Michael Stevens, of Orchard Terrace, Kingswear, writes:

The article on holiday homes, Chronicle, December 23, struck a chord with me.

Earlier this year I carried out an analysis of the houses in Kingswear. The district council gave me a list of all the houses in the village that are subject to council tax. There are a few obvious gaps in the list, which I assume are buy-to-lets ­registered as businesses, as these are not subject to council tax but pay business rates.

I compared the result with those registered to vote locally to determine which houses are in full-time occupation by ­having at least one person ­registered to vote in Kingswear.

Those whose main residence is elsewhere would most likely be registered to vote where they live most of the time, as one cannot now register to vote in more that one constituency. Of the 551 houses in the village, 282 of them had at least one registered voter. On this basis, 49 per cent of the houses in Kingswear are not in full-time occupation.