Holiday home owners in the South Hams could be asked to hand over their properties to house Syrian refugee families.

In return they would be offered council tax breaks on their second homes.

South Hams Council is currently being urged to make an emergency response to the refugee crisis by committing to taking in up to 50 of the 20,000 Syrian refugees that Prime Minister David Cameron announced the country will take over the next five years

Now the local Green Party is urging the district council to consider offering tax incentives for every second home owner who gives up a home for use by the refugees.

The South Devon Green Party this week tabled a question to district councillors which was due to go before yesterday’s South Hams Council executive committee asking: ‘Will the Council respond to the refugee crisis and local housing shortage by providing council tax relief to families and second home owners willing to temporarily house refugees fleeing foreign wars. And will the Council identify ways of providing advice and legal support to refugees, welcoming them to South Hams.’

Cllr Vint pointed out that there 3,835 empty furnished homes in the South Hams – most of which are second or holiday homes – along with another 612 that are unfurnished.

He said the district council was being asked to help identify 50 ‘suitable and sustainable’ homes in the district for refugees.

He warned that the district council was responsible for housing homeless people who turn up in the South Hams ‘in whatever number’.

He went on: ‘I think the quickest way in which the council could help is to identify residents who could host refugees and to offer them support.

‘Thousands of citizens across Europe are willing to invite refugees into their homes.’