Editor

I fully support Debbie Kojs over her request that Gwynedd Council reconsiders its council tax premium on second homes.

It is disgraceful that she should be expected to pay council tax, plus the 100 per cent premium, on an unoccupied property that she was refurbishing to let out as a small business but was unable to advertise because of the pandemic. I also wish to support the expatriate Welsh community of North Wales who own second homes in the area but have to work in other parts of the UK or overseas. Why should they have to pay a 100 per cent premium for the privilege of owning a property in their homeland?

Debbie Kojs also mentions an important point that many inland second homes were semi-derelict properties which would have remained unoccupied but for their new owners.

Even more incredulous is the statement from the spokesperson for Gwynedd Council: “Recent research shows that 60 percent of local people are priced out of the housing market in Gwynedd”. If the spokesperson looks on Rightmove they will notice that there are currently 303 properties for sale in Gwynedd at less than £120,000, plus a further 552 properties in the surrounding counties of Conwy, Denbighshire, and Anglesey. So what house price is the council using as a baseline figure to judge affordability? I note that the spokesperson fails to mention other recent research which showed that 55.1 per cent of respondents in Gwynedd believed second homes bring“positive benefits”.

Houses in Gwynedd are amongst the cheapest in the UK.The latest analysis by Halifax on average house buying costs shows that Wales has the lowest in England and Wales. It is therefore disingenuous to suggest that second-home owners are pushing up prices. Everyone can see that the problem is average earnings and not house prices.

The Plaid Cymru-led councilis playing politics by shifting the blame for their lack of financial acumen onto second homeowners such as Debbie Kojs.

Local residents need to wake up to this fact. Until they do so local wages will remain low and our young people will struggle to find higher salary employment without moving to England.

John Rees Moss Bala

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