According to a
story in the Sunday Independent, Andrew Stunell is expected to use the
EHN National Empty Homes Conference as the opportunity to announce the removal of empty homes discounts and exemptions as proposed during a consultation exercise in the Autumn. The key measures are expected to be:
- the removal of the 6 month exemption class "C" for unfurnhished empties
- the removal of the minimum 10% discount for second homes
- the introduction of an Empty Homes Premium for homes empty longer than 2 years
The particular set of measures can be inferred from the "£420million" in the headline - this was the total calculated additional tax income if all the measures described in the consultation.
The majority of the money is connected with the removal of exemption class "C". Most practitioners will be glad to see the counter-intuitive tax breaks removed, particularly now that there can be a "hit" on the New Homes Bonus when a property has been empty for 6 months: it will be important to concentrate owners' minds sooner rather than later on the need for a home to be re-occupied.
For authorities like Cornwall, with large numbers of second homes, the removal of the 10% relief will also provide welcome additional revenue (£2million in the case of Cornwall according to the story). At the time of writing we have seen no official confirmation of the story: there is no press release on the CLG website.
