Simon Jenkins is being uncharacteristically naive to suggest that a way through the destructiveness caused by mass second homers is a “voluntary charter” of commitment to the community, such as shopping locally or helping local charities (Second homes can be a blight and a blessing on British towns. We need the right balance, 25 June). If they survive, shops become like residential property – overpriced, driving the remaining local people to the big-town supermarkets. Winter-dead villages and towns, where 60% of “homes” can be empty except on holidays such as Christmas, will not thrive on voluntary undertakings to buy a dozen eggs and a kilo of spuds.
And overcrowded Britain cannot be compared to rural France or Sicily. On the Isle of Wight, where I live, the shortage of housing is acute and catastrophically worsened by second-home buyers pushing up prices for once-modest homes. The island council’s solution seems to be to permit more expensive new housing. That might boost council tax coffers, but it also draws in more outsiders, putting further strain on creaking infrastructure.
