Census and the county’s second home owners

Many property owners are not aware that ONS is asking them to complete questionnaires at both their usual address and their holiday/second home. Where they have completed one at their usual address they need only complete part of the questionnaire at their holiday home/second residence.

Both the census helpline and census online help facility have been busy answering queries from owners of holiday homes/second residences asking what they need to do. This has been one of the top 5 queries.

Glen Watson, ONS Census Director, said: “It’s not too late for people to fill in their census and that includes those with second residences/holiday homes. It really is important we have a full picture of houses throughout England and Wales. People sometimes don’t realise we need the details of holiday homes/second residences too, even if no one was there on Census Day March 27.

“We need to know because the census is a count of both population and housing. And we need to know how the housing stock is used in addition to the count of properties to better plan resource allocation.

“Local authorities asked us to include the second homes question as they need to know how many houses need to be built in future and what services will be required.

The last census in 2001 recorded over 150,000 holiday and second homes in England and Wales.

If people are in any doubt with their census they can get help on the website at www.census.gov.uk or ring the census helpline on 0300 0201 101 (England) and 0300 0201 130 (Wales).