SIR, As one of those nasty second home owners who deprive the locals of so much, let me say how delighted I am that the councils are falling out amongst themselves about how the ill-gotten gains should be divided up. Because second home-owners do not vote locally, they have no represen-tation and so are an easy target.

Never mind that they subsidise the local services, support local businesses and, lets not forget, pay lots of tax to central government, much of which is fed back to local councils.

These same councils, if they were to be honest, would much prefer to see expensive second homes on their patch than first-time buyers who pay a lot less and require considerably more sevices. If you really want homes for first-time buyers there are plenty of ways this can be achieved, so please don't put that forward as an excuse for ripping-off the second home-owner.

Paul Rouse

York

April 10, 2003 15:00