. . . Wales Tourism Alliance, UK Hospitality Cymru, and Professional Association of Self Caterers UK. And the article below, which I reproduce from last week’s issue of the Cambrian News.
The article reports a desperate attempt to stop the closing of the loophole that allows holiday home owners to claim their property is a business and thereby avoid paying the council tax surcharge on holiday homes.
I have chosen to write this because rarely have I read such self-serving and unadulterated bilge / bollocks / bullshit. (Take your pick.)
It begins with the foundation lie that holiday homes in Wales are owned by locals; that is, Welsh people. Once the foundation is laid a whole house of lies can be built upon it.
It can be argued that to close the loophole, or to increase the council tax surcharge, will damage Welsh communities economically, will result in locals having to sell out to “wealthier outsiders” and – to cap it all – these moves will harm the Welsh language.
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INTRODUCTION
I propose to go through the article and address the points made in the order they were made. But let me begin by introducing the organisations being quoted in the article.
First, the Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA), formed in 1998 (I quote from the WTA website) ” . . . when the National Assembly for Wales was established and the responsibility for tourism was devolved from Westminster to Cardiff”.
The WTA website is in English only.
Explanation: Viewing devolution as a Welsh Nationalist plot the (largely English-run) tourism industry in Wales decided to draw the waggons into laager.
UK Hospitality Cymru (UKHC) is another of those English organisations that pretends to have a Welsh presence by adding “Cymru” to the name. The contact details are all for the London office.
Finally, we have the Professional Association of Self Caterers UK (PASC UK), which doesn’t even bother with the pretence of adding “Cymru” or “Wales”. It got involved in Wales when the Wales Association of Self-Catering Operators (WASCO) folded in 2020.
PASC UK would no doubt be treating Wales as a region of England were it not for the proposed legislation reminding its Board – none of whom seem to have any connection with Wales – that things are different here.
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Here’s the article I’m referring to. I suggest you read it and as you read give some thought to what is really being said. (It’s available here in pdf format.)
Health warning! Those with a low boiling point should not proceed.
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DAMAGING TOURISM
Let’s start the dissection of the article in paragraph 3.
It seems that the three organisations quoted believe that the proposed legislation will damage the tourism industry. By which I assume they mean that Wales will see fewer tourists, and the impact of tourism on Wales will be reduced.
Would that be a bad thing?
Tourism is Welsh communities taken over and anglicised. (Think Abersoch, Aberdyfi, and other places.) It’s increased traffic, environmental damage, shit on Yr Wyddfa. Do we really want to keep these things at their current level?
Of course not. These are things we should be seeking to reduce or banish entirely.
Turning to the economic argument . . . how many tourism businesses are owned by Welsh people? How many Welsh people have jobs in tourism that pay enough to enable them to buy a home in a tourism ‘hot-spot’, like Abersoch? (Or anywhere else?) How many people does the tourism industry employ in November, or February?
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GREEN TOURISM, HONEST!
Moving on to paragraphs 9 and 10.
Paragraph 9 contains a plea to increase the letting threshold from 70 to just 105 days (rather than the proposed 182) in return for which the three groups will work towards making tourism “greener”.
How, exactly?
Will tourists come by train and then use the extensive Welsh network to travel around the country? Or perhaps they’ll walk? Hire a mule?
Let’s be honest; these groups realise that the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’ has succumbed to climate hysteria and they’re just playing on that.
Though it does raise an interesting point. Because if the ‘Welsh Government’ wants higher self-catering occupancy rates then that will inevitably mean more tourists, and more car journeys, and more pollution.
How does that square with the ‘Welsh Government’s belief that Wales can single-handedly save the planet?
Paragraph 10 ends with the claim that the proposed legislation will have “a disproportionate and damaging economic impact on . . . communities”.
Presumably the communities being destroyed by holiday homes!
This claim seems to be based on the argument that people staying in rented accommodation put money into the local economy. Which is no doubt true.
Taken to its logical conclusion, the greatest benefit, with the most money going into the local economy, will be achieved if holiday homes become permanent homes for Welsh families.
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FEWER HOLIDAY HOMES WOULD BE BAD FOR LOCALS
Paragraphs 11 and 12 (below) plumb new depths of desperation. And dishonesty.
The three organisations claim legislation that might force cheats into either paying what they’re supposed to pay, or else sell up, will be of no benefit to local people. “It will reduce local owners’ ability to earn an income”.
To begin with, few holiday homes are owned by local Welsh people. But here the ‘Welsh Government’ should simply make exemptions for those that are.
Will this be discriminatory? Of course it will, but it would also mean the ‘Welsh Government’ would be prioritising the best interests of the indigenous population.
Would it be anti-English? Of course not. People from Namibia, Bolivia and Kazakhstan with holiday homes in Wales would be equally affected.
There would, it’s claimed, be “a decline in secondary jobs in hospitality, retail, house maintenance and cleaning”. An old one, this. A variation on the theme of holiday homes putting money into the local economy.
It’s such obvious nonsense that those spouting it must think we’re idiots!
As for “house maintenance”, I live in a village with far too many holiday homes, and I’m amazed by the tradesmen’s vans I regularly see from exotic locations over the border. The areas where the holiday home owners live.
If I had the power I would introduce a fine for any home owner not employing local tradesmen. And a public flogging for a repeat offence.
Paragraph 12 reads, “(The proposed legislation) will not safeguard the Welsh language as these businesses will be lost to wealthier outsiders prepared to meet the higher costs of having a second home or self-catering business in Wales.”
Is it being suggested that holiday homes now safeguard the Welsh language? If so, then they really do think we’re stupid!
Though I agree with them that if the current loophole is closed, and the 300% council tax surcharge levied, then many properties will come on the market. But will they really be bought by “wealthier outsiders”?
And if they were, then what would it mean?
Nothing, really, except that our councils could be getting a good income from the 300% surcharge and those holiday homes that were falsely claiming to be businesses will have to be run as real self-catering businesses – providing all the benefits the three organisations claim such enterprises provide.
Everybody wins . . . except those currently cheating the system
In my opinion, closing the loophole and raising the surcharge to 300% would reduce the demand for and the attractiveness of holiday homes and result in property prices in rural areas of Wales falling. Which would mean more properties coming within the financial reach of local people.
And if the 300% holiday home council tax surcharge doesn’t bring enough properties within the reach of locals, then we should raise it to 500%.
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“WITHOUT HOLIDAY HOMES YOU’D ALL STARVE!”
Finally, to paragraph 15, which warns that the economy of rural Wales will collapse if holiday home owners currently gaming the system are made to pay their full whack.
To begin with, let’s consider the term, “self-catering”. It means catering for oneself. And here’s an example of what it means.
I see people arriving in my village for a week or two in a holiday home and it often takes a good half an hour to unload the car – because they’ve brought just about everything bar the kitchen sink. (Same applies to those staying in caravans.)
Yes, they go to local restaurants, pubs, and other places. But what they spend in the local economy is – for obvious reasons – exaggerated.
It takes us back to the point I made earlier. No matter how much holiday homes may contribute to the local economy that contribution would be dwarfed by locals living in those properties for 12 months of the year.
A child could understand that. Why do the defenders of holiday homes pretend not to?
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CONCLUSION
The report produced by the Wales Tourism Alliance, UK Hospitality Cymru, and Professional Association of Self Caterers UK purports to promote the self-catering sector but reads like a defence of those exploiting the existing loophole by pretending their private holiday homes are businesses.
Then, by proposing that the minimum occupancy time for a property to qualify as a genuine rental should increase from the current 70 days a year to just 1o5 days, the three organisations tend to undermine their own case.
Proposing such a low level of occupancy does nothing for the image of a thrusting, non-seasonal tourism sector without which we Welsh would be reduced to cannibalism.
Especially as on the PASC UK website we read of Council member Robert Kennedy and his wife that, “In just 3 years their non-agency on-line marketing strategy grew the business to 90% occupancy”. That’s 328 days a year.
But at the end of the day, we are discussing tourism. And as I have said repeatedly, the damage inflicted on Wales by tourism far outweighs any benefits seen by Welsh people.
Anything that can ameliorate or reduce the impact of tourism in general and holiday homes in particular should be supported. So back the closing of the loophole. Insist that your council imposes the 300% surcharge. And demand a tourism tax.
Then ensure that the money collected does not make its way to Corruption Bay, or to third sector bodies, or to housing associations. That money must be used in the areas damaged by tourism for the benefit of local people, especially younger people looking to buy a home in which they can raise a family.
∼
What these three, essentially English, organisations, are saying is: “You couldn’t manage without us”. The traditional response to uppity natives.
Reminding us that tourism in Wales is a largely colonialist activity. One country being used for the benefit and enjoyment of another – and then told to be grateful for being exploited.
Well they know where they can stick that!
♦ end ♦
Adam Price is lying.
OPEN.
The claim that the electoral system proposed ‘like many European Countries’ as Adam Price suggests is not true and wrongly repeated by the BBC. This is known as the “Open List” system. This is where the voter can select the person on the list they wish to be elected. So the order of priority of the candidates on the list is decided by the voter. The countries that use this system are as follows.
Netherlands, Finland Sweden, Norway, Poland, Baltic States, Denmark, Brazil.
CLOSED.
The Labour/Plaid stitch up of the election system proposes what is known as a “Closed List” of proportional representation. This is where you can only vote for a party and the party itself has decided the ranking of the candidate. They will put the candidate they want at the top of the list rather than the voters. The countries which use this system are as follows.
Russia (since Putin), Spain, Argentina, Columbia, Nigeria, South Africa, SriLanka and Turkey.
I have experienced this difference in EU elections. I had the opportunity to vote Green in Sweden and voted Plaid Cymru in Wales. In both cases there were four candidates. In Sweden the Green list contained three candidates I did not favour, so I voted for the fourth, who rather than a vegan type, was actually a dairy farmer who concentrated on stuff like recycling and district heating schemes for winter. He won, as the Green Party had enough for a seat, and it was him who had most votes on the party list. However, In the election in Wales, I knew the person who ordered the list, it was Rhuanedd Richards (BBC). She had already put Jill Evans top of the list. It was pre-determined. This is the system proposed for the Senedd elections in Wales.
It’s obviously a stitch-up between Labour and Plaid, and more and more people are waking up the the fact. In a sense they’ve admitted as much by promising to “consider” the open list for future elections.
Next elections aren’t until 2026, which gives them plenty of time to introduce an open system. If they so wished.
With a closed list you can order by dint of internal party favouritism. Integral to the Plaid/Labour proposal is a cervix check (alternate women of list) and skin colour measure in the form (diversity percentage) on candidates in the list. The reason they want it closed. This is demeaning (tokenism) to women and introduces a colour bar to certain shades of ethnic minorities (those of Arabic, Jewish or Hispanic heritage as opposed to the British definition of Black and Asian). It’s also the reason why Vladmir Putin introduced the closed list for election to the Duma in Russia. He gets to order the list to determine who gets elected. Grace and favour.
“The system favoured by Vladimir Putin” will really sell it to the Welsh public!
Putin ? Some of us might see that as preferable to the Biden or Boris version which boils down to shifting things around after the poll has happened ! Frankly anything blessed by Drakeford and Price must stink to high heaven.
Women.
Plaid Cymru has a problem with women in the form of tokenism and it has been manifest on a number of occasions. When Bethan Sayed (nee Jenkins) AM was found guilty of drink driving it would have been usual for her to be expelled from the party but because Bethan comprised of the ‘female contingent’ no effective action was taken. When Simon Thomas AM was convicted of child sexual offenses, the ‘next on the list’ was Helen Mary Jones, who by that time was no longer a party member, but slotted in as it made a female quota. It was also a reason why the popular candidate in Llanelli, Sean Rees, was evicted in favour of Mari Arthur. It was ‘female quota’. This must have appeared as bizarre to women in y fro as it did to the Rhondda women stalwarts. The bizarre situation where a female party leader, Leanne Wood was instructed what to do by an executive cabal led by Alun Ffred Jones. Women in Plaid Cymru are seen structurally as pieces of flesh to be used as quota leverage.
Race.
In the battle to diversity the candidature, traditionally off-territory in inner city Cardiff and Newport Plaid Cymru elevated individuals which were clearly suspect. The classic examples are Muhammed Islam (who ended up in Ukip) and Mohammed Ashgar (who ended up with the Tories) and the anti-semitic Sahar Al-Faifi. It was a case of brown skin put them on the candidates list. Substitute for actually engaging with the communities concerned. I found this quite bizarre as in Cardiff these is a significant ethnic (by colour) community educated through Welsh medium education in the city who were members of Plaid Cymru but were ‘overlooked’ because they were not connected with the standard political spheres of trendy left of British based ethnicity. They were just Welsh with different colour skin.
Plaid Cymru have not learned from these failures and now seek to formalise this tokenism into the electoral system.
Plaid has subsisted on a diet of tokenism since the likes of DET and IWJ compromised so much just so they could sit at top tables and mix with the faux intelligensia of modern dim witted Britain. They just haven’t got a clue on race as they have swallowed so much “modern theory” while ignoring the needs and aspirations of most ethnic families. Something in which they are at least consistent because they have also ignored real aspirations and needs of ordinary white native Welshies. As for women well they have really shit all over their blanket. Pursuing hare brained blinkerd policies was one thing then the migration to a uncompromising attitude on gender/transition without acknowledging its complexity was something straight out of a juvenile play book. 2 major reasons why Plaid will never be a majority party here in Wales.
Ponce Willy and his consort are up in Scotland and the pics seem to be quite ‘zoomed in’, if you catch my drift – no doubt if there were any crowd of substance turned out for a grovel we’d be treated to aerial shots of the horde! ?
Please Jac…….enjoy your retirement and remove this embarrassing crap from the media.
I am aware that a half dozen disciples will probably become suicidal at their denial to exercise their sickness….but surely enough is enough????????
Dai, mun! I knew we could draw you out from wherever you’re hiding!
Of course it’s embarrassing ….. for Labour and their little helpers. They have the gall to claim they are doing something “different” with their screwed up policies that transfer wealth/funds/assets out of Wales to benefit globalist corporates, City institutions, 3rd sector and assorted shysters who rock up with seriously dodgy propositions and waltz away with the loot !
It’s different alright, it’s worse than direct rule where likes of Boris and that madman Gove would roll into town and syphon out any remaining bits worth taking. Absolutely crackers and Dai and others like him thinks it’s a superior bit of political genius. The madness is too bad for medication. Isolation on an island in the South Atlantic might be the only remedy. Not a cure, just a remedy as it would take their kind out of our daily range.
.. and while we’re on the subject of madness, I see YC want a Social Media Manager and will pay the handsome sum of £30k for a suitably qualified person. For that money they will be lucky to get a fresh graduate out of a 3rd rate upgraded tech college in Cwmscwt. There again a pimply immature fuckwit is probably par for the course for them unless they have upped their game dramatically since summer of ’21. Just wait for the output of irrelevant, badly thought through drivel with loads of content relating to any old ishoo other than the central raison d’etre of YC. Did they ever reveal how much dough they pissed down the drain on a firm of Chartered Accountants and some other buzz word consultancy that wasn’t much use for anything other than draining funds ? Did anyone ever have the presence of mind to apologise for the unwarranted harassment of a senior founder member ? Did anyone cotton on to the need to weed out some seriously nasty bits of work whose only mission was to hijack the organisation, use it for their own needs and then sink it when it would have been bust ?
YC will never deliver independence but could very well derail any attempt to move in that direction unless it demonstrates an ability to purge the rats from all decks on the ship. They should take the advice of a real pragmatic revolutionary, Felix Dzerzhinsky, who had a great capacity for sussing out wankers who would distract the movement from its main objectives.
I believe an up-to-date set of accounts is still eagerly awaited by those who still take an interest in Yes Cymru. A dwindling band, thanks to the loonies who figured so prominently on this blog last summer.
The word is that Dai seeks solace in the company of John Barleycorn. Which explains the comments received in the wee small hours, when Dai really lets it all hang out. (Figuratively speaking.)
AS per usual Jac, you are ever so perceptive ! BUT wrong!
Unless of course JB is a form of Insomnia.
Me hiding????. No! I used to visit you blog for a laugh, but the repetitive ‘national based’ whinging is both depressing and boring.
What are your plans for the Jubilee, Dai?
What Jubilee?
He probably spent all yesterday evening “inhaling” the events at Windsor as shown on TV. Probably seething with anger that more senior arse lickers had been invited to the event. Have to say that the Establishment do a first class panto. Looking forward now to the big event at Caernarfon although I don’t expect E2R to die, Ithink she will take time out let Carlo have a crack at the top job and then Willie will get his chance to say a few words of Welsh at his personal inaugural panto.
Of comical note is that in my town, an ex-army thicky known locally as Dave Mong, for good reason I gather, is planning a Jubilee fest at the local football clubhouse, complete with bouncy castle, hog roast and turd in bowl bobbing. Said same imbecile has taken to flying the Russian flag in lieu of his normal UJ flown proudly from his garden, despite obvious animosity between the UK as a member of NATO and Russia. I knew the lower echelons of the forces were the final recourse of the pathologically thick after school but this lunatic takes the biscuit.
OH JACO !!!!! NO printing of my follow up comment….”Jubilee…what Jubilee??? Disappointing !
So sorry, David! It slipped into the spam folder.
Dig it out Jac. Dai’s input is always good entertainment even if it fails the test of reason and logic.
Good to see the Drakeford/Price double act back in action spinning out their new vision for a “more democratic” Senedd. Particularly love their fixation with diversity and inclusion. Found a comment elsewhere which I paraphrase to suit my take on the thing :
“Candidate quotas are subjective – exactly which characteristics do we prioritise and when do we stop slicing into the characteristics themselves for ever greater representation? Not enough women – of those, not enough women of colour – of them, not enough women of colour who are trans – of them, not enough women of colour who are trans and physically disabled – ad infinitum/absurdum. Eventually, you end up with all the measurable facets of the individual person.”………….. Thanks to CJPh on NC for that.
It puts the whole ishoo fixation into context. We used to get by on “chware teg” until greedy/corrupt/over motivated wankers started bending the system to their own preferences.
More will no doubt follow and it all depends of what Boris and Co are prepared to tolerate. They have a big problem to chew on coming up in N.Ireland as the hard line Unionists will set out to make any path to an United Ireland a difficult one to tread. Also Scotland will bug them even more as that just gathers momentum in one direction.
But insisting on ‘diversity’ for ever more exotic and newly-discovered ‘minorities’ is the only way Labour can hope to maintain control over an enlarged Senedd.
This kind of thing.
Not just Labour. Plaid is just as guilty of coveting the votes of the weird and wonderful. Indeed they make a big thing of promoting the usual suspects who don’t give a shit about the rights of women to have a “safe space”, but if you question the rights of those tackle- bearing blokes who have acquired a taste for competing against real women the howls of righteous indignation are deafening. Then there’s their duplicious attitude towards Palestinians, accepting even echoing their hatred of Israel and Jews.
Also important to consider the damaging effect of tourism of the existing indigenous businesses not involved in tourism. This is the short-term poaching of part time or indigenous casual labour in the summer months.
In my area of Cydweli there is a most notable pet food manufacturer, Burns, a major haulage firm, Owens, and everything from specialist steel fabrication to seafood processing like Parsons Pickles. There are times when there are extra shifts need filling or young people taken on for training towards permanent employment.
These are stonkingly good employers all year round.
Some people work two jobs to pay the bills, work two part-time roles out of necessity or enter and leave the job market for family reasons like children or family care. In the summer months you cannot blame these hard working and adaptable emplyees from preferring to earn a quick buck as cleaners at the caravan park or casual holiday cottage valeting. The idea that this provides ‘income for locals’ is in a way false.
This is because of the short term nature of the work, only tourist season, when families return to benefits out of season, a cycle of poverty, but also acts as a barrier to expansion of year-round indigenous businesses who face a recruitment problem in summer and a problem of existing employees to do a bit of overtime to fill an order, or cover for permanent staff who want a holiday.
Tourism acts as a fetter on the prosperity on other businesses in the area. It is damaging to all-year indigenous businesses. Whilst it’s true that Iwans and Sioneds can clean a chalets in July and August and can be thrown on the scrap heap in September, with a 50/50 chance to go back to washing cockles or packing cat food in winter is treating people as serfs in an never-ending cycle of casual labour and poverty. It also does nothing to help, and often damages, all year indigenous businesses.
This, no doubt, happens all over the ‘touristy’ areas of Wales.
Whenever a blowhard defaults to accusing measures designed to safeguard indigenous culture of being anti-English, they hang themselves because they have all but admitted that English in-migration is overwhelmingly the issue.
Similarly, for the bizarre, sort of double bluff warning that wealthier outsiders will swoop in and choke the life out of the language, the authors have plain-as-day come clean that this is what happens! Our man Fred could form less self-defeating arguments in all his semi-literate glory!
“Wealthier outsiders” is a bit of a giveaway because we know it means outsiders wealthier than the current outsiders. But their pretence is that these holiday homes are currently Welsh-owned.
I’ve probably said as much elsewhere, but the culture and dialects/language of England is as sacred as our own and one I am myself enamoured with. I am an unapologetic anglophile and while there’s a long conversation to be had as regards the relationship between the two members of this island family of nations, the corollary of Britishness as defined by Empire and the C+U Party is that it snuffs out England in all its distinctiveness and greatness, subsumed under UJ-bedecked, homogeneous bollocks.
Jac
Two thoughts. The second home problem is invariably seen as one effecting the north, where there is without question, a problem. But communities elsewhere have similar problems.
My wife grew up in Llansteffan and we enjoy the village, its beach and pubs.
During a visit yesterday we noticed the number of For Sale signs, mainly by the shameless West Wales Properties. I checked their website, cheapest £400, 000, double fronted “family home” in the main street a steal at £700.000. It was also noticeable how many houses (well, .mostly small cottages) were empty.
But what do you expects when the Right Honourable Elin Jones is photographed grinning alongside an English owner of a caravan park who has argued vociferously against the “damage” a tourist tax would do.
Hi John,
I agree.
This is why I have always argued that second homes legislation should be national, applying to the Wye Valley as much as Dyffryn Nantlle. To start arguing about internal boundaries is a recipe for friction and confusion To demand that only Welsh-speaking areas be protected is deliberately divisive. Not only that, but all-Wales legislation will be easier to apply, to interpret, and will leave no one in any doubt if they’re on the right side or the wrong side of some arbitrary or uncertain boundary.
Did you have to mention Elin Jones!
Bad boy that Ball trying to make you chuck up mid-blog !
That point about second homes not confined into specific zones is very valid as it does have a huge distortion effect wherever it happens. It spreads into areas hitherto less affected when a prospective buyer waltzes into an area like mid Powys – say Llanwrtyd or Rhayader – and finds a strong presence of white flight types already resident in that patch. The immediate reaction is one of “oh that’s nice, these people have good English, no evidence of those cottage burners hovering around here, we’ll fit in nicely” and off they go to buy an overpriced retreat which they can visit occasionally, let out to their chums for cash in hand or do swaps for places elsewhere in UK or EU. All very nice too !
Meanwhile local families of all age groups struggle to find a home. Their local H.A’s are doing a roaring trade fetching in defectives and dysfunctionals from all points east, nice earner for the H.A’s but a cost to the Welsh purse when they need NHS services, social services or more likely when the local Police Force have to round them up regularly for minor and later major crimes.
The widespread nature of the problem was brought home to me about 30 years ago, towards the end of the MG campaign. We were visiting the wife’s oldest brother, in Crughywel. Talking to his sons I realised that they also had a problem with holiday homes and rich outsiders buying up property. But they were frustrated that – from their perspective – the MG campaign was “only about the language”.
John. If you look across the estuary from Llansteffan you might see Kidwelly Castle lit up like a Christmas Tree. The lighting however, is paid for by Kidwelly Town Council as part of their ‘supporting tourism strategy’. The amount of council tax they levy this year has increased considerably due to ‘increased energy costs’. The people who pay the bill are the permanent residents of the town, not tourists. The idea that this is paid for by selling tea towels from the gift shop is ludicrous. The castle is owned and run by Cadw, the Welsh Government.
Tourism impoverishes the resident population. Permanent residents have to pay the leccy bill so that castles look particularly attractive for those who buy the holiday homes. Properties which the young people of the town can’t afford. The reason – they’re struggling to pay their bills. The bizarre thing is the County Council is run by Plaid Cymru. They must impose the 300% holiday home premium immediately. The first thing to do is pay this type of electricity bill that “support tourism”. The extra collections in summer for bins on the quay (also paid for by permanent residents) should be next.
The tide will turn on this and related matters – tourism tax on any kind of short or long stay booking, property tax ( enhanced council tax) on the ownership of a second home, an additional business council tax if that second home is let to other third parties chargeable as a basic cost regardless of profitability of any venture at that property. A thriving lettings business would also attract income tax on either the self employed, personal or or company regimes. This will ensure that revenues are collected to cover those costs that people have hitherto regarded as “nothing to do with them”.
Why my optimism ? Well because of nothing in particular here in Wales but there are parts of England where there is real momentum in support. Additionally Rishi’s Tax gatherers and government in general is looking to suck up more cash from the paying public. Their reluctance to do any thing worthy to mitigate fuel and energy prices ( cutting out Green Levy for a year, or better still ad infinitum ?) despite the evident excess profitability of various energy corporates means they have to raise funds elsewhere. Their sluggish approach to chasing up and snuffing out the various large scale tax dodgers and the proliferation of elaborate tax mitigation scams so loved by uber rich and border line criminal types also suggests they will turn to easier targets that would be just as attractive to the Labour Opposition if it ever got into power.
Sadly this again highlights how downright fuckin’ useless our Senedd is when it comes to driving change. This is a classic “don’t rock any boats” regime. And why bother causing turbulence when it is present conditions that enables them to engage in some of their own extractive antics by funding an extravagant 3rd sector and selling off the country to a variety of greenwash/ energy wizards who use Wales to create profit that repatriates neatly to a home elsewhere, London, or even further afield.
At first glance, one might think that the essential ‘jealousy’ element of socialism would make the lefties down the Bay come down hard on holiday homes, while Conservatives in London would give them an easy ride. But political and social realities have changed.
Those who own holiday homes in Wales are overwhelmingly middle class, which means that middle class lefties in Labour and Plaid Cymru tend to identify with these interlopers, especially when they say how much they love Wales, and how environmentally conscious they are. Whereas the government in London is composed of the upper middle class and the the super rich, who do not identify with the middle class.
Politically, the plates have shifted, with the middle class – especially in London – having become more radical in recent decades, and no longer voting Conservative. Conservative support – more so in England – is increasingly found among the working class and in rural areas. So pleasing existing rural voters and perhaps picking up a few more, by sticking it to “posh buggers” from London will sell well.
I’d surmise their social liberalism trumps their fiscal liberalism (the laissez-faire type, somewhat confusingly also called fiscal conservatism?!), the Islington set. Won’t many of today’s Brexiteer Conservatives also be in favour of protectionism by default?
Their love of the loot is real, their adherence to any form of socialism is a big sham, a stream of posturing as they strive to keep up with the latest load of unadulterated bollocks to flow from their chosen thought leadership.