Ban second homes

Published: 8 April, 2011

• WHAT links the Beaux Arts building, Northview and Clerkenwell’s Charles Rowan House – and probably Highbury Roundhouse and its adjacent land (Letters, March 25, April 1)? 

Almost certainly the government’s New Homes Bonus. Launched a few weeks ago, this will pay a premium to councils for building new homes and bringing empty ones back into use. Over the bonus’s six years of existence, this will amount to an average £9,000 for each band D and £11,000 for each affordable home – the latter receive a supplementary grant. (Details at www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1846706.)

Neither requisitioning a single flat, top-loading an additional storey onto a 70-year-old development, allowing a landlord to build inside an entrance lobby nor demolishing a well-used community centre will solve Islington’s housing need. Taking Grant Shapps’ shilling simply won’t be enough.

What would help, however, would be an honest appraisal of second-home ownership in the borough. 

Among the flats in the new developments appearing all over the place are certainly second homes. Islington’s proximity to the City and St Pancras International station makes it an attractive place to live in, even part-time, while pushing its already obscene prices for bricks and mortar ever higher. 

Perhaps it’s time to disallow any more second homes while pressing for a long-overdue tax on land. This would replace the wholly regressive council tax, which means owners of million-pound properties pay the same rate as those much lower down the scale. 

Housing-wise, as in so much else, we’re certainly not all in this together.

MEG HOWARTH
Ellington Street, N7