Owners of empty homes in England could lose council tax discounts, under new plans to be announced by the coalition government.
Labour-run Durham County Council gives a 50% tax cut for empty home owners and 10% for second homes. Other councils in the North East offer less discount than Durham with Northumberland and Newcastle offering the minimum 10% discount for both empty and second homes.
Councillor Mark Wilkes who has been campaigning to scrap the empty homes discount in County Durham recently discovered this subsidy was given for 5175 homes last year in the County.
He comments “While thousands struggle to get a council house and first time buyers find it almost impossible to get on the housing ladder Durham County Council doles out a subsidy of around £2.9m for people to leave homes empty. This has got to be wrong.”
The Durham Lib Dem Councillor believes that money raised from scrapping the discount should be used to get empty properties back into use. Councils in other parts of the country offer loans to first time buyers and landlords to renovate houses. It is shown that this has been successful in cutting the number of empty properties. A new scheme offered by the Coalition government provides an added bonus for councils which bring homes back into use.
Mr Wilkes says “For every home the brought back into use the coalition government will now provide Councils with six years council tax bonus. For a Band B property in County Durham that is around £6,000”
“This money can then be used to keep down council tax bills, help to get even more homes back into use and assist in hardship cases. It will improve run down areas and remove the inequality of homes being left empty. Many properties in the area I represent have been empty for years with owners living all over the world. Durham residents should not have to subsidise them.”
Labour-run Durham County council is currently looking into the proposals put forward by the Lib Dem councillor. The new proposals from government look like this issue will move further up the Councils priority list. In Cllr Wilkes’ electoral division alone there are over 50 empty properties including 17 in Framwellgate Moor, 14 in Bearpark and ten in Witton Gilbert.Some have been empty since records started back in 1993.
Councillor Wilkes comments “Empty homes affect not just our towns and cities but have a huge impact in rural areas too where issues surrounding second homes further compound housing shortages.