Second home owners in Wales face soaring council tax bills after Labour-Plaid deal.

How many people who have criticised second home owning have stayed in holiday cottages and plan to do so in the future? I suggest they stay in a chalet or a caravan in future. I do understand there is a problem but it seems wrong to say people who live and work in towns shouldn’t be able to aspire to being able to have somewhere rural to go to to wind down are doing something bad. I’ve mentioned this before but where we have a second home the majority of the properties in the village are owned by the local landowner plus a few rich locals who own many properties. The landowner does rent many of his out to local people. We are very much part of the community here: DH has lived here in the past and has had a property here for @ 40 years. We spend a great deal of our time here, more so since the pandemic started. When not here friends and family stay here, many of whom use it to unwind due to having stressful jobs. We still have a house near to the children and grandchildren because in normal times we used to help look after the grandchildren: also, if we get old and infirm it’s better that we live closer to them. As a family we’ve all contributed to society and, in the case of the children pay a lot in taxes. Maybe we’re the exception rather than the rule but we are fully integrated in our second home village. We’ve had a few bad times in our lives and this is our haven, even more so at the moment. I lived in Cornwall in the 70’s: season work in the summer and then we’d all rent the summer holiday let’s throughout the winter ( people tended not to have winter holidays back then and the rental in the winter was cheap) . Most young people back then moved away from Cornwall anyway as there wasn’t enough work to keep them there. Surely the problem is successive governments not building enough affordable housing, selling off council houses, turning a blind eye to inscrutable landlords etc. and second home owners are being made into scapegoats? Again, I ‘m not saying there isn’t a problem that needs looking at. We do pay full councils tax here, something that changed when we had the last Labour government I believe. Prior to that it was a reduced amount.

Anyone here who has a sympathetic view on this thread is a second home owner!

I am glad they are putting up council tax for second home owners, because they are pricing local people out of the housing market. I hope they stop letting outsiders buy second homes. Give locals a chance I say. The second home owners bring NO revenue to the holiday home village as they bring in their own provisions, and they never shop locally. They are lining their pockets at the expense of local people. Bring on the extra council tax I say!

I understand the arguments on both sides of this conundrum but have having experienced homelessness as a teenager I cannot but side with those who feel that while so many people don’t have a home it is not reasonable to have two. Simplistic but heartfelt on my part.

Interesting but having covenants and a selection procedure for purchasing property sounds divisive and pretty dodgy to me. So what about if you start stipulating no gay people, no disabled people can buy in this village?

Many properties for sale in our coastal town often start with lines "would make an ideal holiday home" in their description, so the vendor and the estate agents are greatly contributing to this trend too.

I was told I'd not be offered any jobs in Devon 50+ years ago, sazz1, because I was a furriner - this was by the person in charge of HR at a large Council. "You want to take jobs away from Devon people".
Obviously no local people were suitable because I did get offered jobs.
If people move there for jobs where are they supposed to live?

I understand the problem with holiday homes but I thought Devon had moved on from those days.

www.southhams.gov.uk/article/3545/Designated-Rural-Area-Restrictive-Covenants-S157
Found a link
It says lived or worked for 3 years in the area

Not before time!
It does need very careful sorting out but surely it is immoral to own two houses when so many have none?

It meant that unless you lived in Devon you couldn't view any property that was under the Devon Covenant. They seemed to be ex local authority housing which were very good value but we were barred from viewing or buying

That's very judgemental songstress, what about "the greedy vultures" who are quite happy to sell their property to those looking for second homes. Surely it cuts both way?

How did that work, sazz1?

Whilst I am very much in favour of pulling back on the number of holiday home (or lets) and Air B&Bs, I am not so keen on pretty places ring-fencing sales to those lucky enough to have been born there. What about people born in grotty areas? Are they doomed to stay in less desirable places as all the good ones have decided they are not welcome?

When we moved to Devon some houses here for sale were only available to locals with roots in the county. Its called the Devon Covenant. Now there is very little for sale anywhere around here. There are apartments but very few houses for sale unless you are looking for 4/5 bedrooms at an astronomical price. Second homes often provide tourist accommodation and without this many small towns and villages would die. Perhaps other counties should have this Covenant to help locals.

I am glad they are being taxed. They are pricing young people out of the housing market with their greed. I think they should have a rule in certain communities that only local people can purchase the houses. That would stop the greedy vultures with their second homes.

Urmstongran

We spent a family holiday over 30y in beautiful Salcombe ❤️
We thought then it was VERY posh.
We didn’t (don’t) have much money but quietly enjoyed eavesdropping conversations between rich folk and feeling somewhat inferior. Which was daft really.

Life’s rich tapestry eh?

Some of my nineteenth century ancestors lived in Salcombe. I identified the house they all lived in. They were poor fishing families and eventually the younger members of the family drifted to London for work and better pay. I used to have a dream about retiring to Salcombe ... until I saw the prices! If anybody had ever told my ancestors how much their house would be worth in the future, they wouldn't have believed it.

I lived in a village for years, 2 miles from town, only a pub and 2 buses ( if we were lucky) for amenities. Local land owner got planning permission for 8 houses and 4 ‘affordable’ houses. The ‘affordable’ had a proviso that they would only be occupied by people with a good local connection to the village. The buyer of the land got the ‘affordable’ no of houses down to 3. Three families who all rented in the village for years and worked in the town applied for these houses through the council - result -surprise, surprise- not one of them got one - three families from the north moved in - no association with the village, or town, and no jobs either. Unfortunately, this seems to be happening on a regular basis as friends that live on the other coast to me, have confirmed. Someone, somewhere is responsible for changing the criteria, and the public are never given the reasons

And in Suffolk and Norfolk.

Living in north Cornwall I can assure from personal experience gone are the days when second homes were not in use.

We have a second home in Spain. Twice a year we pay a holiday home tax and if we sell it we will pay a higher rate of capital gains tax than a local resident.

I don't know what the answer isbut don't the Channel Islands have a two tier pricing system with much lower prices for locals and also some houses reserved for islanders.

Most if the Welsh don’t speak the language. If they drive out of Wales people over the border no one will know what it means, but I can understand those that want to keep their language and not let it disappear. Years ago if we went on holiday to Wales, Barmouth area, you walked in a shop and everyone started to speak in Welsh, we never got a smile and they acted as if they didn’t know what we were asking for, we tried it twice but have never been back. . It is a very beautiful country, but we heard of lots if other people that had the same treatment. I would like to holiday there this year and see see St Davids, The Gower and Cardiff to start. There were so many other places both here and abroad to visit so it never bothered us but know it was silly to be put off by two unpleasant experiences.

I am not looking forward to being shoved up the high rise.

Oh God that made me howl with laughter!

I am not looking forward to being shoved up the high rise.

I've already started queuing for my bread

A step on the road to full-on communism. I imagine everyone is looking forward to the day the authorities tell them where they can live.

(Hint:- they and their children will be in all the nice places and everyone else will be shoved up high rises.)

If I see anyone with a D plate on their car I will avoid them!

D for Dipstick?

(DGD has been trying to teach me Welsh!)

It's true! It must be - I Googled it. This is from Gov.UK

Using 'L' and 'P' plates
You must put an L plate on the front and back of your vehicle so they can be seen easily.

In Wales, you can use a D plate instead.

An L plate or D plate must:

have a red L or D on a white background
be the right size

www.gov.uk/driving-lessons-learning-to-drive/using-l-and-p-plates