Thread by @GeorgeMonbiot

The government is showering rich people's holiday homes with subsidies and tax breaks, fuelling homelessness and community death.
It's a total outrage.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Some of the facts and figures will make you rage and gnash your teeth. Massive subsidies for wealthy people, at the direct expense of the poor.

So why isn't this all over the papers?
Could it have something to do with the fact that a high proportion of editors and senior journalists have second homes?

Why isn't this all over Parliament?
Could it have something to do with the fact that a high proportion of MPs have second homes?

There seems to be a tacit agreement among those who are prominent in public life not to mention the issue; to look the other way and clear their throats and start talking about something else. Because so many of them are up to their necks in this injustice.

But look at the facts. There are ~550,000 second homes (ie private holiday homes/pieds a terre) in the UK, and 288,000 homeless households.
I'm not saying that ending homelessness is as simple as preventing second home ownership. But it would make one hell of a contribution.

Communities in coastal and scenic areas are being massacred by this government-assisted feeding frenzy. There is literally nowhere left for many local people to rent or buy. Prices are stratospheric. One person's luxury gobbles up another's necessity.

As for rich people in the shires complaining about new building: yes, Johnson's assault on the planning laws is outrageous. But if you have a 2nd home, you don't have a leg to stand on. By owning two homes, you ensure that another must be built for the household you’ve displaced.

Instead of subsidising and encouraging second homes, a good government would squeeze them till the pips squeaked: with big taxes and the need for planning permission for change of use from residential to leisure. That should apply to all second homes, existing and prospective.

But we don't have a good government. So all we're left with is a weaker instrument: a moral appeal.
If you have a second home, *please* either rent or sell it to a local family.
It is morally unacceptable to keep it for yourself.

In my experience, when people try to justify the ownership of second homes, or to distract from it with whataboutery, it almost invariably means they own one, but aren't fessing up. So please ask them to declare their interest.

Many of the places where Cymraeg (Welsh) is most spoken are being overwhelmed by second-home ownership. It presents a grave threat not only to local people's housing and economic survival, but also to language and culture.
(Reposted, as the previous map I used was out of date)