Coast: Empty homes tax break scrapped

5:00pm Friday 28th November 2008

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COUNCIL tax discounts for empty homes could be scrapped to tackle Tendring’s housing shortage.

Tendring Council has given second homes and long-term empty properties a ten per cent discount in council tax since 2005.

But it now wants to remove discounts for empty properties in order to reduce the growing number of people waiting on Tendring’s housing register.

Lawrie Payne, portfolio holder for benefits and revenues, said there was an urgent need for housing in the district and that there were 3,100 people on the housing waiting list.

He hoped that by removing the council tax discount for Tendring’s 1,196 empty homes, more would be made available for people to live in.

The recommendation will now be put to Tendring Council.