THE lack of affordable and social housing in some areas of the countryside has lead to a suggestion that second home owners should pay full council tax on those properties, instead of 50 per cent of the rating as at present.

This will completely fail to address the real problem and is not the way forward, according to estate agents, Strutt & Parker.

The recommendation came in a report by the Countryside Agency, which claims that removal of the council tax allowance on the UK's quarter of a million second homes “would provide £200 million to help pay for affordable homes.”

James Laing, head of the firm's rural and residential division, said: "The report falls into the trap of confusing revenue with capital. Any increase in tax income will go to a local authority as revenue. This is entirely separate from any capital budget out of which housing could be bought."

He said it was a mistake to see second home ownership as a bad thing. "Second home owners bring both wealth and enthusiasm into rural communities,” he said. “They invariably spend money in the area, whether it is in shops and pubs or by employing local tradesmen and services.

"Actively discouraging second home ownership would rapidly do real harm to the very communities The Countryside Agency is rightly eager to assist and protect. As second home owners, they are not resident at those properties on a full-time basis and do not use the full range of local authority services, such as schooling, to ask them to pay for them in full is patently unfair."

The government addressed this question in its rural white paper in 2001, which asked for comments from interested parties. Stephen Byers made no announcement on the subject before he left his post in May, despite the consultation period ending in February, 2002.

Mr Laing added: "The properties that young couples and single people want are rarely the same as those sought by wealthy second home buyers."

A more realistic and effective solution to the problem would be to make specific provision in the planning regulations for low cost housing to be built in and around rural villages.