Councils looking to double rates and the ministers behind the plans are warned they won’t solve housing shortages in rural areas
“It doesn’t strike me as being an essentially fair way to go about our business,” Councillor Neil Buttle told the meeting in the Derbyshire Dales during a debate on whether to charge second-home owners double council tax.
The premium is a “blunt instrument” which is “penalising people who have made reasonable choices” – there are better ways of dealing with the issues created by second homes and holiday lets, he said.
“It is a rubbish method” that will see them playing “whack-a-mole with rich people who are going to be popping up all over anyway”, the Green Party councillor told his colleagues.
“But I’m going to vote for it,” Mr Buttle announced, citing the need to prioritise local residents and ensure that they can find work and afford houses in the places that they live.