Second home tax policy open to legal challenge

Editor – This is a follow up to recent comment on the failings of the Argyll and Bute second home council tax premium.
It’s not just a question of the premium being self-defeating economically; the flaws make the council’s approach vulnerable to legal challenge.
To give just one example from a recent study, the council claims that second homes artificially push up house prices all over Argyll and Bute.
But an analysis by Lloyds Bank based on data provided by the Registers of Scotland in 2024 found that house prices in the PA20 (Bute) and PA28 (South Kintyre) postcode areas were among the ten lowest for seaside locations in the whole of the United Kingdom.
The incidence of second homes in South Kintyre Ward including Campbeltown, postcode PA28, is just 3.1 per cent or 116 of 3,744 chargeable dwellings. On recent figures [November 2025] the average price of a two-bedroom property in postcode PA28 is £63,763, the median price is £58,000 and the time taken to sell is 40 weeks.
The figures for comparable property in Glasgow are £179,184, £169,950 and 40 days [data from home.co.uk; also “I live in UK’s cheapest seaside town” Daily Express, June 3, 2025].
The council wants us to believe that the premium is required in the PA28 postcode area to address housing market price distortion, property speculation and the exclusion of primary residents from the housing market. The council’s thinking on the matter looks to fall well below the legal standard of rational decision-making required of local authorities.
Retaining entrepreneurs, professionals and skilled workers in Argyll and Bute and recruiting them to settle here is problematic precisely because the housing market is depressed and property values do not keep pace with values elsewhere.
Do our esteemed councillors really think that families want to place their biggest investment—buying a house—somewhere that will make them poorer? If the council is successful in depressing property prices further, the problem will be exacerbated, and it will affect all homeowners.