Recent experience
Ignoring the usual flaming, yokel jibes etc...
I grew up in Cornwall, moved away to study, trained in IT, got some experience and have just moved back as a programming contractor at 30. Have sold a good sized house in Bristol to find even with my solicitor partner I really do have to get my work from Bristol or Hampshire or Reading or etc. for us to be able to afford a house in Cornwall that isn't:
- mundic (dodgy arsenic-based brickwork from the 30s that crumbles in the rain)
- 150 years old and of iffy upkeep (enough to put off a mortgage lender)
- in need of hefty renovation
- a bedsit
It's taken us 3 months of house offers and survey discoveries before we found something solid. I'm lucky in that I can drive 200 miles to get work to bring back home. How are those working locally going to afford it? With that and severe regional variance (Truro and St Ives are hideously expensive - way out of our range) you'll one day end up with towns of empty second homes and others full of locals, unless a pile of cheap housing is built to help out...
...which is why burning them is idiotic - although those new Wainhomes developments are priced for out-of-county wages (again, we couldn't afford anything there above a 1-bed flat), a good proportion are forced to be 'affordable housing' which are a good thing for the locals.
Send the separatists to London to campaign for tax on 2nd homes: I understand their motivation, but they're provoking despair down here amongst those they're trying to fight for.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
