In article , Oliver Keating
writes

"Mikael Armstrong" wrote in message
...
"Cast_Iron" wrote in message
...
Given the that the increased road congestion in Friday and Sunday
evenings
is caused by many people going and from to their country cottages for
the
weekend, isn't it time that second homes attracted a punative rate of
council tax?

An added bonus of this would be to free-up houses in rural and other
touristy areas that young people on local wages could afford to buy or
rent
who would then spend money in the local economy.



I can't say I have a second home, but why should a second home be heavily
taxed?

Because people who own 2 houses are clearly very rich, and the rich should
be targeted for tax for two reasons:

1) Social justice
2) It would actually be impossible to raise enough revenue if everyone was
taxed to the same %age because the rich provide a disproportionately large
chunk of revenue.
You mean that rich people should have there 2nd house outside of the UK.
So another country can tax them.

Second homes make very low demands upon local services. I would
suspect that even if you prevented anyone from owning a second home, it
would make little difference to the general housing market.

This is completely untrue. There are many examples in West England where the
popularity of second homes, particularly in scenic locations, has driven up
prices making it really hard for people with local jobs to find somewhere
affordable.
Houses with scenic view have always been more expensive. Build houses
with out scenic views

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