Greens urge action on second homes
The fact that one-in-five houses on Arran are second homes is having an adverse effect on island residents and depriving the council of much needed Council Tax.
According to a new report by the Scottish Green Party, Arran has 629 out of 2,744 dwellings (22.9 per cent) as second homes, with the highest concentration (29 per cent) in and around Lamlash.
While the figures themselves are not new, the Scottish Greens are calling for an overhaul of housing laws to allow councils to control the spread of second homes by making them subject to change-ofuse orders. They also want a tax loophole closed that they say allows owners of second homes to avoid paying council tax by listing their property as a business.
Green MSP for the West of Scotland, Ross Greer said: ‘Second homes are becoming a big problem in Arran, denying local people, particularly young people, access to affordable, good quality housing and inflating house prices beyond the reach of many families.
‘This in turn makes it harder to maintain the local services we all rely on as second homes often avoid paying council tax, despite using many of the same services as everyone else. If we continue this trend islands such as Arran will lose the very heart and soul that make it such a popular destination in the first place.
‘The recent changes to tax rules mean that many of the owners of these properties are no longer paying either council tax or non-domestic rates on their homes, denying North Ayrshire Council hundreds of thousands of pounds each year which could help offset some of the worst effects of the resulting housing shortage, both on the island and the mainland.’
The Scottish Greens’ propose that an overhaul of housing legislation would deliver fresh energy and new powers needed to tackle Scotland’s housing crisis. The 16-page report, available on the //greens. scot website aims to tackle the growing affordability gap for young people and the lack of appropriate housing for the elderly and infirm by making better use of the housing stock available. There are currently 162,000 applicants on housing waiting lists across Scotland.
As far back as January 2016 the Arran Economic Group estimated that 22 per cent of houses on the island were second homes.