New charge for some Nuneaton and Bedworth homeowners is 'not cash cow' says council

[dutchman]

The council said it is to 'tidy up' the borough and get empty properties back into use



A new charge for some homeowners is 'not cash cow', the council has said. Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council is about to bring an extra levy for those who own an empty home in the borough.

This, it says, should help to reduce the number of homes stood empty across the two towns. It would be 100 per cent on properties empty for a period in excess of 12 months from April 2025.

An additional levy of 200 per cent would apply for properties empty for more than five years from April 2026. For those with properties that are empty for more than ten years, they face an additional levy of 300 per cent.

Also, the 100 per cent discount that is applied for the first 14 days that a property is empty and unfurnished is set to be removed. Councillor Steve Hey, cabinet member for finance, explained: "This is all part of a wider plan to see if we can get the borough tidied up. There are two issues here, one is about empty domestic properties, which this is mainly aimed at.

"We also have an issue with empty business premises. That is a separate issue to which we don't seem to have much power to do anything with those but I have made representations to the government about empty business premises.

"Coming back to this (the empty homes) although there is going to be some additional income from this, this is not the prime purpose of this exercise. The amount of income we will get from this is not that great and most of it will go to Warwickshire as part of the Council Tax precept.

"The purpose is to get these empty properties back into use for people to be living in and enjoying having a house. We have a desperate housing shortage and this is going to help with that."

Resident Keith Kondakor asked for the council to look at 'disguised' empty homes, where they are not lived in but Council Tax is paid. He also urged the local authority to look into dedicating an officer to look into the issues with empty properties.

He also raised concerns about the charge for those going through probate on a property and Cllr Hey said: "This is no plan to punish people while they are in the middle of probate. It is something that I have had to deal with myself last year and it took us a year with the probate, so that would be completely unfair to put this on people like that. So there will be exemptions, that will be one of them, within reason of course."

He also addressed a suggestion that it was a 'cash cow' for the council. "This is not an attempt of a cash cow," Cllr Hey said. "This is a completely different purpose, we just don't want people leaving properties empty for whatever reason, whether it is a tax fiddle.

"If they are going to have an incentive not to leave them empty, then this is it." A unanimous decision was made to bring the new levy charges into force.

[dutchman]

Coventry City Council charged me over forty quid council tax for a house move that took ten days. God knows how they arrived at that figure?

The landlord agreed to pay it but I certainly wouldn't have.