‘We’ll make full use of our new second homes powers’
LEADERS at Carmarthenshire Council are “determined to make the full use of additional powers” to control second homes and holiday lets, a cabinet member said.
Cllr Alun Lenny said the authority was “very concerned about the damage that the unreasonable growth” in second homes was doing, especially in coastal resorts like Llansteffan and rural communities like Cilycwm and Myddfai.
The Plaid Cymru cabinet member for resources said: “It’s completely unacceptable that people rich enough to afford a second home are denying young people from buying their first in their own communities. We say second home but it’s a second house, in a way: you can’t call a house where somebody spends only a few weeks a year a home.”
He said the rise in second home ownership was a problem in Cornwall, the Lake District and the north-east of England, as well as Wales, but in Wales language was “a unique factor”.
Cllr Lenny was speaking at a full council meeting in response to a question by resident Ellen Humphrey who asked if the authority would implement a 300% council tax premium on second homes from April 2023. She said second homes were a “significant issue” for communities and first-time buyers in rural Carmarthenshire.
In January last year, the council approved a motion which welcomed a planned rise in land transaction tax on purchase of second homes but called on the Welsh Government for further measures. The motion said the council would charge a council tax premium of at least 200% on second homes if these measures were enacted.
Cllr Lenny said these measures were largely going to come into force, following an announcement by First Minister Mark Drakeford and Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price.
Among them are new planning use classes – primary home, a second home and short-term holiday accommodation. Cllr Lenny said council planning departments will have the right to insist that homeowners obtain planning permission to change class of use.
He added: “The national planning policy will also be changed to grant local authorities the right to manage the number of second homes and holiday homes in any community – and it’s an intention to present a statutory licensing plan for every holiday home, including short holiday lets.”
He said cabinet hadn’t had a chance to discuss the new measures but would very soon.
He added: “I can assure you that we are determined to make full use of additional powers that we have received from the Welsh Government.”
Councils in Wales have had discretionary powers for a while for a second home council tax premium. Swansea Council doubled it last year.
As of next year councils can charge a premium of up to 300%. The Home Owners of Wales Group has described the rise as “morally indefensible”.