Charging double council tax on second homes is politics of envy - Yorkshire Post Letters

From: John Dearden, Almondbury, Huddersfield.

The YP of August 7 contained a letter from Ann Petherick praising North Yorkshire Council for charging double council tax on second homes, which I cannot allow to pass without pointing out a few salient facts.

I bought my cottage in the Dales, miles from the sea, in 2003 when what was a very affordable home was attracting no buyers whatsoever, except me, as the village has absolutely no amenities at all except for blissful rural peace and quiet and a glorious base for walking which was my hobby.

I paid for it out of taxed income which I had accumulated by not spending on alcohol, cigarettes, tattoos, drugs etc. Then without any consultation at all, I was punished for having the house and ‘fined’ an extra 100 per cent of the council tax, all done retrospectively. Council tax is designed to cover the cost of providing services to the residents, and of course I did not receive anything extra at all for my 100 per cent surcharge.

The reason there are insufficient affordable homes in the county lies entirely with NYC who has spectacularly failed in its duty to build them. If there is a shortage in some (coastal) areas, this does not apply to everywhere in the county as was evidenced by the total lack of buyers wanting my cottage when I bought it, and yet all second home owners are punished in the same way.

To retrospectively punish everyone is an obscene abuse of power by NYC and as a Conservative Council, they should be ashamed of themselves for imposing an envy tax more redolent of a Socialist banana republic.

If there is a problem, may I respectfully suggest that a much fairer way to proceed would be to impose a large levy on all future purchases of second homes, so that all purchasers know in advance what the financial implications of owning a second home are, rather than punish honest hard working people whose only way out of the situation is to try and sell.