Report of the City Treasurer

This report details proposed changes to the Council Tax charges for empty properties, following the introduction of powers for Councils to charge increased Council Tax Premiums for long term empty (LTE) properties that have been unoccupied and unfurnished for over two years.  The report also contains proposals to remove discounts to Council Tax for unoccupied and unfurnished properties and properties undergoing major works or structural alterations.

The Committee considered a report of the City Treasurer which set out proposals to charge increased Council Tax Premiums for long term empty (LTE) properties that had been unoccupied and unfurnished for over two years and also to revisit the decisions made in 2012 to give a 100% Council Tax discount for one month if a property is unoccupied and unfurnished and a 50% discount for up to 12 months if a property is undergoing major works or structural alterations, with a view to remove these discounts.

The Corporate Revenues Manager and the Director of Customer Services and Transactions referred to the main points and themes within the report, which included:-

·                     The financial impact on the amount of Council Tax payable and the New Homes Bonus of the revised long term empty premium;

·                     The financial and non-financial impacts of removing the 100% Council Tax discount that was awarded for up to one month when a property became unoccupied and unfurnished and the 50% discount that was awarded for up to one year when a property is undergoing major repairs or structural alterations;

·                     The Council’s proposals in relation to increasing the amount of Council Tax that was charged for unoccupied and unfurnished properties by charging an additional premium and the proposed changes to its existing policy and remove the Council tax discounts; and

·                     Details of proposed external consultation on the Council’s proposed changes.

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The Committee had been invited to comment on the report prior to its submission to the Executive on 12 December 2018.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committees discussions were:-

·                     There was support from all of the Committee in relation to the proposals;

·                     The additional income gained from the proposals could be reinvested into the Council's existing discretionary schemes that provide additional financial support to vulnerable residents including the Council’s Welfare Provision scheme and the Discretionary Housing payments scheme;

·                     Would it be possible to gain any more income from the proposals in order to help our poorest residents;

·                     There was a need to positively promote this initiative to Manchester residents; and

·                     Why had the assumption been made that all properties that would be subject to this increase would be in band A Council Tax.

The Director of Customer Services and Transactions advised that there were no other discretionary areas that could be used to increase income and it would be unlikely for the Council to gain any more income from the proposals. She acknowledged the need to positively promote the changes following the planned consultation exercise.  She also advised that the assumption had been made that all properties subject to this proposed increase would be in Band A was in order to be conservative in the Council’s estimation of additional income.  Reassurance was given that it would affect a broad mix of properties and agreed to share the data on this with Committee Members

Decision

The Committee:-

(1)        Endorses the recommendations contained within the report that the Executive:-

·                Approve the proposals contained in the report and agree to the start of a formal four week consultation exercise to commence in December 2018; and

·                Note that the outcome of the consultation will be reported back to Executive on 13 February 2019.

(2)        Requests that the data on the valuation bands of the properties that will be affected by the proposals is shared with Committee Members