Ghost houses face the spectre of higher tax

THE owners of houses that lie empty could be hit with higher council tax bills to end the scandal of thousands of ghost homes across the country.

Town halls would be allowed to increase council tax on unoccupied properties in an attempt to stop them “blighting” the area and provide much-needed housing.

Cash raised though the “empty homes premium” will allow councils to bring vacant properties into use — or give local authorities extra cash to plough back into improving their own housing stock.

The announcement was made by communities minister Andrew Stunell at the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham.

It comes as latest figures show there are 737,000 empty homes across the country, of which 4,960 are in Oldham.

Mr Stunell said the premium would act as a “nudge” to owners to bring abandoned homes back into use and an “extra weapon in a council’s armoury”.

He said: “The premium will act as a spur for landlords to bring their properties back into use quickly.

“And where they don’t, it will provide an extra revenue stream for local authorities to plough back into bringing more homes back into use.”

Currently, a discount is offered on council tax in relation to homes that have been empty for under six months. Standard council tax is then charged, and any increase in rates could be applied after a property has been empty for two years.

Of the total number of vacant properties 1,822 in Oldham have been empty for more than six months.

Officials at the Department for Communities and Local Government are confident they will be able to enforce any future increases as homeowners will have already registered for the council tax discount.

However, it is unlikely to be successful on boarded-up properties that have long-since been abandoned by their owners.

Mr Stunell also announced a cash pot for communities to bid into to bring empty homes back into use, a policy which was first unveiled a year ago.

The coalition scrapped some funding pots introduced by the previous Labour government that were aimed at cutting the number of empty homes.