struck, in Cornwall, that has swung too far in favour of Tourism etc.

Correct, but the PP I was replying to said that no one should be allowed to own a second home.