Pembrokeshire’s Labour group has warned that a recent decision to cut council tax premiums for second home-owners could lead to everyone else’s council tax going up.
A council tax premium is applied to the main council tax bill, the precepts from the Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner and the town and community council elements of the overall bill.
Late last year, Pembrokeshire councillors voted to drop the council tax premium on second homes from 200 per cent on top of the standard bill, effectively a treble rate, to 150 per cent.
Prior to that, second-home owners in the county were charged a 100 per cent premium.
At the October meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council, a call for the rate to drop even further to 100 per cent against a recommendation for it to remain at the 150 rate was defeated, but an amendment for it to drop to 125 per cent was backed by just one vote.
The 100 per cent call was made by Conservative group member Cllr Mark Carter, and when that failed the 125 call was made by unaffiliated member Cllr Phil Kidney.
The percentage of homes with no usual resident in Pembrokeshire, made up of holiday lets, empty homes and second homes, is 13.8 per cent, down from a high of 14.6 per cent.
Members were warned a 25 per cent drop in equivalent to a funding shortfall of some £1.4m, requiring either services savings or an estimated increase in council tax of some one-and-a-half percent on its own.
Following the drop to 125 per cent, the Labour group, which says Conservative and Independent group members voted for the drop, has warned: “The financial impact runs to around £1.5million a year which the council will have to find through cuts to services or through tax increases.”
A spokesperson for the Pembrokeshire Labour Group of Councillors said: “Yet again, Independent Political Group members have been whipped to vote on block against the interests of the people of Pembrokeshire.
“Second Home taxes might be unpopular in Independent group leader Huw Murphy’s ward of Newport but how Independent Group Members like Anji Tinley, who represents the Garth Ward in Haverfordwest, one of the most deprived areas in the county and almost without a single second home, can ask her residents to pay more to fund this tax cut is beyond belief.
“The same applies to Terry Davies in Milford Haven central who represents another deprived area with a low number of second homes.”
Cllr Murphy has been approached for a response.
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