Second homes should pay 5 x council tax
SINCE Mrs Thatcher decided that the less well off in this country should not be allowed to live at a reasonable rent in a reasonably built house and insisted that local authorities sell off their stock of council houses without having to replace them, not one government has really tried to solve the problem this policy left behind.
All governments have pursued a policy not based upon social need but on allowing the banks and the building industry to make huge profits whilst dragging the vast majority of people in this country into decades of debt, which many of them struggle to repay.
The number of houses supposedly required is based upon outdated figures. How were governments supposed to solve the ‘crisis’ by building 300,000 units a year when they were allowing far more than this number of migrants into the country every year? This has helped to inflate the cost of houses to ridiculous levels, as has some of the various schemes using taxpayers’ money to finance the costs involved.
Now that we have left the EU, we should be able to greatly reduce the numbers of people coming to live here. Though I notice that the powers-that-be have already lined up others to take the place of the EU citizens, namely the Chinese from Hong Kong. They should ensure that the unnecessary covering over of one of our most valuable assets, our farmland, will continue. This country could find itself in big trouble in the event of any future international crisis because it will be unable to feed its population.
We should be looking ahead and trying to stabilise, then reduce, the population. A greater effort must be made to return illegal immigrants to their own countries. I am sure the government has no real idea just how many there are, half a million, or double that, at least? We are a small island and must restrict the numbers coming to live here and hence slowing down the concreting over of our land.
Second homes should attract at least five times local council tax levels. Council houses should be given priority when schemes come up for planning, and immigration restricted to those offering skills that the country really requires.
Phillip Hoyland Burnham on Sea, Somerset