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

Agreed, which is why I mentioned Air B&Bs, which remove housing from the local market in all sorts of areas.

The housing shortage is bad across the country, but it’s not helped when some people have more than one house and others have nowhere to live. It would be simplistic to blame second homes for the housing crisis, but when they also destroy village life as described upthread, it seems high time that checks and balances are put in place.

Paying for hotels, flights, etc., is dead money whereas investing in a little bolt hole would make good sense for future security for those who are not rich enough to write off the loss

But isn’t that what is supporting the hospitality and travel sectors?
“Investing in a little bolt hole” one man’s “bolt hole” is another family’s home..

Investing in a little bolt hole” hmm one man’s “bolt hole” is another family’s home..

? this 100%

Josianne

The trouble with renting out, even on short term let is that you have to clear all personal stuff out, and you can't use it in an emergency if you need to.

thank you- this exactly Josianne. Our lease and owners' association also forbids all short-term lets. There are also big differences in local taxes if you rent out, and also affects re-sale. We have regular letters from the Council asking ask to confirm it is not rented out, and we have had 2 complaints from other owners when a young friend stayed there for a couple of months- despite being very discreet and polite. One couple went crazy at him because he was using 'their' parking place- which they have got used to take when we are not there! (which is why they complained to the OA I suppose).

Also very difficult to insure if rented out, and need for Agency for inspections. Several friends have done this, and have had to replace EVERYTHING, floors, carpets, beds, washing machine and more. So we let trusted family and friends use it, one DD lived there for a while, and a young friend has stayed there several times due to difficult circumstances.

But the whole point is, is that it is available in an emergency, so renting does not work.

We use local shops, market, cafés and restaurants - and they do very well 'out of us', and visitors stay at local Hôtels.

My 5 bed house for two is another’s family home. It would be no worse if I had a two bed flat in the city and a three bed holiday home. Taking up the same amount of property.

As I said earlier we two spend less all year than holiday makers spend in a few months.

All the above stories pale into insignificance when compared with the royals and all their homes. Never are any of them spoken of as second homes but residences, is there a difference ?

Excellent idea. Wish they would do it in N Yorkshire. They could also look at holiday let owners paying business rates, rather than council tax.

Shinamae

It’s the same here in the Southwest. Locals absolutely priced out of buying a property… my son being one of them

It's a bit of an old canard, that thing about people not being able to afford to buy in their own communities. Here in the borough of Richmond upon Thames, it costs about 3 times as much to buy a tiny cottage as it does in most of Cornwall or Devon. Is this perceived entitlement to stay in the local community something that only applies to rural areas? No way could my daughters afford to move back up here from where they live in Cornwall.

Young people can’t get on the housing ladder throughout the country, village town or city, house prices are crazy.
The destruction of villages and small towns has come about for many reasons, the use of out of town shopping, online shopping, the reluctance of a new generation to take up local labour intensive jobs on farms and the like along with the disappearance of those jobs due to sophisticated machinery and automation. Then the NIMBY brigade who don’t want change to their surroundings when small factories are proposed.
A return to cottage industry and a spreading of the work from home ethic, requiring investment in good internet connection, would go a long way to keeping young people in their home towns and villages.
There is much more to the destruction of small communities than second homes.
Let’s be honest, do the younger generation actually want to stay in small villages these days when the world is getting so much smaller and opportunities elsewhere so much greater.

Good. That's the way to go.

Callistemon;
“Not over and above normal Council tax rates”
You don’t know the half of it. Some councils, ours in Pembrokeshire for example, are targeting people with only 1 home for this second home tax premium, currently 50% on top of normal Council Tax rates but going up to 100% next year.
We have a garage a path width from the main building, with 2 rooms and a loo above it, up some steps. We use it for hobbies, sewing and playing music, and have a single bed and a sofa bed in it for house guests, but don’t let it out. We recently spent quite a lot to do it up.
Because it has a loo and a separate entrance, the Valuation Office (a branch of HMRC) class it as a separate residence, and the Council take carte blanche to levy the second home premium on it, though we already pay council tax on the garage. Next year the Council tax on those 2rooms will be almost as much as the main building. It has no separate grounds or access of its own and shares services with the house.
We don’t object to paying the standard council tax as a separate building, but think the premium is really unfair.
We have tried the Valuation Office Appeal procedure, appealed to Council and Senedd members, Ministers and committees, and the local council Ombudsman, who just send us round in circles.
People we know converted their attached garage as a granny annexe. The notice that the council tax premium would be charged arrived the same day as her funeral, it was exempt while she lived there.

Similar action should be taken all over UK including the dreaded AirBnB that have sprung up all over disrupting resident's lives.

Let’s be honest, do the younger generation actually want to stay in small villages these days when the world is getting so much smaller and opportunities elsewhere so much greater.

Erm.... yes, they do. That's why they're protesting about not being able to afford to live near to their families are and where they work.

I was at a Welsh University during the 70s when some second homes were set alight in protest re a lot of the reasons already mentioned. However, the situation is more complex. Work needs to be available in the area in the first place and then hopefully these homes will be made available for locals who want to remain or others who come into the area to work. Kali maybe you could speak to your local council and offer your second home on a temporary basis to refugees?

Brick layers, plasterers, carpenters cannot work from home

When you live in a village and actually know the younger people who cannot afford to live where they grew up it does hit home more than if you view this problem as a debating issue.

I am watching the finish of the place I have lived in for over 20 years.
The 2 biggest and most attractive properties in the village were sold approv 18 years ago and are now only occupied for a few weeks a year, if that.
One of them has a full size "granny cottage" in the back garden.
So that is 3 homes not used.
We have lost Post Office, Library, grocer shop, butchers etc all in the last 20 years.
Tourists arrive and buy from online deliveries.

The roads are so crowded in summer that most locals actually give up attempting to go out unless essential. Also same for the beaches.

The tourists would be ok in less numbers. There are caravan sites and motorhome sites they can use.
Or have a small allowed percentage of homes for holidays.
Our bus service shrinks every year and is non existent in winter weekends and all evening....so not any use to locals.
Prices of everything are priced too high because the business people want to take advantage of the holdiday makers and locals just have to suck it up.

I have noticed that many of the shops and businesses are owned and run by incomers. So again not really helping the locals.
We also lack any bargain stores. Cos its not what tourists want.

It almost feels like living in a theme park. Holiday makers staring in windows but there isn't anything to see here!

Chewbacca

^Let’s be honest, do the younger generation actually want to stay in small villages these days^ when the world is getting so much smaller and opportunities elsewhere so much greater.

Erm.... yes, they do. That's why they're protesting about not being able to afford to live near to their families are and where they work.

Many youngsters do choose to stay where they are from, keeping youth and ideas locally, good for them, not everything is grass greener on the other side. My DGS is one of these, and should be able to afford a small starter home. Others aren’t so lucky.

So when granny dies and leaves a £500,000 cottage in a lovely Cornish cove, the family should keep it and pass it down to younger generations? Some hope. Big money for property is very alluring for inheritors. Look to the sellers as well as the buyers.

Holiday homes do very little for most communities. I am from Cornwall and have many relatives there so visit often. My niece is a nurse and a single mum. She has been renting for almost ten years and is only now (perhaps) able to afford to buy, as she now has a fiancé. Air bn’bs and second homes push the prices up to unaffordable levels. The environmental impact is enormous; hospitals and local services cannot cope. People visiting their holiday homes often use Amazon et al for groceries etc so local shops don’t get much of a look in. Restaurant and pub prices are artificially pushed up for everybody the whole year. Young people leave the area (as I did) so families who could provide support for each other as needed are far apart and social cohesion is badly affected. There is so much more to this question than just a few lucky people deserving a nice bolt hole for themselves when they feel like it! Whole communities are disrupted and affected forever and there is no turning back the clock seemingly.

I understand that Air b&b's pay no council tax. Where I live ( Kent coast), this is a real hot topic. It's not just pricing out buyers, it's taking affordable rentals out if the housing stock, and puts less money into local services such as waste collection, street lighting , and libraries.

Tradespeople such as bricklayers, plumbers, etc., will get work on all the housing in the area whether locally owned or not.
Very few second home owners bring tradespeople with them from the city.

As a long term resident of a village in North Cornwall,which has its share of second homes I can assure GN readers that our shop keepers do a very nice and convenient to all year round trade .Mine in particular even opening on xmas day..
Having read one comment could have us believing that our village shops shut down when second homers happen to be away for a few days.Nothing could be further from the truth as village shops seem to be open all hours and of benefit to us all.Local or otherwise.

Vito you are so right. Many people can't afford a first home. Places standing empty for most of the time kill villages and towns. It should be stopped. The Channel Islands don't allow it as far as I understand. I live in the westcountry and some of the second homes are huge. It's a disgrace. This issue needs to be addressed immediately.