The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland - a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson
By Professor John Robertson OBA
In the Herald today:
Second homes tax is ‘Scotland’s most ill-conceived & damaging policy’ – What does Scotland’s tax system for purchases of second properties mean for taxpayers, landlords, tenants and the economy? That is one of the key questions the independent think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) examined in the first in a series of briefings from its third annual Scottish Budget Report published today.
Should I check out the report by the IFS, that London-based, right-of-centre thinktank and do them the honour of responding to them point-by-point?
I’m not.
On the Second Homes Tax, I know, based on the evidence that matters, access to a decent home for local people on moderate incomes, it is a good thing and the more it has effect the better it will be.
From Minister for Housing correspondence and empty homes statistics: FOI release published on 16th January, we can see that in 2024, there were 65 144 empty second homes, down 7 % from 70 278 in 2023 and 43 538 properties empty for 6 months, down 7% from 46 217 in 2023.
This change is largely due to:
Powers enabling Councils in Scotland to apply either, a 50% Council Tax discount, the standard rate, or an up to 100% council tax premium (double the rate) on second homes came into force in April 2024. 30 local authorities have introduced the premium in some form as of September 2024.
Source: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202400438694/
More, I say.
As for the IFS and their standard of work. See:
Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/
The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116
About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save his deposit in a Parliamentary election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Brow
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Second Home Tax must be working or why do they drag out the IFS to attempt to discredit it ?
Unionist mouthpieces are constantly claiming that Scotland ( under the SNP ) is the highest taxed area of the UK – mince ! It has the fairest Income Tax regime in that the highest earners pay slightly more than in the rest of the unequal UK .
If it was within their powers a proper Wealth tax on assets ( especially land ) would really get their goat !
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The IFS report makes for an ‘interesting’ read. If one were to comb through the report to extract positive statements and aggregate them in one list, it would actually be a long list.
However, although the latter fact would become evident to any reasonable person reading the whole report, the IFS’ choice of headline to publicise this work on its website is notable:
‘Scotland’s Tax Strategy is welcome but says little concrete about tax policy. And some actual tax policy is divorced from any sensible strategy.‘ (my emphasis)
The use of the positive term ‘welcome’ gets snuffed out pretty quickly! Given all the positives in the report, is this a headline chosen by an objective, dispassionate expert researcher? Or one chosen by a ‘player’ seeking to influence the negative framing of subsequent news coverage? I wonder.
There is much wrangling in the text over what constitutes a ‘strategy’ or a ‘policy’ or a ‘framework’. To what extent has the Scottish Government produced one or both or neither or some combination ….. ?
The IFS’ authors bemoan what they claim is an absence of long term vision for tax policy reaching up to 20 years hence, whilst then acknowledging how uncertain matters become if embarking on such a forward look.
The authors criticise what they see as an absence of clarity over future direction of tax policy whilst under-appreciating reality: within this Union, the Scottish Government (SG) has scant fiscal powers. Scotland’s future economic state – and therefore the needs and wants impacting its fiscal environment and the SG’s actions – is largely determined by a third party viz. Westminster. No mention of the impact on Scotland’s tax revenue requirements of having to mitigate this third party’s social policy impositions nor of Westminster’s abrupt fiscal policy shifts e.g. the recent National Insurance hike etc.
And on taxing the incomes of higher earners, on taxing buyers of second homes and on concerns for rentiers engaged in the rental property market, perhaps the IFS can’t escape an ‘orthodox’, neoliberal mind set.
There is also a sense here of the ‘perfect being the enemy of the good’ – the IFS’ headline and the tone in the report emphasises supposed negatives in ways which are likely to undermine any wider public acknowledgement of what the IFS itself is regarding as ‘good’ in what the Scottish Government is doing.
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There are more children asylum seekers in temporary accommodation (2/3) because the Westminster UK policy does not allow asylum seekers to work. Asylum seekers families cannot work. Or they could afford more andequate accommodation.
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There is a tax on land – rates. Scotland makes £Billions from the land. ‘A right to roam’. Scotland makes £Billions from tourism, food stuffs, whisky, beef, biscuits, water, farming, corporation tax, capital gains tax, income tax, forestry, building trade, houses. All from the land. The £Billions Scotland raises comes from the land, sea, rivers and landscape. Oil & Gas. Fish, Salmon. Ice cream.
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So why so many living in poverty then…hmm, where does that £billions go???
Ps the right to roam, yes no trespass laws but there are privacy laws.
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22,000 second homes in Scotland. 16,000 Airbnb?
44,000 empty homes (Including second home’s)
Sometimes people are in hospital or respite care. Sometimes the elderly are staying with relatives. Sometimes people are in prison. Sometimes authors, bringing in £Billions have second homes where they can write. Artists paint. Musicians write music. Sometimes people are working abroad or offshore. Sometimes actors need a second work base.
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The 16k air B&B’s are in the city of Edinburgh far as I know, really bad for the city..so there must be many more across Scotland. Many huge properties in Edinburgh are empty, I see them, some are local to us…mostly I reckon are owned by non doms to offset tax? Bolt holes for voting? Empty homes re old er folk or those in prison, and artists…lol generally they are poor as heck…so defo won’t have second homes to er paint lol…sorry I just have to laugh at that being a lapsed poor artist with tons of work put into it, and money spent over decades to produce that work, and for what! It might sell when I’m dead.
Empty properties and second ‘homes’ definitely do NOT ‘bring in £billions..no way, they deny actual residents a home, they diminish rural communities, etc. Most folk working ‘offshore’ either live in England or, if Scottish have families living in er the house they buy with the huge wages they earn.
We know someone from south of England has a cottage in the Highlands, goes there once a year for a holiday. That is not good for the community or the economy of Scotland at all.
Scotland like Wales needs to rein in the second homes, it does not benefit Scotland, need more housing for the people of Scotland as the SNP have acknowledged and are working on…
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