Second homes have almost invariably been painted as the wreckers of rural communities in Britain. One of the most trenchant critics of second home purchasing, the journalist George Monbiot, argued that owners of second homes were ‘amongst the most selfish people’ in the country (Monbiot, 2006). In earlier analyses of the topic, he had drawn a direct relationship between the number of second homes across England, Scotland and Wales and the number of people accepted as homeless, arguing that a similarity in the numbers ‘is no coincidence’ (Monbiot, 1999). Whether or not there is any direct relationship, or whether second homes on Welsh hillsides would – in a different life – have been occupied by people now sleeping rough in Cardiff or Swansea, is perhaps not the most pertinent question to ask. Of greater relevance to understanding the wider rural housing question is the extent to which second homes are important and the degree to which they contribute to housing pressures in the countryside.

In England, the Taylor Review found no clear evidence that second homes greatly affected affordability for local people ‘given other market pressures and socio-economic drivers’ (DCLG, 2009a: 35). This had been the general view of second homes for a number of years, but local focus on this visible target had arguably kept the issue ‘rumbling away in the background, sucking momentum from a much needed supply-side response’ (Gallent, 2008a: 125). Second homes have, during brief and sporadic periods, occupied the minds of national and local politicians. Whilst the former have tended to dismiss the issue as a distraction, the latter – perhaps for political reasons – have emphasised the inherent inequity of second home ownership in countries and in communities where not all households are decently housed.

Despite a long history of interest in second homes, rather little of the literature has looked at national situations or moved from local observation and conjecture to more solid and broader evidence. Two levels of debate have accompanied the growth of the second home phenomenon in England, Scotland and Wales. The first has a local focus, is concerned with the plight of particular areas or villages, and tends to conclude that second homes are a big problem for rural communities. The second has a broader national focus, is concerned with the ‘placing’ of second homes within a larger array of housing market pressures, and suggests that the movement of temporary residents to the countryside has a slight impact relative to housing supply constraints and more general population movements, which bring permanent migrants to rural areas (see DCLG, 2009a: 35).