Gallent, N

English

UCL Discovery

Town & Country Planning April/May 2020 141The flight from cities to rural and coastal secondhomes – and the consequent risk to communitiesand infrastructure – has become a defining image ofthe 2020 coronavirus crisis.1 This urban to rural exodushas numerous drivers. First, while homeownershiprates in the UK (and elsewhere) have fallen in recentyears, a significant and growing minority ofhouseholds – roughly a fifth in the UK2 – now ownmultiple properties. Second, cities have beendensifying, and the prospect of spending monthscooped up in a small apartment with no outdoorspace will have driven many people into the country:the wealthier ones to their second homes, andothers in hired campervans or to rented houses. Andthird, people may well have thought that flight to thecountry offered the best chance of effective ‘socialdistancing’ – but too many had the same idea.Within 24 hours of Boris Johnson closing pubs,restaurants and other places of regular socialgathering, Snowdonia reported its busiest day onrecord. Static and mobile caravan parks were alsoseeing numbers usually reserved for bank holidaysand the height of the summer season, promptingWelsh politicians to call for immediate action.3 InScotland, clusters of campervans appeared in manyHighland beauty spots, triggering the same reaction.COVID-19 and theflight to secondhomesNick Gallent looks at how flight from the cities to second homeshas been a common response to the COVID-19 crisis, and at how this shines a new light on the problems of concentratedsecond-home ownershipDave Noonan on PixabayAmong those that have them, flights to rural second homes have been a common response to the COVID-19 epidemicThe government’s call to self-isolate was interpretedby many as a signal to head to the hills.The UK’s urban exodus has been repeated aroundthe world. Within a day of the Italian lockdown,11,000 mainland residents arrived by plane or ferryin Sardinia. Many headed to popular second-homehotspots, distributed around the north and south-west coasts. Early pleas by the Sardinian authoritiesto close the ferry and airports went unheeded, justas they did in Wales and Scotland. It appears thatfinding refuge in second homes at a time of crisis is142   Town & Country Planning April/May 2020an accepted liberty – owners pay local taxes afterall, so have as much right to be there as anyoneelse; or so the argument goes.These flights to second homes were reportedaround the world throughout March 2020. In theUS, a number of Jersey Shore towns saw influxesof seasonal residents. The dilemma was the same:these taxpayers had a right to decamp to secondhomes, but would likely ‘overwhelm local medicalfacilities’ should there be a COVID-19 outbreak. In Long Beach, a letter to residents and property-Clifford HarperTown & Country Planning April/May 2020 143owners asked people with second homes to staywhere they primarily live: ‘local health care and otheremergency services are not equipped to handle amass influx of demand which will likely overwhelmthe system’. Restricting access to those homes didnot, at first, seem possible; instead, local officialsappealed for ‘common sense and compassion’.The story was repeated on Long Island. Inresponse to a local resident’s call to ‘blow up thebridges’ to halt the influx, a second-home ownerposted on Facebook: ‘people who own secondhomes on Long Beach Island have just as muchright to use their properties as the ‘real’ residents ofthe island […] As for calling vacation home ownersbennies […] I’d say the real bennies are the localresidents who benefit from us paying full propertytaxes while not getting the benefit of the schoolsystem and basically only using local services (likegarbage collection) for three months out of the year.’4Other US sources have reported wealthy NewYorkers heading to exclusive locations all over thecountry: enquiries to private medical providers(‘Where can I acquire my own ventilator?’, ‘Can I set up a private intensive care unit in my home inAspen?’) have also soared. Back in the UK, Snowdoniaand the Scottish Highlands have not been the onlyexodus destinations: the East Anglian Daily Timesreported an influx of Londoners to the Sussex Coast,stripping the shelves of local shops and increasingthe risk of infection to the elderly populations ofmany villages.5 A very similar challenge was facedin Cumbria,6 where authorities issued a plea forthese out-of-season holiday-makers to go home.In Spain, authorities stepped up surveillance andprevented people from travelling to second homesin Majorca – which was possible by 20 March underthe lockdown imposed by the Spanish government.7Others have been heading to the countryside enmasse from cities, including Madrid and Barcelona:‘It’s a little bit selfish, isn’t it, for city people to fleehere?’ said one resident. ‘We don’t have the kind ofhealth services here they have in Barcelona.’8 InFrance, Parisians have headed to the provinces.9In Greece, the islands have been a preferredescape destination, not only for Greek nationals butalso for other Europeans who own second homeson the islands. Commenting on this, Prime MinisterKyriakos Mitsotakis noted that the ‘virus does nothave borders. The smaller the island is where it isbelieved they will be safe, the more difficult if notimpossible it will be to treat the people who getsick.’10 In Belgium, such ‘non-essential’ journeys tosecond homes were quickly prevented,11 but inmost countries notice of lockdowns has been given(providing the time needed to pack up and head outof the city) or, as the global threat has spread,second-home owners have been prompted to headto rural or coastal locations before restrictions ontravel were implemented.Many countries were at first loath to curb suchbasic liberties, relying rather on a hope thatcommon sense prevails.There are many other reports of this rural exodusfrom around the world. When cities – massiveconcentrations of population and gateways to globalflows of people – become afflicted, the response ofmany wealthier residents is to take refuge awayfrom their urban neighbours.One of the problems of concentrated second-home ownership has always been the seasonalpressure put on local services: roads clog, watersupplies can be overwhelmed, and it can beimpossible to find a convenient parking space or atable at a decent restaurant. But relatively mildinconveniences have now given way to far moreserious pressures: rural doctors and hospitals arenot equipped to deal with the unfolding crisis andpeople – second-home owners and local residents –could die. Early research in the US has suggestedthat rural counties with higher concentrations of‘seasonal homes’ have already seen higher COVID-19 infection rates.12 Communities are being placedunder huge pressure, with second-home ownersbringing heightened stress and anxiety.More draconian restrictions on movement in the UK and elsewhere may well have moderated or stemmed the flow. But this crisis for ruralcommunities, which regularly lack the services andfacilities available in cities, has brought the second-home issue into sharp relief. Once the presentdanger has passed, and other priorities addressed,we will need to look at the second-home issueagain. Do second-home owners have the samerights as full-time residents? What is their claim onlocal services, and do the benefits they bringoutweigh impacts on schools, housing availability,and key facilities? These are old questions but theymight need new answers.A few years ago, many local authorities in the UKscrapped the council tax discount on second homes,levying the full charge as a way of costing the ‘impact’of these often-empty homes on rural communities.But owners (at least those not listing theirproperties as holiday lets and avoiding council taxaltogether) were still being charged formally, throughthe local tax system, for services rather than impact.No wonder then that second-home owners exercisetheir right to those services and feel justified in doingso. But even those Telegraph readers who pay no‘Once the present danger haspassed, and other prioritiesaddressed, we will need to lookat the second-home issue again’council tax, choosing instead to list their propertiesas holiday lets (available for rent for a minimum of140 days each year, even if they are never let out),13seem happy to exercise that same right.Second homes do deliver local benefit, especiallywhere communities had been losing populationbefore their arrival. They introduce a support to local housing markets and also spending in localshops, cafés, and restaurants. Tourism spending isundeniably important for rural communities. Butsecond homes also bring negative impact, never asacute as during the coronavirus crisis, but thatimpact is nevertheless always there, pushing uphousing costs and displacing full-time residents whocould otherwise provide footfall for local services allyear round.Council tax is an area that needs to be looked atagain. It might be fair to concede that second-homeowners should only pay for local services when theyare resident. But they should also be levied aregular ‘impact’ or consumption charge that isunrelated to the use of those services. Council taxin the UK is a composite service charge and landtax, hypothecated from property values and reflectedin the A-H bands. For second-home owners the twoshould be uncoupled – a service charge calibratedto actual use of services, plus a land tax linked toassessed property value, which can be presentedas an impact charge (this happens in Italy, forexample: a service charge for collecting rubbish,etc., and IMU – imposta municipale unica – onland/property owned, which is higher for homes not permanently lived in).A possible starting point for the latter would be2% of value (a bit higher than the Italian IMU forsecond homes), levied annually, with all revenuescollected by, and for the direct use of, the localauthority. This might represent a big cost increasefor many owners, but one which could easily berecouped from Airbnb lettings or avoided completelyin those years where homes are let out full-time tolocal residents, on assured shorthold tenancies (eitherway, the local area benefits – from extra revenue oran extra home available for rent). The aim of thisapproach? The efficient use of rural housing (or anyhousing, anywhere), direct payment for servicesused, and recompense for those communitiesimpacted by concentrations of second homes thatare unused for much of the year, but heap pressureon local services during the high season.There is perhaps little prospect of such a policygaining much support. Second-home owners nowhave an 80-seat majority in the UK parliament. Andonce normality resumes, government will surelylook to support the ‘operation of the housing market’(code for the upward trajectory of house prices)through interventions that support rather than curbdemand. But there is at least a chance that thecurrent crisis, and insane images of urban flight,144   Town & Country Planning April/May 2020may shift public opinion against the inefficient useof the nation’s housing resource and in favour of afair deal for rural communities.● Nick Gallent is Professor of Housing and Planning at theBartlett School of Planning, University College London. Theviews expressed are personal.Notes1 About 15 years ago, I set up a ‘Google alert’ for ‘secondhomes’. For much of that period, the alert has suppliedme with updates on real estate prices and communityconflicts from around the world. But over the lastmonth, the focus has been the exodus to secondhomes. Some of these alerts are drawn on here2 Drawing on CML data and Resolution Foundationfigures, it can be estimated that one-fifth of householdsin England are multiple-property owners, with thatproperty comprising a mix of second homes and buy tolet investments – see N Gallent: Whose Housing Crisis?Policy Press, 2019, p1263 W Humphries, C Wace and C O’Neill: ‘Rural communitiesfear influx from coronavirus-stricken cities’. The Times,20 Mar. 2020. www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/rural-communities-fear-influx-from-coronavirus-stricken-cities-8fft3c05d4 D Alexander: ‘Jersey Shore asks Bennies, Shoobies tostay at home for COVID-19’. Jersey 101.5, 21 Mar. 2020.https://nj1015.com/jersey-shore-asks-bennies-shoobies-to-stay-home-for-covid-19/5 M Earth: ‘Fears visitors from London could speed virusspread’. East Anglian Daily Times, 19 Mar. 2020.www.eadt.co.uk/news/southwold-and-aldeburgh-second-homeowners-coronavirus-1-65700786 S Smedley: ‘Cumbria police plead with people to takecoronavirus seriously’. Times & Star, 21 Mar. 2020.www.timesandstar.co.uk/news/18321554.cumbria-police-plead-people-take-coronavirus-seriously/7 S Sas: ‘Police set up surveillance’. Majorca Daily Bulletin,20 Mar. 2020. www.majorcadailybulletin.com/news/local/2020/03/20/64393/police-step-surveillance-majorca.html8 ‘Spaniards flee cities; countryside fears coronavirus’.WLRN, 20 Mar. 2020. www.wlrn.org/post/spaniards-flee-cities-countryside-fears-coronavirus#stream/09 J Irish and M Blamont: ‘Paris hospitals brace forcoronavirus peak in April: doctors’. Yahoo! News, 20 Mar. 2020. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/paris-hospitals-brace-coronavirus-peak-184643452.html10 ‘Coronavirus: Greece to halt fleeing to islands’.ANSAmed, 20 Mar. 2020.www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/politics/2020/03/20/coronavirus-greece-to-halt-fleeing-to-islands_85279201-6c5e-44b6-8664-306b44b47f2a.html11 ‘Belgian borders shut to non-essential travel’. MedicalXpress, 20 Mar. 2020. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-03-belgian-borders-non-essential.html12 ‘Rural counties with many seasonal homes see morecoronavirus, study say’. Bangor Daily News, 16 Apr. 2020.https://bangordailynews.com/2020/04/16/news/state/rural-counties-with-many-seasonal-homes-see-more-coronavirus-study-says/13 S Barker: ‘How to pay no council tax on your secondhome – saving thousands of pounds a year’. TheTelegraph, 31 Jul. 2019. www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/pay-no-council-tax-second-home-saving-thousands-pounds-year/

COVID-19 and the flight to second homes

https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10097441/1/Second%20Homes.pdf

COVID-19 and the flight to second homes

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

UCL Discovery