Council Tax To Double For Second Homes And Empty Properties In Brighton & Hove

Council tax will double for second homes and empty properties in Brighton and Hove from the start of April next year.

The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 gave councils the power to double council tax on homes that had been empty for two years.

But the council has to make the decision to impose a premium on second homes at least a year before it comes into force.

So yesterday (Thursday 25 January), senior members of Brighton and Hove City Council agreed to bring in the measure in just over a year’s time.

At the council’s Strategy, Finance and City Regeneration Committee meeting yesterday, council finance chief Nigel Manvell said that the measure was aimed at dealing with the effect of empty and second homes on the housing supply.

Mr Manvell said that the idea was to incentivise “behavioural change” by home owners and landlords.

The empty homes premium is expected to generate about £500,000 from 461 properties.

There are almost 1,400 second homes which Mr Manvell expected to generate about £1.6 million.

Labour councillor Gill Williams, who chairs the council’s Housing and New Homes Committee, said that she had higher figures for both empty homes and second homes in Brighton and Hove.

Councillor Williams said:

“I’m sure I’m not alone here, as every councillor gets their mailbox full of people that are really desperate, asking you to help, begging, living in terrible conditions, asking for us to help them find a home.

“It’s really heartbreaking. While we’re doing all we can, this won’t solve all the problems but it will certainly go some way to entice people to bring these empty homes back to life and help thousands of people to have a decent home.”

Councillor Williams said that she looked forward to the council exercising its devolved powers for a registration scheme for short-term holiday lets.

Her research suggested that there were more than 4,000 such lets in the city which, if freed up, would help solve the housing crisis.

Green councillor Sue Shanks said that she received lots of complaints about short-term holiday lets in her West Hill and North Laine ward, particularly around Kensington Gardens.

Councillor Shanks said: “They’re not paying anything to use our facilities, our waste facilities.”

Labour councillor Tim Rowkins said that the housing crisis in the city was “existential.

When he moved to his home in Hanover and Elm Grove ward five years ago, the houses either side of his, in a terrace of eight, were empty – one for 10 years at that time while the other is still empty.

Councillor Rowkins said:

“These are family homes where people could be raising young kids and contributing to the future of the city.

“The idea you would have empty homes like this and others in the face of the kind of crisis we have is nothing short of offensive.”

He said that the balance of power was in landlords and letting agents’ hands, with high rents and huge deposits driving young professionals in their thirties and forties away from Brighton and Hove because they could not afford to live here.

Labour councillor Jacob Taylor, who chairs the Children, Families and Schools Committee, said:

“It’s very bad in Brighton in terms of the number of families presenting as homeless each week.

“But also really bad in terms of the effect it’s had on the city and we’re having to make very difficult proposals in terms of our schools.

“So many families have left the city and there’s so few children now being brought up in certain areas of the city because of the cost of housing.

“This policy is one small measure towards trying to reduce the number of empty homes.”

The committee unanimously agreed to impose the premium rate on council tax for empty homes and second homes from the start of the 2025-26 financial year.