Second Homes

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:52 pm on 29 January 2020.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:52, 29 January 2020

So, I make the same point: if we have any evidence at all that properties have been incorrectly listed as businesses and not domestic properties, then let's have it, and we'll look at it and do something about it. If a residence is a domestic residence, listed as a domestic residence for occasional occupation, or never occupation—and there's nothing to stop you buying a second home and literally never going to it—as long as it's registered as a domestic premises, then it will pay whatever the relevant council tax for a non-main-home residence is in that area.

You have to positively approach the valuation office and say that you want to register this property as a non-residential property for business use in order to get into this scheme. You have to have two or less of those properties to qualify as a small business and get the rate relief. If you have more than that, you'll be paying non-domestic rates on it instead of council tax, which is not necessarily better, it might be more.

And then the other thing to say is, although the doubling of the charge for second homes in many areas of Wales was not intended in any way as a revenue-raising arrangement—but rather a behaviour modification arrangement—in fact, it's raised very considerable amounts of money across Wales. Far more than ever would have been lost if such a loophole had existed, which I emphasise it does not.