Without second homes, many Cornish villages would be dead

A few days ago, just as the run of good weather started, I was in Cornwall, with early sunshine warming the granite walls of the old fishing villages.

Those villages are far smarter than they were when people actually fished from them; life in that distant period was harsh – painters of the late-19th-century Newlyn School, admiring honest toil when they saw it, depicted fishwives trudging across the sands with huge baskets of pilchards on their backs. Until the 1970s, much of the housing stock across the countryside was antiquated if not rotten. Now the cold, leaky cottages have been done up, either as holiday lets or second homes. Pubs and restaurants offer quality grub, at prices that aren’t far short of those in Chelsea.

This transformation is a kind of miracle. It has literally stopped the ancient fabric of Cornwall, Snowdonia and the North Norfolk coast from falling down. Once done up, second homes could be rented to other visitors, perhaps through Airbnb, bringing more revenue to the area.

Now though local councils have begun an experiment in Trumpian economics. A tariff has been imposed on outsiders in the form of double council tax. There’s talk of stopping down-from-Londoners from owning certain types of property altogether. Build a wall – a big, beautiful wall. Every effort is being made to kill the golden goose. Sales of second homes are said to have fallen off a cliff.

I know, I know. To many people second home owners are the devil incarnate and deserve everything that’s thrown at them. Is it possible, though, that the hatred is misplaced? Tourism is Cornwall’s biggest industry. It not only keeps chefs and bar staff in jobs but provides employment for all the builders, gardeners and cleaners who look after second homes.

Naturally the effect is particularly pronounced around the coast, where everything depends on tourism. Commuting to an inland job may be impracticable because the lanes are jammed and public transport hardly exists. Without employment, the villages would stagnate. I happen to like pilchards but you can’t make a living from them any more – the shoals have gone.

Of course there’s a housing problem – everyone knows that. But second homes aren’t a major issue. We have a rising population and there’s no sign of many more new homes being built under this government than the previous one. The financial crisis and Covid unleashed a tsunami of cheap money which has pushed up prices. Second homes may be picturesque but they’re expensive to buy, drafty to live in and costly to maintain; first-time buyers are more likely to want well-insulated, low maintenance properties near their places of work.

Besides, a second home may become a permanent home when the owner retires; or a semi-permanent one if he or she can work from home. Putting the kibosh on such evolutions will not help the local economy. Preferencing one group of owners (locals) over others will inevitably cause unintended unfairness, if not corruption. Better for the market to be transparent.

Changes in working practice mean that a growing number of people have two homes, one being an urban pied-à-terre which they use a few nights a week, the other being the family home. MPs recognise this, which is why they have ensured that one group of such individuals won’t be financially inconvenienced by extra taxes – namely themselves. How can fatted parliamentarians justify this privilege when it’s denied to other people?