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Watch: Second home owner tells Jeremy Vine she refuses to buy anything in Wales to protest ‘unfair’ tax

11 May 2022 2 minute read
Storm Huntley speaking to Jane from Surrey on Jeremy Vine

A second home owner in Gwynedd has told the Jeremy Vine show that she refuses to buy anything in Wales to protest against the “unfair” tax on her property.

The woman identified only as ‘Jane from Surrey’ said that she was unhappy with the Welsh Government’s plans to allow local authorities to increase council tax premiums on second homes to 300% from April next year.

She said that she and other second home owners “spend their money” in Wales.

“Which actually now I won’t. If I want something I buy it in England first and bring it because I actually think it’s really unfair.”

She told presenter Storm Huntley that she had little sympathy for those who could not afford homes in the area as “I can’t afford to buy and lots of places in London. Just accept that and that’s life”.

“And actually 20 minutes walk still by the sea, you can buy a house for 100,000. A terraced house. Ours isn’t a big house.”

Jane from Surrey said that she will “have to sell” the house now, even though it might “devalue it”.

Storm Huntley responded that her decision to sell meant that the Welsh Government’s second home tax had probably worked.

“Most people will be going up there in the peak times, and then not during the winter time,” she said.

“So you’ve got a sort of undulating effects on the population where sometimes there’ll be nobody going to the local pub. There’ll be nobody buying things at the local convenience store, which really causes issues for these local areas.

“And it just so happens you might be the exception that gets a bit stung in this scenario.”


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Lebowski
Lebowski
2 years ago

Good. Verpisst dich

Lindsey Glen Dobie
Lindsey Glen Dobie
2 years ago

Is this person for real?

Dail y Goeden
Dail y Goeden
2 years ago

Yes; I would think she is. Chat shows such as this do us all the great service of exhibiting the views that people hold. (Yes, it may be the more extreme, or the more vocal – or, sometimes, the less well-thought-out – who are more likely to choose to phone in, but it’s still very useful for the rest of us to be aware of them and of their views.) And, as any MP or AS/MS will tell you: these, too – the people we disagree with – also have a vote.

Dai Rob
Dai Rob
2 years ago

Witch.

Steve Duggan
Steve Duggan
2 years ago

Shame – I really feel for her………..

Marc
Marc
2 years ago

To quote the great Noddy Holder “Gudbuy T’Jane”

Gill Jones
Gill Jones
2 years ago

O diddums – gwynt teg ar ei hôl!

R W
R W
2 years ago

She’s going to sell her second home? Oh dear, how sad, never mind!!

Glyn Jones
Glyn Jones
2 years ago
Reply to  R W

Could be worse. She could move there permanently.

NOT Grayham Jones
NOT Grayham Jones
2 years ago
Reply to  Glyn Jones

one thing for sure a local will not be able to buy at the current prices so more than likely a person downsizing and retiring from away will buy it thus further diluting the Local culture and Welsh Language.

Cynan
Cynan
2 years ago

But if they are retiring and downsizing, hopefully not for long

Terry
Terry
2 years ago

Dilute the local culture or expand the gene pool?

Gareth Cemlyn
Gareth Cemlyn
2 years ago

It always amazes me how self important these people are and how they see themselves within a culture that they cannot identify with. They come with ‘beads for the natives’ seems to be the attitude regardless of how they destroy our communities, culture and social structure

Cathy Hill
Cathy Hill
2 years ago
Reply to  Gareth Cemlyn

It’s like when Brexiteers thought Europe would immediately collapse when the “UK” left…

SundanceKid
SundanceKid
2 years ago

Are you sure she wasn’t called Karen? 🤣

Anyway, congratulations to Mark Drakeford and Adam Price on the measures to counter second homes. One down… 😃

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
2 years ago

So I take it Jane from Surrey brings her own water with her to drink or shower in when she spends time at her home in Gwynedd. I’ve never heard anything so rediculous in my life. What a patronising selfish woman.

Last edited 2 years ago by Y Cymro
Cathy Hill
Cathy Hill
2 years ago

I support her boycott, she shouldn’t buy things in Cymru, she should definitely sell her house and she should leave and never come back, that will REALLY show us.

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
2 years ago

Isn’t it shocking when you actually hear such bloody minded arrogance.? If she had a second home in Devon, Cornwall or Cumbria and they whacked up the council tax there, would she then refuse to buy anything in England in protest?

Gareth Plas
Gareth Plas
2 years ago
Reply to  Fi yn unig

Which seems like it’s going to happen in those areas. Good news.

GWYN W EVANS
GWYN W EVANS
2 years ago
Reply to  Fi yn unig

She CANNOT have a second home in St Ives, they have banned any new ones, it’s clearly anti Welsh. Kernyw yn dangos y ffordd

Superglan
Superglan
2 years ago

Perhaps The local council in Gwynedd should be granted some sort of award from the Cornish County Authority as it looks as if she could have bought a holiday home in Cornwall if Gwynedd had not saved them from this obnoxious person

Erisian
Erisian
2 years ago

Now her face is known probably just as well she has decided to sell-up and leave, as hopefully, nobody in Wales would sell her anything now. – Except estate agent and removal services maybe?

Last edited 2 years ago by Erisian
Philip Davies
Philip Davies
2 years ago
Reply to  Erisian

Her face is not known – the face in the video shot is the presenter of this phone-in. Just to be fair to the presenter.

Cynan
Cynan
2 years ago

ALL second home buyers should boycott buying in Wales. Forever.
Good riddance to bad rubbish

Nobby Tart
Nobby Tart
2 years ago

They are just like the gammons in Spain. “If I sell up, the Spanish economy will crash and my village will die out”. Unless you’re eating and drinking out, from dawn till dusk, every day, and constantly buying the rounds, I doubt you’re putting as much into ‘the economy’ as you think. Far from it. Similarly here with Jane. She’s threatening to buy her goods in Surrey and bring them to Wales. What is the betting that when she usually buys in Wales, it’s not with local retailers, but supermarket chains and the like. I lived in Surrey for over… Read more »

Jan Bont
Jan Bont
2 years ago

When I was a cleaner I saw lots of second home owners convert it to a business and do holiday lets. That way it becomes a business not a second home, and sadly she stays…
It’s a business loophole that lots of second home owners did. They can still use it for themselves for a few weeks. Also WG was offering a zero business rates deal for small businesses and therefore no council tax was paid at all! Hopefully that’s changed.

Peter Cuthbert
Peter Cuthbert
2 years ago
Reply to  Jan Bont

We should have some sympathy for people like ‘Jane’. She has clearly bought into, or been brought up into, the Thatcherite view that there is no such thing as society and that the only person that matters is ‘Me’. It is, of course, the Ayn Rand view of the world which is totally opposed to the idea of a communitarian approach to life. One would hope that such a view was in decline in Wales but sadly one sees it in action every day. Too few people seem to consider that if I do X how will that affect my… Read more »

Cynan
Cynan
2 years ago
Reply to  Peter Cuthbert

Try as I might, I can’t rustle up any sympathy for her

Paul R.
Paul R.
2 years ago
Reply to  Peter Cuthbert

If you are going to quote an individual, solely to be pejorative, at least demonstrate you understand the quote!
Thatcher referred to individuals expecting society to solve their problems for them….there’s no such thing as society, there’s just government. Personal responsibility, not selfishness I think you’ll find. Nope, I ain’t a Tory, just a pedant!

Cynan
Cynan
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul R.

Thatcher’s attitude to society varied greatly depending on her audience. I think you do Peter an injustice here since he picked a different example to highlight his point than you did. But just like many people (myself included) cannot find an example of something Thatcher did for the common good (except her wholehearted support for EU membership) others (possibly including yourself?) do not recognise her as being a force for anything OTHER than good. In all likelihood both sides are wrong. But as the son of a miner who experienced every indignity she inflicted on my father, his profession and… Read more »

SundanceKid
SundanceKid
2 years ago
Reply to  Jan Bont

You have to prove that the property is let for 182 days now (6.5 months) rather than the 70 days previously.

Chris Morgan
Chris Morgan
2 years ago
Reply to  Jan Bont

Many second homer properties are used in this way, as AirB&B rentals in the main…

Quornby
Quornby
2 years ago

Dreadful attitude……Nothing new.

Richard
Richard
2 years ago

Just who do these people think they are and where they are – and so blatant and brazen. Perhaps this lady should have put her name forward at the recent local election and expounded her views and the benefits of the amounts of money alleged to be spent in the local area.

SundanceKid
SundanceKid
2 years ago
Reply to  Richard

Someone tried to do exactly that in Gwynedd… returned with a whopping 27 votes.

Valerie Matthews
Valerie Matthews
2 years ago

These people are so selfish! Its all about them , Who wants her kind in Wales anyway No regard for young Welsh who cannot find anything reasonably priced to buy .

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