Tuesday, 22 July 2014

Power to Penalise Owners of Empty Homes Goes Unused

Powers to penalise developers who leave homes empty for years are not being used, a BBC investigation has revealed. Councils are empowered to use the Empty Homes Premium to charge home owners 50% extra council tax if they leave properties empty for two or more years. Yet Freedom of Information requests to all 32 London boroughs discovered that seven councils did not apply the charge to a single property. There are currently more than 80,000 empty homes in the capital. The power to penalise property owners for leaving homes unused came in last April. Read more on the BBC website.

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