Scottish Greens propose holiday homes tax to ‘protect Gaelic language'

Telegraph

4 days ago

The Scottish Greens are calling for higher taxes on second home owners in order to save the Gaelic language.
Ross Greer, a Green MSP and the party's finance spokesman, will put forward proposals which would allow the ministers to levy a surcharge on those buying holiday homes in places with high concentrations of Gaelic speakers.
Mr Greer said on Wednesday: 'Gaelic is an essential part of Scottish culture and national identity, but it is on the verge of extinction as a living language.
'Young Gaelic speakers are being forced out of the last communities where it is still the spoken language because holiday homes and Airbnb-style short-term lets have driven up house prices to levels they cannot hope to compete with.'
The Green politician added: 'My proposals would make it harder for wealthier people to buy up second homes and short-term lets in Gaelic-speaking communities and, in turn, make it easier for locals, especially first-time buyers, to secure their own home.'
Mr Greer is set to table an amendment to Bill currently being considered in Holyrood that would impose extra tax on the purchase of a second home in the 'special language areas', designated by the recently passed Scots Languages Bill.
The Scottish Greens claim that three in five properties in Skye are holiday homes or short-term lets, and that house prices are £60,000 above the national average.
The politician lauded a 100pc surcharge to council tax on second homes as having reduced the number of second homes and holiday lets across Scotland by 2,500 last year.
As of May this year, the average house price in Scotland was £191,927, according to Land Registry data. The average price in the Highlands, including Skye, was £220,125, the same data showed.
Fiona Campbell MBE, of the Association of Scotland's Self-Caterers (ASSC), said: 'This is starting to feel less like serious policymaking and more like an unhealthy obsession.
'Ross Greer seems more interested in generating clickbait headlines than devising credible solutions to Scotland's rural housing challenges.'
It's not the first time Scottish politicians have targeted second and holiday homes as the cause of Scotland's housing crisis. All 32 Scottish councils applied the 100pc second home council tax premium for the 2025-2026 tax year.
In 2022, Edinburgh became the first local authority to introduce licensing for short-term lets, declaring the entire city a 'control zone'.
As well as a licence, the changes also forced holiday let owners to apply for planning permission, at a cost of £690 to £2,073.
The council originally said the fees applied to all owners in the city, even those who were in operation before the control zone came into effect.
But the Court of Session, Scotland's supreme civil court, later ruled that the changes only applied to properties that became holiday lets after the control zone was implemented.
The City of Edinburgh Council then updated its guidance to say so-called 'legacy short-term lets' may require planning approval on a case by case basis.
Campaigners said earlier this year that the council faces a compensation bill of as much as £1m as a result of the botched implementation.
A requirement that holiday lets have no shared main entrance was also overturned by Scottish courts as a de-facto ban.
In June, a similar control zone was proposed for the Highlands, after a smaller trial. Councillors said that 7,011 short-term let licences had been approved, and just four rejected.
Labour and SNP politicians have also called for a 'campervan tax', to deal with the huge surge in visitors. The number of visitors to the Highlands has risen by 65pc since 2012, with nearly 36,000 campervans touring the region in 2022, according to the local council.
It comes after tourists shunned a voluntary Highland Council scheme whereby campervan visitors could pay £40 for a seven-day pass to park in some of the local authority's car parks, with daily access to showering facilities.
Forecast to raise £500,000 in its first year, it instead made just £20,000.