Second homes cash helping plug gaps left by grant cut

Millions of pounds from the extra council tax levied on second homes in Devon are set to help fund services.

Councils across the county are expected to earn around £16 million when council tax doubles on second homes in some areas from April, with different amounts going to various councils.

The county council is likely to get the lion’s share, which could be nearly £15 million if it approves a 4.99 percent council tax increase in April.

But district councils claim it is unfair that most of the revenue will go to the county, when districts have responsibility for housing.

Councillors including Julian Brazil (Liberal Democrat, Kingsbridge) and Frank Biederman (Fremington Rural), who recently gave up his independent status to join the Lib Dems, believe that because the money is levied on properties, it should be spent helping to provide affordable housing.

However, Devon’s cabinet said £4 million would go to highways, £5 million to children’s services, and “more money than planned” would go to help tackle homelessness.

At Devon County Council’s cabinet meeting last week, Cllr Phil Twiss (Conservative, Feniton and Honiton) noted that income from second homes helped replace more than £10 million previously coming from a rural services delivery grant, which the government cut in December.

Cllr Twiss added that the county had received the worst financial settlement from central government of the 21 county councils.

“It is not a nice statistic, and we are well below the national average,” he said.

“We are an overwhelmingly rural county, and so there are additional costs to delivering services, so it is particularly disappointing that the government has removed the rural services grant.”