Council taxes for thousands of empty homes and second homes in Reading are set to double this year.
More than 2,000 homes in the town are empty or serve as someone’s second home.
According to council statistics, there are 1,502 empty and substantially unfurnished properties, of which 690 are considered long-term empty for a period of six months.
There are also 1,084 second homes in Reading, of which 694 have been that way for more than six months.
The council has had a policy of charging more council tax for empty properties for years. It currently charges double council tax for homes which have been empty after two years, and up to five years of becoming empty, which escalates to a 200% increase between five and 10 years of emptiness, and a 300% increase for those unoccupied for 10 years or more.
Now, these tax increases are set to come into effect sooner, enabled by recent law changes in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023.
Council tax will double for those homes which are unoccupied for more than 12 months and up to 5 years, effectively making the tax premium kick in earlier.
From 2025, laws will allow a doubling (or 100% rise) for all homes which are not a sole or main residence, and which are substantially furnished.
The change will raise £344,955 in tax for the ‘precepting bodies’ in 2024/25. Of that, Reading Borough Council will receive £293,702.
The remaining amount will go to the other precepting bodies, with £39,182 going to Thames Valley Police and £12,071 going to the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service.
The change for 2025/26 will raise substantially more, with the council estimating £1,391 million in additional tax revenue. Of that, £1,184,728 will go to the council, £158,052 will go to the police and £48,690 will go to the fire service.
The decision to adjust council tax premiums was made at a recent council meeting.
Endorsing the policy, council leader Jason Brock (Labour, Southcote), said: “Both of these things are incredibly important as statements of intent, but also as part of the package of measures that we want to implement here in Reading to discourage homes from sitting empty, whether that is simply because of lack of use, or because they are being used as second homes.
“Where these homes do continue to sit empty or continue to be used as a second home, it is right that we should be able to seek additional compensation from those property owners so that we may use that for the social benefit of our town to mitigate the adverse impact of having empty homes in Reading during a housing crisis.”
The policy was supported by the opposition.
Cllr Rob White (Green, Park) the leader of the opposition said: “There’s a housing crisis in Reading, I think we’ll all agree, there are too many homes sitting empty, and anything we can do to get them back into use should be supported.”
Meanwhile, Cllr Simon Robinson (Conservative, Emmer Green) said: “It is important that we support this, especially given the homeless situation at present having homes that are empty is not benefiting anybody so the sooner we can put this into action the better.”
Councillors unanimously voted for the tax premium changes at a full council meeting on Tuesday, January 30.
The change to the empty homes premium will come into force for the 2024/25 financial year, with the second homes premium kicking in for 2025/26.
