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

[CornishTickler]

Just read an article online about the second home council tax increase and there are couples with sad faces saying it was without warning and is against their human rights! It wasn't, its been in the press and talked about by councils for over a year. It wasn't a surprise, areas with high levels of second homes knew it was coming.

I for one am glad about the tax. Our village has been destroyed by second home owners for years. A lot are badly maintained and empty for 80% of the year.

The argument that they bring extra income is also misleading. Most true second home owners who only visit a couple of times a year don't contribute much to the economy but are very vocal in interfering in local issues to the detriment of actual residents. One example (I'm not joking on this) was to oppose the planning of a local business that would benefit the community with jobs and tax revenue because of the endangered newts! luckily common sense prevailed but honestly they got very vocal and aggressive about it. It was mainly because they didn't want it to impact their second home.

Holiday makers bring revenue. Absentee second home owners do not.

Hopefully the second home tax increase will increase council tax revenue and help to support our community and vulnerable people.

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.

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.

I was with you up until the newts.

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

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.

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

Not true, you have to be actively marketing the property and then the premium is only deferred for a maximum 12 months.

The reality is it’s the minority of locals who can afford these prices! I highly doubt your in laws sold for altruistic reasons! They sold to make money and it was just fortunate that a local family could afford to buy it! I’m also guessing it wasn’ t somewhere like Cornwall!

First we need far better public transport. You're not going to get people out of their cars when the buses finish at 7pm, don't run on Sundays, or it takes 2 hours on a train for a 30 minute car journey.

Nor when councils encourage out of town retail parks and supermarkets without putting public transport options in place for people to get to them without cars.

And public transport needs to be a lot more reliable and cheaper.

You can't have the stick without the carrot. Most people aren't living in a handful of cities with good public transport and local amenities they can walk/cycle to. Most have to travel longer distances for work, shopping, leisure, etc., often with no viable alternative to cars.

House prices are high in such areas because of the demand from out-of-towners. Without relatively rich outsiders in the market, they'd be cheaper and more accessible for locals to buy.

By dint of history and inaction by me and my late husband I have found myself with 3 properties. We used to rent 2 out on a long term basis to families, but when he died 6 years ago I stopped. Successive governments have regulated / taxed the private rented sector such that the return isn’t worth the risk. That’s fine…I don’t mind that, but there are now 2 less rental properties on the market.

I have been paying council tax on them all, which is also fine - I have worked hard most of my working life to make sure I can maintain a reasonable lifestyle in retirement and I split my time between them. Now, having retired (early, because after he died I didn’t see the point in accumulating more stuff) I am still coming to terms with a retirement without him, so I really don’t know where I actually want to be. All are in locations that are good, for different reasons. City, country, coastal. If I put any of them on the market they would, in all probability, go to local professionals or be second homes. But, the transaction costs of moving now are also so high (stamp duty in particular) that I am unwilling to sell, and then possibly have a change of heart about where I want to be and need to buy again.

I realise that in some respects it’s a nice problem to have, but then I’d rather have my husband and the life we had. I’ll pay the tax, as I have all my life, until I work it out.

But, when does it stop? Should any household with more than one car pay double VAT on all additional cars, and a 200% surcharge on the road fund licence? Should the government abolish the option to ‘SORN’ vehicles? Own multiple cars? Pay for all of them, at a punitive rate? That would certainly help tackle congestion by reducing the number of cars, and improve air quality and road safety. Get rid of some of the school run traffic and improve public health as well!

The problem is, now we’ve tackled those who have more than one home and more than one car, what comes onto the radar next? Double taxation on those whose dare to save more than the government deems necessary?

It’s easy to dress this policy up as a way of tackling the housing crisis, but the properties we are talking about are not going to solve that. What’s needed is large amounts of proper social housing, in areas where there are jobs and people want to live, with affordable rents. So it’s hard not to see it as a policy of ideology / spite. Particularly as almost every MP has more than one property, but is able to expense the council tax on the second no matter how high it is. And yet, when I lived away from our main home as a necessity HMRC didn’t deem the council tax on the place I rented as an allowable expense, instead treating it as BIK’able!

Because the 2nd home owners she talking about leave it empty and only use it themselves sparsely. They don't rent it out.
That's the 2nd home owners she's discussing predominantly. Leaving communities empty all year round.

They aren't my in-laws? They are my brother's wife's parents. I don't really know them know them. This was relayed by my niece (their early twenties granddaughter).

They certainly didn't sell for altruistic reasons but from what she said, when they met the buyer they did get a dawning realisation that they were enabling someone who would be really part of the community to live there again. They only went to the house a couple of times a year and didn't let it out, so it mainly sat empty. It is in a nice coastal area, popular with holiday makers. But the house was a small one in a residential estate so perfect for a young family. It's a renovation job from what my niece has said

Starmer wont say how many of his 1.5m mythical houses will be for social rent either.....

I have no doubt the weasel words 'affordable housing' will be prevalent.

How would the sellers know? When I bought the house I am in now I didn’t tell the buyer what I was going to use it for or where I was moving from.

It can be made a condition of sale. I’ve seen it on Welsh property before. Buyers have to prove that they have been a local resident for a specified number of years. Obviously you won’t sell it for as much but if you are really anti second home owners..

I’m glad someone is thinking about the local species. It’s all about economic development and nothing at all about our environment.

Starmer has even less money now to pay for social housing, so don't blame him! he hasn't been in charge for 14years and he didn't cut NI, costing the Govt by £10billion per year...

The rescue of steel will costs billions, as will supporting business fucked by that xxxx Trump...

...and the wealthy are hoarding all they can!!

As well as that, people living in those homes full-time would also contribute to the local economy all year long.

I still don't think it is straight forward.

1. LAs have lost skills in this area over the last few years. This shortage won't be solved overnight. The lack of those skills can and does impact strategic decision making and the quality of housebuilding projects delivered.
2. Legislation is great but is more often focused on meeting minimum targets like space requirements rather than considering what should be required for a reasonable quality of life for the resident or the broader community. In my own area developments allowed, whether HMOs, flats or homes are shoe horned in, placing further strain on an already stretched local infrastructure – schools, hospitals, GPs, and green spaces – and negatively affect the overall quality of life for all residents. At what cost has the target been met?
3. Land for cash strapped HAs. Which feeds into point 2. Greenfield sites are for obvious reasons much more attractive to developers than brownfield sites. These brownfield sites may be in a more appropriate location but are often more time consuming and costly to prepare for development. What about land which has already been acquired by developers or land which developers already have options on? How do HAs access this prime land?

I am suspicious of everyone.

I read this on Apple News this morning: I inherited my parents’ house, now I’m classed as a 2nd home owner 🤔

We've booked a week in an apartment later this month. It's just over £800 for the week and includes onsite parking. While we're there we'll eat out a couple of times, get a couple of takeaways and shop in the local shops.

I also looked at a hotel we've stayed at previously, over £1k for the week for a basic room (I know they have staffing costs), parking extra (bloody cheek!) and we'd have to eat out for every meal. Restaurants are stupidly expensive so there's no way we could afford to do it.

Ive obviously been doing my holidays wrong all these years as well, apart from snacks, the usual cheese, crackers, accutriments that go with that, we eat out for nearly every meal, plus we tend to buy a lot of stuff, particularly from clothing boutiques that we wouldnt have near us.

I agree with extra council tax, no problem..
It's interesting though, because the second home owners presumably bought from locals, at an increased price.......

Not sure why you needed to add the 🤔. You are a 2nd home owner. Not intentionally but you are nevertheless. I think a lot of 2nd home owners become so via an inherited home.