Minister to meet with South Lakes MP over second home crisis

On the floor of the House of Commons this afternoon, local MP Tim Farron ramped up his campaign to get a tax loophole closed which sees some second homeowners get away with paying no council tax whatsoever by pretending to be a small business.

A Government consultation on closing the loophole ended last January, but 12 months later and they are still yet to make a decision.

Speaking during Housing questions, Tim said: "Is the Government going to take action to protect communities in the South Lakes and elsewhere or have they decided not to bother?"

In response, the Housing minister Esther McVey incorrectly stated that the consultation closes later this week when it had in fact ended in January 2019.

However, she did agree to meet with Tim to discuss further ways to protect communities in the South Lakes.

Tim said: "It's beggars' belief that the Government appear to have completely forgotten about their own consultation on this crucial issue, 12 months after it ended.

"It just shows how low a priority the future of so many of our rural communities is for the Conservative Government.

"I look forward to sitting down with the minister to make the case to get this loophole closed so we can start to reverse the tide of excessive second home ownership in so many of our local towns and villages."