NEWQUAY Town Council has decided not to back an authority’ s plea for second home council tax to be distributed more evenly across the county.

Redruth Town Council has written to authorities across the Duchy seeking support to urge Cornwall Council to consider a “much fairer” way of proportioning the proceeds.

The authority argues areas should have equal benefit reflected in their precepts, and not only with busy tourist locations or wealthier areas, which have a much higher rate of second home ownership.

Charlotte Caldwell, the town clerk of Redruth Town Council, stated in the authority’s letter, that poorer areas should receive similar amounts to those wealthier locations, where the need is ‘often greater, and this would benefit the county as a whole.”

Newquay Town Council has decided it does not believe the motion is “legally viable” as the framework under which the second home council tax premium was introduced to address the direct local impacts of second home ownership.

Cornwall Council has agreed to charge an additional 100 per cent council tax premium on second homes from April 1, 2025, due to its negative impact on the housing market.

Newquay Town Council voted at its meeting last Wednesday (March 5) to write a letter to Redruth Town Council stating it will not be supporting its plea for support.

The authority proposes to spend the extra £200,000 it will receive from second home council tax for the 2025-26 financial year on ongoing investment in assets such as the public toilets, CCTV, Newquay Library and green space management.

The letter said: “The intention is to provide additional financial resources to those areas most affected by high levels of second home ownership, mitigating the pressure placed on housing availability and local services.

“As you will appreciate, Newquay is one of the areas most significantly impacted by second home ownership, with direct consequences for housing availability, affordability, and service provision.

“The mechanism for allocating this funding was established specifically to reflect this reality and to ensure that communities facing the greatest challenges receive appropriate recompense.

“While we acknowledge the broader concerns about fairness in funding allocation across Cornwall, we believe it is essential that this premium continues to be distributed in a way that directly supports the communities most affected.

“In our view, any redistribution model that seeks to equalise these funds without reflecting the actual impact of second home ownership risks undermining the core purpose of the policy.

“We do, however, agree that Cornwall Council’s share of the additional revenue generated from the second home council tax premium should be ring-fenced for housing-related initiatives, such as increasing affordable housing provision, bringing empty homes back into use, and investing in social housing stock.

“However, at the town council level, the share of the premium allocated to us is rightly used to offset the direct service and infrastructure impacts that second home ownership has on our community.

“As we do not have direct responsibility for housing delivery, our focus remains on ensuring that local services are adequately supported in light of the additional pressures caused by high second home ownership in Newquay.

“We appreciate the opportunity to engage in this discussion.”

Mayor Drew Creek added: “Whilst I understand Redruth Town Council’s frustration around the wider implications tourism has on Cornwall and the need for more funding to all town and parish councils to deal with the ever increasing challenges of housing and public infrastructure, it is clear that those areas most impacted by tourism are those where the majority of second homes are.

“In Newquay over 600 second home under the current parameters exist, and Newquay sees millions of visitors a year.

“This means we spend huge sums on public services to meet the needs of tourism here that Redruth and the like don’t have.

“Toilets is the most obvious one and we spend almost half a million pounds a year on them, primarily to meet the needs of our tourist economy.

“The second home council tax is one mechanism, albeit I don’t believe it quite meets the needs.

“I would like to see second homes triple taxed, more of that money going to town and parish councils at the moment only about 10 per cent reaches us with the rest going to Cornwall Council, I would also like to see a tourist levy the likes of which other parts of the UK have implementing.

“Only then can we truly stop the burdens of tourism hitting the taxpayers of Newquay and Cornwall.

“We have taken a cautious approach as to not rely on it in the future as in other areas the second year of this second home tax usually sees the numbers fall off a cliff meaning a huge black hole that would need to be filled as second home owners utilise one of the many loopholes to get out of paying it in year two.”