Fantastic idea, I think people should be forsed to sell there second homes and told to make do with a caravan or chalet!! If they say no then they calnt honestly love the area that much! As far as afordable housing goes their sale price should be capped off at their 1991 council valuation band.

Richard, Dronfield,

Much as I dislike empty homes...why should we be the first country in the free world to impose such draconian measures? What will be next week's right taken away by Labour?

Jim, London , Southwark

I think people have got very twisted views about second home ownership. There is one aspect that everyone has overlooked, and that is to do with housing elderly relatives. Many years back, my in-laws sold their home and moved in with another relative on a joint-deal property purchase, but it all went sour several years later. As a result they lost a lot of money and couldnt afford to buy another home when forced to move out. So we helped them buy a property to live in. The property was in our name and they lived there for a moderate rent. Presumably we are now seen as one of society's greedy house-grabbers, well sorry but I disagree, our purchase was not initially for financial gain. And as for landlords, if it wasn't for landlords there would be an awful lot more people out on the streets homeless. I do understand the ghost-village concerns and that isn't a good thing, but don't tar all second-home owners with the same brush.

ChrisR, Bristol,

A socialist measure?

Right on!

About time too, it breaks my heart to see my hometown become a playground for the rich.

Harry, Falmouth, Cornwall

Fantastic. At last some common sense. When 1st time buyers haven't got a hope of a first home it is moronic to allow the rich to buy up lots of spare homes. All this rubbish about needing to build more homes. There are plenty of homes, they are just sitting empty for various reasons.

julian, shrewsbury, uk

I personally applaud this move. If you want to take a holiday in an area, you stay in a hotel, buy a chalet or stay in a caravan park. You do not need to own a second or third home!

You can buy your own caravan or chalet if you want to have a regular holiday spot. That leaves houses for full time residents to occupy. But please, do not be selfish and expect to take priority over local residents who wish to live near their families. Or those of us who have seen the local economy damaged by these unoccupied houses, and want them filled.

It's farcical that new houses are built in some areas around unoccupied second homes.

The downside is, this is still not likely to protect the not-so-picturesque rural areas from losing their local population and identity. Locals are expected to move out so that someone from the other side of the country can move in. Shameful.

D Strachan, Middlesex,

Once again , the New Labour Socialist dictatorship regime is going to trample on the rights and liberties of the British people. I can't wait to see them get the boot at the next General Election .

William Eves, Preston, Lancashire U.K.

Fantastic idea.

Where I live (Padstow, Cornwall) locals don't have a hope. A house is not a business, it should be somewhere to live. If you need planning permission to turn a commercial property into a residential one why should it be any different to do it the other way round. Especailly when there is this huge shortage people keep talking about...
I'm all for it.

Ali, padstow, cornwall

Ben, Homesick Pom - Adelaide, Oz. Yet again this nonsense about a housing shortage - I'm amazed that the vested interests have been so successful at conning people with this myth. I live in the prosperous SE yet there are unsold and unlet houses galore around here - many have been on the market for months. Also, there are virtually no homeless people on the streets here. There is an 'affordable' housing shortage, which will be taken care of by the acceleration of the current crash. If Mr B follows through with this 2nd homes policy, this should speed things up even more. Finally, with 3m new homes in the pipeline - I predict a housing glut within 10 years. Excellent news for FTBs and upshifters. Not so good for downshifters and the BTL investors, who find that all of their retirement dreams vanish.

Graham, Oxford, UK

An interesting suggestion from one who's job automatically brings with it two homes. Is he intending to give up Chequers and renounce it on behalf of all future holders of his office, together with all other ministerial second residences? For someone who always bleats on about his moral upbringing this would be the only possible course of action acceptable to his conscience.

Presumably this is part of the government's plan to tell us all how we can be allowed to spend our own money, or will it only apply to those sections of society who are not expected to suuport Labour in any future elections?

Warren Hertzberg, London,

While he is at it, perhaps Mr Brown would take action to stop developers building tiny 'apartments' with little or no amenity space throughout the towns and cities of the land.

These types of properties raise just as many issues of community sustainability as second homes in rural areas.

MarkS, Leeds,