Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 1:59 pm on 16 October 2019.
There is an issue of fundamental unfairness here. There are many second homes in Wales. These are domestic homes that are used as second homes while the main home is elsewhere, so I’m not talking about business units, commercial caterers or holiday businesses here. But there is a loophole in the law, and I think your Government is aware of this. There is a loophole that means that an increasing number of owners of second homes have found a means of not paying council tax or business rates. Do you agree that we need to find an urgent solution to this problem, and do you agree that reforming section 66 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 would be one way of doing away with this unfairness?