T
he working-class poster girl Angela Rayner has bought herself another home and people are angry about it. The housing minister is reported to have spent £800,000 on the seaside apartment more than 250 miles from her constituency.
The jarring problem here is that Westminster has repeatedly made it clear it doesn’t like people owning second homes, and has ruled that they should be discouraged from doing so and penalised if they do.
Laws came into force in England in April giving cash-strapped local authorities the power to charge second-home owners double council tax, which most of them duly did without needing much justification.
Michael Gove, the former housing minister behind the move, said it would help end the “scourge” of empty second homes and “bring life back” to communities. If only it was that simple.
