Government to Scrap Council Tax Reliefs

According to a story in the Sunday Independent, Andrew Stunell is expected to use the Empty Homes Network 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 unfurnished 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.  Read more on the Empty Homes Network website.