Council backs ‘keeping things as they are’ for council tax premiums on second homes

Dale Spridgeon Local Democracy Reporter

Senior councillors want “to keep things as they are” in regards to the rates for council tax premiums on second homes and long-term empty properties.

Cyngor Gwynedd’s cabinet has approved its favoured option not to change the premiums for the 2027/28 financial year.

At the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, November 10 it recommended that no discount should be given on Class A second homes.

It also agreed that no discount and a premium of 150% on class B second homes should remain in place. They also agreed to recommend no discount on homes that have been empty for six months or more, raising to a premium of 150% on homes that have been empty for 12 months or more.

The recommendations will now go to the full council on December 3, 2026, for a final decision.

The council is obliged to make a decision annually, if it is to levy a premium on the council tax on long-term empty dwellings and second homes – also known as “periodically occupied dwellings”.

Without this decision, by law it would mean an automatic 50% discount would be placed on the council tax for such properties.

Cllr Huw Wyn Jones noted that “legislation does allows us to charge a premium of up to 300%, despite that we aren’t suggesting that that should change.”

Starting with second homes, the situation was “changing regularly,” he said.

“The Valuation Office has moved 454 properties from council tax to non-domestic rates, so the status of these properties is still unstable.

“The rules could change again, the Government has just consulted on changing the 182 days rules, so it would be premature to change the premium before knowing the outcome from Cardiff.

“The third reason is that we would have to be able to defend any decision to increase the premium.

“We would need to show what has changed since December 2022. At the moment we don’t have sufficient justification to make any change.

“With long term empty properties, we recommend keeping the premium of 150%, but last year research showed that 100% did not reduce the numbers of properties. As a council we decided to raise it to 150% from April, 2026.

“So this new level has only been in place for seven months and it is too soon to know if this has had an effect in bringing empty homes back into use.”

Since the introduction of the premium at the start of the 2018/19 financial year, money collected through it has been placed in a dedicated fund for projects outlined in the council’s housing action plan and to help fund homelessness.

Seconding the recommendation to retain the status quo, Cllr Paul Rowlinson said: “I support keeping the premiums at the current level, and continue to use them to fund the Housing Action Plan and the homelessness budget.

“Taxes are never popular. Every year when we set the premium at the full council in December, some councillors in other political groups will try to reduce the premium, or even delete it entirely and give a discount.

“That is something we haven’t done since 1988 in the case of second homes since and 2009 on empty dwellings.

“The premiums fund almost half of our expenditure on homelessness and we have already seen the beneficial impacts of the Housing Action Plan.”

Since the 2023/24 financial year, £3m (increased with inflation) has been used within the revenue budget to fund the homelessness service, a report stated.