Agenda item

To consider the attached report (C-035-2018/19).

That the Cabinet considered the Council Tax Empty Dwellings Premium Policy and recommend to Full Council meeting on 21 February 2019 on adopting the following:

(1)        That with effect from 1 April 2019 properties that are long-term empty dwellings for over two years, under Section 11B of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, will be charged a Council Tax premium of 100%. 

(2)        That with effect from 1 April 2020 properties that are long-term empty dwellings for over five years, under Section 11B of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, will be charged a Council Tax premium of 200%; and

(3)        That with effect from 1 April 2021 properties that are long-term empty dwellings for over ten years, under Section 11B of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, will be charged a Council Tax premium of 300%. 

(4)        That the existing arrangements on billing and collection costs with major preceptors continues to allow this to take place.

The Customer Services Portfolio Holder apologised for the lateness of this report but noted that it needed to be adopted by the Council before the 31^st of March. She noted that the Government had provided additional discretion for local authorities to help incentivise owners to bring empty dwellings back into use through the levying of additional Council Tax premiums. Through the additional premiums the intention is that the number of dwellings that remain empty for a substantial period was further minimised.

Currently there were approximately 130 long-term empty dwellings within the Epping Forest district. The key driver behind the legislation was to ensure that properties did not remain empty for long periods and that the additional Council Tax charged would incentivise owners to bring properties back into use. The additional Council Tax charged will however give rise to a potential additional income for the financial year 2019/20 of around £12,000 for the district council and £95,000 for Essex County Council, if the additional premium was raised from 50% to 100% from 1 April 2019.

Billing authorities currently had the power to increase council tax by a maximum premium of 50% on long-term empty dwellings. Therefore, in England, billing authorities could charge up to 150% on properties empty for more than 2 years. With effect from 1 April 2019 this premium was to increase to an additional maximum of 100%, meaning that up to 200% Council Tax could be levied on long-term empty dwellings.

Councillor Philip questioned the wording in paragraph 2 of the report saying that it was ‘100% extra for long term empty dwellings (2-5 years) [commencing 1^st April 2019]’ however, the recommendations said that for empty dwellings for everything over 2 years…will be charged at Council Tax premium of 100%. Did the legislation say over 2 years and not 2 to 5 years? The Service Director, Customer Services agreed that the legislation said over 2 years.

Councillor Stavrou said that this was an excellent idea, however under resources implication in the report it said the majority of the additional income would benefit Essex County Council and so the income to the District Council would not be enough to cover the risks associated with the additional costs of billing and collecting the premium charge unless the major recipients, especially the County Council agree to share a proportion of their additional income. This arrangement has been in place in the past and should reflected in the recommendations to make sure it happens in the future so that at least it would be cost neutral to ourselves. The Customer Services Service Director agreed that this arrangement would be continuing into the foreseeable future.

Councillor Philip provided suitable wording to be added to the recommendations, that: “the existing arrangements on billing and collection costs with major preceptors continues to allow this to take place”. This was seconded by Councillor S Kane and agreed by the Cabinet.

Councillor Mohindra would like recommendations 2 and 3 to be reviewed before the extra (200%) increases came in as this would be a major increase. Councillor Whitbread said that we would encourage them to contact us when they found themselves in this position as there were funding streams available to help people who could not afford this. The Service Director added that officers would be contacting all the owners ahead of time to inform them and give them some preparation time.

Decision:

That the Cabinet considered the Council Tax Empty Dwellings Premium Policy and recommend to Full Council meeting on 21 February 2019 on adopting the following:

(1)        That with effect from 1 April 2019 properties that are long-term empty dwellings for over two years, under Section 11B of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, will be charged a Council Tax premium of 100%. 

(2)        That with effect from 1 April 2020 properties that are long-term empty dwellings for over five years, under Section 11B of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, will be charged a Council Tax premium of 200%; and

(3)        That with effect from 1 April 2021 properties that are long-term empty dwellings for over ten years, under Section 11B of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, will be charged a Council Tax premium of 300%. 

(4)        That the existing arrangements on billing and collection costs with major preceptors continues to allow this to take place.

Reasons for Proposed Decision:

The Government had provided additional discretion for local authorities to help incentivise owners to bring empty dwellings back into use through the levying of additional Council Tax premiums. Through the additional premiums the intention is that the number of dwellings that remain empty for a substantial period of time was further minimised.

Other Options for Action:

To not implement the additional Council Tax premiums as laid out.