Conservatives extend multi-million tax loophole for wealthy second homers

The Conservatives are NOT closing the multi-million £ tax loophole for second home owners. In fact they’re just enabling it; making yet another purposeful-sounding announcement in their desperate attempt to save face.

The Conservatives were shamed into announcing in 2018 they would close the tax loophole they first created 2012, and which I’ve campaigned against for the past decade.

Four years later, and after hundreds of millions more of taxpayers’ money has been lavished on second home property investors, Tory Minister Gove today makes yet another announcement (this is but the fourth occasion!) that they “close the loophole”. Yet this extremely limp rule – which I predict will have no effect whatsoever – will not come in until April 2023.

They insist that second homes should be let for at least 70 of the 365 days a year. How many factories or shops call themselves serious businesses when they operate for less than one fifth of the year? This is preposterous.

If they want to do something useful they should claw back the £104 million of Cornwall’s covid aid handed out to those second homers who use this loophole and instead use it to help the thousands of local families in serious housing insecurity. Taxpayers’ money should be used to help people who need a secure first home, not to feather-bed the wealthy in their second homes.

I doubt they’d be as lackadaisical about this if it were a benefit payment to the less well-off.

It’s no wonder local Tory MPs have proven themselves to be so confused. One of them wagging his finger at me just last week insisting that the the Government had closed the tax loophole! Will he apologise…?