The report of the City Treasurer is attached

In November 2018 the Government had introduced powers for councils to charge increased Council Tax Premiums for long term empty properties (LTE) that had been unoccupied and unfurnished for over two years. These powers extended the 50% empty property premium that had been introduced by the Council in April 2013 (Minute Exe/13/006). In December 2018 the Executive had considered a proposal to introduce those higher premiums and it had been agreed then that there should be public consultation on that change (Minute Exe/18/111).

The Rating (Property in Common Occupation) and Council Tax (Empty Property Bill) Act 2018 had received Royal Assent on 1 November 2018. The Act gave councils discretion to apply increased LTE Premiums on unoccupied and unfurnished properties to further encourage owners of long term empty properties to find ways to bring them back in to use. The premiums that would be allowed were:

·         200% of the Council Tax from 1 April 2019 if empty for more than two years

·         300% of the Council Tax from 1 April 2020 if empty for more than five years

·         400% of the Council Tax from 1 April 2021 if empty for more than ten years

The report explained that a range of consultation methods had been employed to reach as many potentially affected landlords as possible. The consultation had been open from 17 December 2018 to 14 January 2019, and in that time 344 responses had been received. The breakdown of those was:

·         303 from members of the public,

·         43 from landlords of a property in Manchester that was not empty,

·         19 described themselves as ‘other’,

·         12 from local business owners,

·         10 from landlords of a property in Manchester that was empty,

·         5 from a local charity, voluntary or community organisation,

·         1 was a local councillor.

The report examined the responses and there was general support for all the changes being proposed, including that 76% of respondents agreed and 19% disagreed with the proposal that the Council should increase the Council Tax charge for homes that were unoccupied and unfurnished for two years or more, with the amount charged increasing the longer the property was empty.

The report set out the predicted financial impacts of the changes, both on landlords and on the Council’s income. The total revenue impact of the change was predicted to be over £1.3m in 2019/20.

The report also explained that an Equality Impact Assessment had been carried out on these proposals, and a copy of the findings of that assessment was appended to the report.

Having considered the outcome of the consultation and the findings of the Equality Impact Assessment it was agreed that the proposed changes set out in the report should be introduced with effect from 1 April 2019.

Decisions

1.         Note the outcomes of the consultation exercise and the Equality Relevance Assessment, both of which have informed the final recommendations.

2.         Adopt the discretionary powers to charge higher levels of Council Tax on properties that have been unoccupied and unfurnished for two, five and ten years.

3.         Remove the 100% discount currently available for up to one month when a property first becomes unoccupied and unfurnished.

4.         Remove the 50% discount available for up to one year when a property is unoccupied due to major works or structural alterations.