Councillors back introduction of 150% council tax premium on second homes and empty properties

Richard Evans, local democracy reporter

Owners of second homes and empty homes in Conwy will be charged a 150% Council Tax Premium from 1 April 2025.

At a council meeting this week, councillors voted in favour of the increase, as well as opting to charge owners a 200% Council Tax Premium for properties that have been empty for up to five years or less.

Owners of homes that have been empty for five years or more will be hit with a 300% Council Tax Premium, which also comes into effect from 1 April 2025.

Consideration

Introducing the report, leader Cllr Charlie McCoubrey said: “We are aware that imposing any sort of taxation on people, whether it’s council tax or premium council tax, is a very, very serious thing and due a lot of consideration.

“We know we have a housing crisis in Conwy, but we also know we have a housing crisis across the UK. Over the last 14 or 15 years, supply has not kept up with the demand for a variety of reasons.”

He then said Conwy was not a housing stock holding authority before adding: “But if we were stock holding, it all comes down to having the capital funds to actually build houses and replace those that have been lost.”

‘Constrained’

Cllr McCoubrey then explained that Conwy was a county where homes were difficult to build.

“It is particularly difficult in Conwy. As we know, given our geography and topography, we have national parks in the west, which take up about a third of the county,” he said.

“We’ve got a floodplain in the east. We are very constrained by our infrastructure along the A55 corridor, and members will all be acutely aware about issues with the services as we have evidenced in our replacement local development plan about having doctors, dentists, and appropriate roads, etc., so it is a challenge that has been further exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis.”

He added: “The number of people that we have a statutory duty to look after has increased.”

Cllr Andrew Wood then said a public consultation had had 691 responses, 63% of which had agreed with a 200% council tax premium.

Investing

But Cllr Louise Emery argued that second home owners shouldn’t be dissuaded from investing in Conwy.

“I don’t have a problem with empty homes being brought back into use and people being forced to make those decisions, but obviously every empty home has a story behind it,” she said.

“I’m sure a lot of them aren’t just sat there because they can’t be bothered to renovate it. There are reasons why the properties haven’t been brought back into use.

“The irony is a lot of our empty homes, particularly the run-down ruins in a lot of our rural areas, have been bought and renovated and brought back into use by second home owners. They have done a lot of the work and the investment to bring that into use and have it as a second home. But that doesn’t mean it’ll be a second home forever. It becomes a property that can be lived in, particularly in villages like Penmachno.

“And then obviously in the future, it could then be somebody’s primary home. A lot of second home owners buy these homes and then as they get older decide to retire here, and then it becomes their primary home, so I think there is a bit of an irony that these second home owners will not now buy these wrecks that we find in our rural villages and do them up and make them into a home because it takes a lot of money, and it is hard for local families, perhaps not on the highest incomes, to raise the money to do that, so I think that is going to be a bit of a loss.”

Cautious

Cllr David Carr backed the rise.

“I absolutely support this policy,” he said.

“It is the right policy. We have been cautious, and it’s not gone to 200%; it’s gone to 150%, but I do have sympathy with the people who have to pay this extra, but I have even more sympathy with the homeless. Not to have a home is the worst thing.

“Having all these empty homes when we have a housing crisis in Conwy is an issue that has to be addressed, particularly in the rural areas where people are finding it difficult to stay with family or are having to move away when there is no properties available and there is empty homes within that area.”

The council also agreed that the 150% council tax premium on both second homes and long-term empty homes would rise to 200% from 1 April 2026 – with an increased premium of 300% for long-term empty properties which have been empty for four years or more, subject to review during 2025/26.

Cllr Charlie McCoubrey proposed councillors backed the proposals, this was seconded by Cllr Nia Owen, and the vote was carried.