OT - Second home owners in Cornwall

[MdB]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7841783.stm

A big problem here.

 

[skier-hughes]

Easy, post a notice through there letterbox saying there is a public meeting, taking place during the day in the week, say two days from the day the notice is delivered, then have a vote on it. Post a notice through their letterbox giving them the result.

Sorted.

Well, in an ideal world.

 

[Gervase]

Sounds like someone needs to buy some superglue or expanding foam down there. After all, one wouldn't want to think of all these poor second-home owners being exposed to nasty draughts through their locks and keyholes. :wink:

 

[Penners]

Bl**dy furr'ners. 'Tis wicked.

And only a few miles from God's own little acre: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-penroseestate/

 

[Lime]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7841783.stm

A big problem here.

This is nothing new.
It happened in my area in the 70s.
As the old villagers died so their cottages were lost to city folk.
Second homes ownership has destroyed community life and left once triving villages almost deserted and empty.

People from the big cities thought it a good idea to buy cheap cottages for family holidays, fishing etc leaving the houses empty nearly all year.
In the process they priced the cottages out of the reach of local youngsters who had either to remain with their families or move out of the village.
The reason people do it is because it is a cheap investment and they don't realise how selfish and damaging their behaviour is.
Up until recently governments of all colours have allowed second homes to treated in a more favourable way and have encouraged the whole sad business.

I lived in a vibrant farming village with a regular bus service in 1973, by 1979 half of the homes in the street were deserted, there was one bus on Thursdays only and the pub at the end of the road gone together with the shop.

 

[chuckey]

1. It was the locals who sold their properties at inflated prices that only incomers could afford.
2. Holiday homes are not afforded any special treatment for Council Tax.
3. If there was no quay at Helford up to now, why is one now required?. Unless the fishermen with modern fishing methods are increasing the size of their catches, and we all know what that will lead to!
4. The Council tax income from holiday homes is 80-90% profit, no education requirements, no social needs, little in the way of refuse collections, the list goes on.
I am sympathetic to the locals needs but they really have to get realistic, some of them got the price and others have to live with the cost. FWIW Where I live, out of 32,000 parishes in England we are rated 23 from worst in the wages/house prices ratio. I wonder where Helford is.
Frank

 

[Lime]

Whatever.

Second homes have destroyed many village communities.

 

[Flyfisher]

Second homes may have destroyed many village communities, but is that the fault of the people buying or the people selling?

 

[bower1]

2. Holiday homes are not afforded any special treatment for Council Tax.

Between 10% discount and 50% depending on local council rules.

 

[Lime]

Second homes may have destroyed many village communities, but is that the fault of the people buying or the people selling?

Both.
You and chuckey appear to make the mistake in assuming that all of these houses were owned by the occupiers.
In the village I lived in 35 years ago most of the homes were owned as part of farm land (some workers cottages, not all) and the cottages rented or leased.
The farms were purchased by those buying up land, often pension funds and the like, and the assets stripped.

I wouldn't mind betting that most of the houses in the fishing village this thread refers to were at one time owned by absentee landlords too.
House ownership is a relatively modern phenomenon and many villages were almost entirely owned by people other than the inhabitants.
So the idea, often mooted by second home owners to placate feelings of guilt presumably, that the villagers have only themselves to blame is totally incorrect in a great many cases (most).

 

[Flyfisher]

My question doesn't assume owner-occupation. It doesn't really matter if an absentee landlord, a pension fund or a local owner-occupier sells up, the result is still one less house for a local family.

Also, "holiday homes" are not always second homes as such. For many years, we've rented a cottage in Cornwall each year. It's owned by a local family and over the years we've seen them add quite a few more properties to their 'portfolio' - they must have half a dozen by now. So, that's half a dozen local families deprived of a local house to buy or rent - by a local family. On the other hand, it's a local family running a holiday business and boosting the local economy with tourism.

The original story might make great headlines but, as usual, things are not quite so simple.

 

[chuckey]

Well, here in Richmondshire, we have NO reduction in council tax and in fact they would not even give us a zero tax rating when the place was clearly uninhabitable because they said they could only give one years tax holiday on a property and the previous owners had had that.
Frank

 

[biffvernon]

We haven't got a fishing jetty in our parish either.

But hey! It's getting everywhere: http://www.newhousefarm.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17021

 

[plumbers mate]

This has fueled a lot of the anti-english feeling in Wales. At least one village that I know of has a bus service only in summer, no shop nothing but empty "cottages" - actually three bedroom houses.
Some second homes are in the sort of condition that the owners would never tolerate at home and theey let the housing stock deteriorate year by year.
Then when the seconders want to sell up, they expect a high price for their run down property.
There are a lot of this sort of property for sale in North Wales at the moment.
A local couple wanting a home sees this happening and of course they feel a resentment against the seconders.

When it comes to holding back the livelihood of people who have lived in an area for generations, who have put up with low wages and a hard life and whose way of life has created the village atmosphere that the seconders like so much then I have no sympaathy with the seconders.
If these people don''t like it, they can sell up and buy elsewhere - they don't depend on it to survive the fishermen do.

I'm quite angry about it.

 

[biffvernon]

Why do the Welsh care about whether Helford gets a new jetty?

 

[Lime]

When it comes to holding back the livelihood of people who have lived in an area for generations, who have put up with low wages and a hard life and whose way of life has created the village atmosphere that the seconders like so much then I have no sympaathy with the seconders.
If these people don''t like it, they can sell up and buy elsewhere - they don't depend on it to survive the fishermen do.

You put the problem of second homes very well.
Another aspect of second homes is that they are a fair weather properties, in hard times they are rarely visited but come good times and good weather the little roads can suddenly be occupied by their friends parking their cars all over the place causing obstruction.
Parking in farm gateways is common as well as over entrances to small droves.
They really think they own the place too.
It is not surprising there is so much resentment.

 

[Penners]

We haven't got a fishing jetty in our parish either.

Be patient. In a year or two you'll be able to dangle a worm on a bent pin out of your upstairs window.