Letters: Second home savings need fair distribution | Money | The Guardian

Letters: Second home savings need fair distribution | Money | The Guardian

The Campaign to Protect Rural England commends the government for scrapping council tax breaks for second home owners (Report, 1 November). This is a crucial step in helping communities to thrive. High concentrations of second homes can have damaging impacts, particularly localised house price inflation. This, combined with rural wages – which are on average lower than those in urban areas – means people with strong family and employment links to rural areas are frequently priced out of the local housing market, leading to fragmentation of communities, forcing "reverse" commuting and undermining local labour markets. We urge local authorities to consider how to use the extra funding raised from this change to subsidise new affordable housing in villages and market towns in need, to ensure those with strong ties to a locality can remain part of their community.