By Isle of Wight Observer
The Council will be voting on Wednesday (February 28) whether to double the council tax for second-home owners. There are many on the Island who will not be able to stay if this goes ahead. With the present council tax and the high ferry prices it is only just affordable. A doubling in tax will just make it unaffordable for many who will then be forced off the Island, reducing the expected revenue.
Not all second-home owners have pots of cash. Many choose to save money for modest second-homes in the UK, rather than spending cash on overseas holidays with a greater carbon footprint – and they don’t just visit for weekends or holidays. Many also choose the Island because of centuries-old family heritage which, through generations, has underpinned the Island’s businesses, finances and communities.
My family’s roots in the retail business go back generations, including my great uncle’s, Edward Morris Stores in Newport, Cowes and Freshwater, and my great grandmother, Harriette Morris’ grocery store in East Cowes. My family also has a strong naval heritage on the Island, with my great uncle, Adolphus William Stark, an officer in the Royal Navy lost at sea in 1917 aboard HMS Drake. My father, brought up in Wootton and retiring to Alverstone Garden Village, also served his country during WW2 as a radio officer in the Merchant Navy, surviving a torpedo attack on his ship MV Wandby in 1940. I feel it would be an affront to their memory to force their descendants off the Island through a tax increase that makes it financially impossible to stay.
I have also contributed to the Island’s community by giving talks to local Island organisations on my father, Peter Stark Lansley’s book, ‘’Pon My Puff – A Childhood in 1920s Isle of Wight’ which I edited for publication in 2021. My first house was in Newport, and my son is going to maintain the Island link by marrying a woman who was born and raised in Bembridge, in August this year.
I purchased a small mews cottage on the Island after my mother’s death to maintain my link with my heritage, whilst at the same time keeping my home on the mainland to continue my family commitments. The house had been on the market for more than six months when I first viewed it, so I did not deprive any Island residents of the opportunity to buy it. Currently, on Rightmove, there also seem to be a considerable amount of low-cost properties which have been on the market for six months or more.
I believe that driving those second-home owners off the Island, who do not rent out their properties, will not increase the IW Council’s revenue and in fact will have the opposite effect. It is by no means certain that this proposal will raise the anticipated funds. It could backfire, leaving Islanders no better off. I therefore strongly urge councillors to vote against this proposal on February 28, so that those second-home owners who spend time on the Island every month of the year, contributing to Island life and its economy, will not be unfairly penalised or, worse, driven off the Island altogether.
I believe that that many second-home owners make a significant contribution to the Island’s economy and employment, and that they are not all ‘Hooray Henrys’!