Cornwall Councillors are divided on how extra income raised by charging additional council tax on second homes should be used. Whilst opposition councillors have continued to press for it to be earmarked to provide housing for local people the leading Conservatives say they already have enough money for housing.

A heated debate took place in the council chamber at New County Hall yesterday as the council confirmed its support for the introduction of a premium on council tax for second home owners which will double their bills. However, there was less consensus on what that extra money – estimated to be around £25million a year – should be used for.

The extra charges will not be introduced until April 2024 and are subject to the Government’s Levelling Up Bill gaining Royal assent by the end of March. Councillors heard yesterday that it is currently on its second reading in the House of Lords and on track.

Whilst there was cross party support for the new council tax premium the two sides of the chamber were split on the best use of the new income. Independent councillor Tim Dwelly tabled an amendment which called for “a significant proportion of the extra income be earmarked for the delivery of additional homes for local people”.

It was a call which had previously been made at the council’s overview and scrutiny committee which had looked at the issue and mirrored a similar decision made by the council when it was allowed to raise council tax charges for second homes from 75 per cent to 100 per cent and agreed that any additional money raised should be used to support affordable housing.

Cllr Dwelly said that all councillors in the chamber welcomed the proposals to allow second home owners to be charged double council tax, describing it as “a windfall tax in effect”. He added: “This is an amazing chance to do something special with what is estimated to be £27m in our reports here.”

He said that it was an opportunity for the council to use the additional money to tackle the housing crisis which has seen a big increase in the number of people in emergency housing and a lack of social housing in Cornwall. However Conservative councillors have blocked the calls for ringfencing any of the additional funding for housing saying it was not necessary.

Cllr Dwelly said: “In my opinion we can’t possibly send a message to the people of Cornwall that enough is being done on housing, that would be bizarre.”

The independent councillor added that there were 6,383 affordable homes which had been granted planning permission in Cornwall but had not yet been built. He said that the extra money from council tax could be used to provide grants to housing associations to get those homes built.

Liberal Democrat councillor Leigh Frost backed Cllr Dwelly saying: “It is really important, we are in the middle of a housing crisis, when we have an opportunity to solve that crisis we must do that. The number of people in temporary housing is disgraceful.”

Independent councillor Armand Toms said that some of the extra money could be used to bring empty homes back into use. He said that in his Looe division there are 270 people on the housing waiting list and that if even a few of those were helped it would be progress.

Andrew Mitchell (Ind) also backed the calls to use extra money for housing saying that it should be used to not only help those who are homeless but those at risk of being made homeless.

John Fitter (Ind) said he could not understand the council’s constant claims that there are no houses available to buy. He said that he knew of a housing association that is selling off properties and suggested that the council should buy those and secure them for social housing.

James Mustoe (Con) said that he backed his administration’s objection to ringfencing the money. He said: “This isn’t a cashflow problem it is a supply and demand problem. It is not just a case of buying houses but buying land as well. We mustn’t be tying our hands on putting money in areas where we already have funding.”

Olly Monk, Cabinet member for housing, said that there was already sufficient funding in place to provide affordable homes. He said: “Housing remains our number one commitment. We have over £300m available to procure and deliver as much housing for local people as possible. The problem with providing more housing is capacity and not funding.”

He added:  “We have always been assured that we have enough money to do what I am asking them (officers) to do. I have never been asked to find extra money above and beyond what we have already.

“This boils down to a capacity and planning issue and being able to find enough builders to do what we need to do.”

Cllr Monk said the council was purchasing as much open market housing as possible and was continuing to build temporary housing across Cornwall. He added: “From my perspective this isn’t an issue of funding. We can’t buy our way out of this problem. Chucking some more money into this is not going to help.”

Deputy leader of the council David Harris said that the extra income from second homes council tax would be used to support services across the council where demand continues to rise. He said: “This money will come in and help the council across the board. We have other great demands on revenue money, adult social care being a key one. Then we have children’s services, children with special educational needs, take your pick of them.”

A vote for Cllr Dwelly’s amendment for a “significant proportion” of the extra income to be allocated for housing was lost. The council voted in favour of the proposal to apply a premium of 100 per cent council tax on second homes and for the leader of the council to write to the secretary of state calling for the ability to raise council tax on second homes to 300 per cent.