Amazingly, official figures show that one in five houses in Lyme Regis is a second home.
For the whole of West Dorset around one in twenty houses are second homes.
This means that there are 2,500 homes across the district unavailable for local people to live in – with many of them empty for much of the year.
Depending on their circumstances the owners of these second homes can get up to a 50% reduction in their Council Tax! This is a huge loss to local councils at a time of very tight budgets and cuts to local services.
“Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for second homes to be taxed fully,” says Cllr. Andy Canning, the Chair of West Dorset Liberal Democrats.
“In opposition there wasn’t much we could do, but in government we can make sure that all homes are taxed fairly.”
As a result of work undertaken by Liberal Democrat Communities Minister, Andrew Stunnell, the Coalition Government is looking to make changes to make Council Tax fairer.
These include:
- an end to the mandatory discount on second homes
- an end to the mandatory discount for the first six months on empty homes
- giving the council the ability to charge an empty tax premium of up to 50% on homes that are empty for more than two years.
There will still be some exemptions to allow for when an owner has died or gone into hospital or a care home.
“At a time when so many local young people can’t get onto the property ladder it is totally wrong to be offering tax discounts for people with second or empty homes,” added Cllr. Canning.
“In government the Liberal Democrats are helping to bring more homes back into use for local people and ensuring that second home owners are paying their fair share of local tax. This will help our councils maintain key local services in these difficult times.”
