HOUSES OF THE HOLY
59
In the UK right this very minute there may be as many as 65,000 homeless families, this figure although on a downward trend is still in my opinion far too high and could be addressed quite simply if the political parasites were to do one or two things to help those in need and at the same time help to stimulate the property market which they(the parasites) rely on so much to generate wealth for their failed financial purposes.
It is common practice throughout the land that houses which are unoccupied are eligible for a 50% discount on the amount of community/poll tax paid on the property. This is for me one of the most stupid laws ever which means there is no incentive to the owner to either rent or sell. There is no reason why they should receive the reduction in my opinion as all it does is provide an extra pressure on councils to raise the tax for all residents to ensure they do not lose out because of the subsidy.
I call it a subsidy because for every empty property the average is around £750 per annum that is missing from the council budget and those who work and reside in the area must make up the short fall. While those with holiday homes pay less than they should for me.
I would suggest the imposition of a different form of council tax rebate which is that for the first three months that a property is empty a rebate of 75% could be given to allow the owner to do whatever they wanted to make the property habitable or saleable thereafter they should be charged 100% of the tax until it is either occupied by the owner or a tenant. If the owner insists on keeping it as a second home then tough on them. I do not exclude however housing associations or even councils themselves who hold properties as they too should be liable for full council tax payments after the first three months of being empty.
By doing this I would think the benefits to the council and the community would be seen as firstly all properties would need to be kept to a habitable standard secondly the income to the council would increase from these properties allowing them in the long term to cut the tax for all properties.
Another benefit would be for those counties who have a high proportion of holiday homes where the local population are forced to move away as they can not afford to buy in their own area as at least the council would be able to collect the same amount of money they would if the locals had bought the houses and occupied them.
It would make speculators think twice about holding on to properties waiting for the market to pick up and would encourage them to look into renting the properties out rather than just leaving them, this would of course free up a lot more properties to rent forcing the price of rental downwards, it would also encourage housing associations to get their fingers out and go for at least 95% occupancy of their properties as councils could always make allowance as well for some to make properties available for the desperate.
