Second homes council tax hike raises £1.6m for Welsh county in first year
Richard Youle – Local democracy reporter
A council tax premium on second homes and empty properties in one Welsh county has raised just over £1.6m in its first year.
The 50% premium in Carmarthenshire was implemented on April 1, 2024, and affected 1,167 second homes and 2,102 long-term empty houses.
The figures exclude a much smaller number of properties in each category which were exempt.
The council told the Local Democracy Reporting Service it collected £651,985 in premiums from second home owners in 2024-25 and £967,276 from empty home owners.
Arrears
It added that unpaid amounts – or arrears – totalled £204,282 for second homes and £308,238 for long-term empty ones.
Carmarthenshire wasn’t the first authority in Wales to charge the premiums – councils have been able to bring them in since 2017 – and several in England have also introduced them.
Cllr Alun Lenny, cabinet member for resources, speaking about the second homes premium, said: “It brings revenue but the whole intention of the strategy is to curtail the number of second homes in those areas where they’re having a negative impact on communities.”
Supply
An aim of the long-term empty home premium is to encourage owners to bring them back into use, increasing the supply of housing.
Cllr Lenny said such properties could become dilapidated and reflect poorly on the appearance of streets.
Council tax premiums for second home owners increased to 100% in April this year in the county while land transaction tax – formerly called stamp duty – for the purchase of second homes also rose in Wales.
Properties in Carmarthenshire which were registered as empty since April 1, 2023, and chargeable for the 50% council tax premium last year now have a 100% premium.
‘Shock’
Neville Thomas, manager of the Carmarthen branch of Morgan and Davies estate agent, said he felt the combination of the second home premium and land transaction tax rise had generally slowed the market for second homes and also pushed a couple of second homes onto the market for sale.
“A few second home owners down this way have had a bit of shock about council tax,” he said.
Sian Evans, the owner of BJ Properties, said she believed the second home premium was having an impact in Carmarthenshire but probably more so in Pembrokeshire.
She said it affected not just people from outside the area who came to their second homes on holiday but also some local people.
She explained she knew of one person who was in the fortunate position of being able to buy a smaller house to live in before selling her current one and that she was hit with “astronomical council tax” on her current one due to the time it was taking to sell.
Miss Evans added that local businesses which benefited from lots of visitors in places like Laugharne and Ferryside would be affected if second home owners sold up.
It is and has been a big talking point for years. Speaking in 2021 a resident of Laugharne, Iris John, said: “There are so many second homes here – it’s absolutely killing the town. There’s such a lot of empty homes come the winter. It’s like a ghost town.
“Our young have got nowhere to go. There are no houses in their price range.”
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How much was spent buying and building more council homes?
Worthwhile policy, from the sound of it, because it’s focused on folk who are wealthy enough to afford second homes – which most of us simply couldn’t.
But Boris, above, has a valid point. Trouble is that most councils these days are so cash-strapped that any additional revenue is likely to be absorbed in general expenditure – simply financing core pre-existing responsibilities.
Increasing levels of funding to local authorities was always at the heart of the second home council tax policy. The real issue is creating more well paid jobs so that young people can chose to live near by where they are from instead of being forced to move away.
But those well paid jobs aren’t going to appear if there’s no workforce because there’s nowhere for them to live.
Nor will those well paid jobs happen if the workforce lacks the required level of education and the council vetos every planning application for industry.
Can we have better services now?
And still they close down vital public conveniences in tourist areas !!!!
How many second homes sold to local people since the premium was introduced I wonder?