Eric Pickles' proposals to remove council tax concessions on second homes is only right and proper believes John Stephenson senior partner at Bircham Dyson Bell LLP.
"It's difficult to argue the case for keeping things as they are presently - even though second homes are subject to Capital Gains Tax, the cost of local services is a constant," explains John Stephenson.
"Home owners still enjoy the benefits of the locality in which they have their second home; roads still need maintaining, refuse must still be collected and it all costs money - why should principal home owners bear that cost disproportionately, especially in places where the second home market is reducing availability and pushing up prices to the detriment of the local population?
"It's true that second home owners may not use some of the services - schools are the most obvious one to mention - but in holiday or coastal towns where there are many second homes, the cost of local services weighs too heavily on those who live there year round.
"In practice, the concessions have been lowered in many places over the years; some second home owners used to enjoy as much as a 50% discount on their council tax, but this has changed and in reality the concessions are much smaller. So the impact in practice will be less than the political impact of the change of policy.
"But it is hard to make any principled case for second home owners receiving any concessions at all."
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