[jambutty]

If you are stuck for a topic can I recommend that you listen to Jeremy Vine at noon Monday to Friday on Radio 2.

Today one of the discussions was about second homes and the Council Tax charged for them. One guy was suggesting that the second home should attract the normal Council Tax times 5. Naturally second home owners took the opposite view and ne’er the two shall meet.

As I understood it the owner of a second home is only charged 90% of the Council Tax because the property is left empty for most of the year. Also the people who live and work in the larger cities are most likely to have a second home and equally it is most likely to be in some part of rural England. Cornish fishing villages are extremely popular.

You can hardly blame someone living in a Cornish fishing village where work is not plentiful to sell his/her house for the best price that s/he can get and move to where there is work. Sadly this takes a house off the market that a young village couple would like to have bought, except the outsider has outbid them. The second homes stay empty for most of the year whilst the young villagers cannot find a place that they can afford to buy. So they move out and slowly the village is in terminal decline.

It seems to me that the fairest way would be to charge double or even treble the Council Tax for the days that the second home is not occupied and 50% on the days that it is. Don’t forget that the owner of the second home pays full Council Tax on the first home. It shouldn’t be too difficult to arrange.

This extra revenue could be used to build social housing for the young of the village and thus maintain its viability.