Council Tax Rise for Salcombe Second Home Owners

There are proposals afoot to increase the "second home owner" council tax rate from 90% to 200%!

For the life of me I can't see why this makes any sense at all? We have established time and time again on this blog that second home owners are now an integral part of the Salcombe economy, given this why would the council decide that it is a good idea to make them pay more. Surely paying 90% makes far more sense as less resources are used due to the very nature of the property being a "second home".

All I can see happening is the more astute second home owners reclassifying their second homes as "businesses", renting them out for 3 or 4 weeks a year and paying even less tax.

It's not far short of being as ridiculous as a recent proposal (nationwide) to charge more council tax for houses with sea views!!!

Comment Moderation

Just a quick note to let you know that I have had to turn on the "Comment Moderation" functionality due to the high level of spamming recently seen on the site. Please be assured that this site will remain an open forum for all your views and comments no matter what they are...

Best Regards
OODevon

Salcombe Property Shrugs off Recession

Salcombe seems to have come through the property decline without taking too much of a hit. In fact there seems to be a renewed confidence as building plots once again become active.

The current re-construction of "Underdecks", over-looking Salcombe harbour from Cliff Road, is amazing. The original building changed hands for £2m and if you just go for a wander and watch what they are doing you can't think the renovation costs come in at much under £500k if not more! Apparently the renovations include a boat lift to bring the boats up the cliff!!!

The top 2 second home hot spots are Salcombe and Kingswear, with the South West in general taking the top 2 spots in the list.

Top 10 rural and coastal second-home hot spots:

1 South Hams 9.8%
2 North Cornwall 9.6%
3 Berwick-upon-Tweed 9.5%
4 North Norfolk 9.1%
5 Penwith 8.5% 2,647
6 South Lakeland 7.2%
7 Scarborough 7.2%
8 Purbeck 6.9% 1,469
9 Great Yarmouth 5.9%
10 West Somerset 5.7%