Second home owners in Scotland are facing 500% increases in their council tax premiums after local authorities were handed powers to raise bills by uncapped amounts. The Telegraph has the story.
SNP-run Midlothian council raised the premium it charges second home owners on April 1st, potentially hitting property owners with bills of up to £27,863 this year.
The council said a graduated premium would be applied based on how long a property in Midlothian had been used as a second home, with those who had owned the property for more than three years facing the highest charges.
It claimed that the policy would raise up to £200,000 and increase local housing supply, despite the fact there are only 35 second homes in the predominantly rural county south of Edinburgh.
Scottish Conservative MSP Meghan Gallacher described the charges as “reckless”, adding that they would pile financial pressure on homeowners at a time when many were already struggling with the cost of living.
It comes as local authorities in England said they were considering reversing the policy over fears it was negatively affecting local businesses and property markets.
In Midlothian, second homes owned for less than two years would be taxed a 100% premium on their existing bill, rising to 300% for those owned between two and three years, and to 500% for any owned for more than three years.
This means that an average Band D second home owner could face a council tax bill of £14,810.88 if he or she has owned the property for more than three years. Two property owners have second homes in Band G, and so could face a bill of up to £27,863.10. There are no Band H second homes in the county.
On April 1st, Scottish town halls were granted powers to raise the tax by unlimited amounts, after the hard-Left Greens ‘railroaded’ an amendment in the Government’s Housing Bill last year. In England, a 100% cap applies, while in Wales, councils can raise the tax by up to 300%.
Other Scottish councils have also agreed to increase their premiums after the uncapped powers came into force, but not to the same scale.
In Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands, a 300% premium was introduced on April 1st.
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There is no housing shortage, just a surfeit of rubber dinghy arrivals who bring nothing to our quality of life.
In our experience second home owners, who use them as holiday homes and not airbnb or hmo’s spend a lot of money bringing these often run down and in low employment areas properties back to use. They employ local tradesmen. First time buyers would not be able to get a mortgage on these type of properties.
Council Communists. If a couple own two homes even at standard council tax they already pay in full. Whereas two single people with a home each get 25 percent discount so only pay 75 percent. This is an attack on marriage. Looking at it another way suppose a single person owns a ten bed house and the couple own one 3 bed and one 5 bed , total 8 beds they pay more. Bring back the poll tax it was fairer.
Whilst the charges are utterly ridiculous and will no doubt end up with some simply being abandoned, if it puts more homes back for locals, then fair play.
Is your comment satire, or are you genuinely economically naive?
This is just insane.
Will there be any buyers for the properties in poverty stricken Scotland?
Politics of envy. That’s the Left for you (which includes the Conservatives)
Just what our society needs, fresh new ways to loot the population and transfer more funds into the hands of bureaucrats.
And “looting” is the operative word.
This needs be to taken as a warning of one of the things that could happen under the nightmare scenario of a hung parliament with the Greens holding the balance of power in the next General Election.
They really hate successful people. Envy dressed as virtue. Will HRH his Maj be stung by this punitive tax?