By Richard Johnstone in Birmingham | 21 September 2011
Local authorities could be given the power to charge an additional tax on owners of homes that have been empty for more than two years, a Liberal Democrat minister has announced.
Communities minister Andrew Stunell told the party conference in Birmingham yesterday that the Department for Communities and Local Government will consult on giving councils the power to levy an empty homes premium on council tax.
Stunell said he policy would be a ‘nudge to owners to bring abandoned homes back into use’ and be ‘an extra weapon in a council’s armoury in the battle to make better use of our housing stock’.
He told delegates that ‘it’s a crime‘ that more than 300,000 homes have been empty for more than six months, and said the potential charge could form part of the first ever government strategy on empty homes. This will be launched ‘in the coming weeks’.
The plan is in addition to the £100m programme announced last October to provide cash to councils, housing associations and other providers to begin the revamp of empty properties.
Stunell said that the plans would be ‘discretionary’ and ‘localist’, and would have ‘essential safeguards and exemptions’.
He added: ‘The premium will act as a spur for landlords to bring their properties back into use quickly. And where they don’t, it will provide an extra revenue stream for local authorities to plough back into bringing more homes back into use.’
Stunnell told the conference that the coalition government had ‘inherited a housing crisis’, calling previous governments’ record on building new social housing ‘nothing short of a disgrace’.
He also announced that the government would exceed its plans to build around 150,000 new social homes for rent over the next four years by 20,000.
