Council Tax Hike for 2nd Homes in Wales
Published / Last Updated on 04/03/2022
The Welsh government has announced that 2nd property homeowners for property in Wales will face a council tax hike of up to 300% from April 2023.
This means that owners of 2nd homes situated in Wales may have their council tax bills trebled in an effort to curb demand for holiday homes in Wales and ideally make property more affordable for locals planning to stay in their hometowns.
Any increases are at the discretion of each local authority when setting council tax rates.
Comment
We suggest this is immoral. The 2nd homeowner uses less in local services, is less of a burden of local emergency services or even refuse collection yet puts money into the local economy and ultimately the property fell into outsiders’ hands by a local selling it to them.
Whilst we accept that outside demand can make property unaffordable for locals in many areas, why do we always punish people for being successful? At this firm, the two directors work 7 days a week for 50 weeks of the year. We are not ‘Rockerfeller’, and every penny has been hard earned but if that means we can afford to buy a property, why should we be penalised with already higher stamp duties, income and capital gains taxes and now council taxes?
It is the fault of local authorities in failing to build social housing or indeed to granting planning permission to builders that only build property under s106 Agreements i.e., new properties are only for sale to locals that have lived in the area for a few years. Certainly, in Cornwall there is a lot of s106 property development.
Can we also assume that when people in Wales want to move to London or Birmingham or Timbuctoo to ‘make some money’, they will pay high taxes than locals in those towns and cities?
We say all of this ‘tongue in cheek’ and no offence to Welsh locals but trebling council taxes is and will always be immoral. It is the Local Authority’s fault that there is a lack of supply to meet demand that has driven up prices.